Are the nipple watering systems worth it?

5 gallon bucket outside, covered to protect from debris. 1 tblspn of ACV added per gallon of water to prevent algae buildup.
Gravity fed, and needs to be refilled monthly or so. Lots of info on this forum about how to do this.





Chickens are curious about the red nipple and will peck on it. When they do water comes out. They learn to use this very quickly.

NOTE: If a dish waterer is in they coop that will use that instead of the nipple system since they are hardwired to go to "pools"
of water. Simply remove the old waterer and they will go for the nipples, believe me. They DO NOT have to be trained.

I an so sorry to be so negative but with a fancy PVC, horizontal nipple system my coop stunk to high heaven and my flock used about 3 gal a day in the summer. It is now winter and because I messed up the cable entry to the pipe for the heater and it leaked, I removed it and put back my heated, hanging drinker but it failed. It developed a low level electrical leak and chickens wouldn't drink from it. As to the electrical problem, the drinker did not have 3 prong protection so my ground fault system didn't see it. Never buy unprotected drinking equipment. All heaters must be 3 wire and plugged into a ground fault system. Now am using the original heated dog bowl drinker (over 10 years old). Guess what???? No smell, no spill, less than a gallon of water per day and with my new, amazing, exciting fill/clean method it's easy to keep up .

I take the nearly empty bowl out (very light, no spillage) and take it to the bathroom in the barn to clean. Fill a pail with water and carry both back to the coop. Place the empty bowl on it's blocks (very light, no spillage), Fill it with the pail (no splash or spillage), close the door and I'm done. Not what I planned or dreamed but it works and no waste, no spill, no smell. I may be done with the nipple experiment, not sure yet but will say; If I were to do this again, the water system will be in the run, at the outer fence so it can drain into the yard and filled with an underground, heated water line with float system. Climbing ladders with buckets to fill it is no longer on my list I will never, every attempt to use nipples inside the coop again, ever!

If I had a large flock I might consider nipples again but with the above considerations. Sorry to say but they do leak (mostly from drinking spillage), even the horizontal ones, even brand new ones and the water mixed with the manure is very, very smelly! I have spoken against the open bowl many times but right now it's my best solution and this flock is not quite so messy so it stays clean all day till I refill it. With 19 birds including one turkey, I fill it and clean it once a day. My guess, about 2-3 quarts of water per day. This summer I may have to add another bowl to provide enough water for them but for now, one seems to be enough. To be honest I prefer the hanging drinker but having to fill it from the bottom and no 3 wire heater is a pain. They do stay cleaner but filling every day is too much hassle. (they are heavy, hurt my fingers (I have trigger finger) to carry them and still have to be cleaned and filled every day)

I've used several variations of nipple systems from right in the bucket to pvc lines. I've only ever had 1 issue and that's when I didn't wrap a pipe heater around the pvc line in the winter. The water expanded due to freezing and pushed off the pvc endcap. Nothing broke, just put it right back on. Right now I have them in the bucket bottom. I have NEVER had a leaky nipple (I just had to do it). I've only used push in with waters, never the threaded.

I think they're great, got mine from a local feed store at $5 for a pack of four. We have a tractor style run and there is a little wooden frame where a 5 gallon bucket sits that we drilled on the bottom. You rarely have to refill it and it stays super clean!

I have a pretty nice setup that works but....I Have come to the conclusion that nipple water systems are only useful if you have a heated building or freeze protected water lines and an automatic fill system. They also require floor drainage because chickens are messy drinkers and spill more than they drink. I was refilling roughly 3 gallons per day in warm weather and now they use roughly one gallon using hanging drinkers. I had to climb a ladder twice each time to fill it.

With floor drainage to prevent muddy mess under the drinkers and heated water lines I would still use the system so I only need to feed them every other day. Because my system is so far from the water source, it is too much trouble to use auto fill methods. I tried a bunch of designs but none of them were leak proof, horizontal, vertical, they all leak when they drink because they spill quite a bit, not because the nipples leak. I never discovered any leakage but my floor stayed muddy. The water needs to be drained occasionally to remove stagnant, contaminated water.

That was my experience after reading tons of posts and trying several designs. My system is now stored in my barn, unused.