Filtering water for my flock?

Our water is very hard and contains flouride. Is there any risk to day old chicks from drinking treated water? My family and I drink it without concern, but not sure if they are sensitive to it. I haven't came across anything regarding water with flouride, etc. Any info appreciated, THANKS!

knudsonclucks said:

Our water is very hard and contains flouride. Is there any risk to day old chicks from drinking treated water? My family and I drink it without concern, but not sure if they are sensitive to it. I haven't came across anything regarding water with flouride, etc. Any info appreciated, THANKS!

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i never had problem giving it to mine but if your concerned you can filter it with an rv filter that hooks to a water hose connection. i have well water thats very heavy with iron and i use the filter for my chicks until they are at lest a month old or more

Do you mean RO or UV? UV would not remove minerals (fluoride, iron), but would disinfect the water.

subhanalah said:

Do you mean RO or UV? UV would not remove minerals (fluoride, iron), but would disinfect the water.

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nope i said what i meant its an RV filter like you use for your camper they are fairly cheap and just screw onto a water hose its the simple easy way to filter their water

Oh! Like "recreational vehicle". Gotcha.

subhanalah said:

Oh! Like "recreational vehicle". Gotcha.

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exactly and they are great they remove everything like minerals iron sediment and chemicals

I've never had any issues giving city water to my girls . I guess I never really thought about that. It does kinda bother me now that I think of it. But I've not had any issues. I don't think it will harm them if it doesn't harm us. I know that's up for debate too but I couldn't afford bottled water for my birds. I suppose a filter would work but I'm not sure that's necessary? However if it bothers you then filter it for them. But I wouldn't think you would have to go to those lengths unless your water is REALLY bad. Did you know if you sit it in the sun light for a few hours it removes the contamination of the water? I learned this because I also raise Koi fish and they are very sensitive to chlorine and contamination of water. Just plain old sun light will remove it if it's in the sun for a few hours. Hope this helps and best wishes.

knudsonclucks said:

Our water is very hard and contains flouride. Is there any risk to day old chicks from drinking treated water? My family and I drink it without concern, but not sure if they are sensitive to it. I haven't came across anything regarding water with flouride, etc. Any info appreciated, THANKS!

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If you have concerns about Fluoride being harmful to your birds (Sodium Fluoride is the main ingredient in Rat Poison BTW)... how can your family consume it without concern?

From the CDC: Adults exposed to excessive consumption of fluoride over a lifetime may have increased likelihood of bone fractures, and may result in effects on bone leading to pain and tenderness. For effects to teeth, children are most likely to be affected by excessive exposure to fluoride because it impacts teeth while they are still in formative phases. Children aged 8 years and younger exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride have an increased chance of developing pits in the tooth enamel, along with a range of cosmetic effects to teeth. http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faqs/

We are so glad to finally be on well water (which can have it's own problems!) and off city water where they put fluoride in it. I confirmed from the city that they get their fluoride as a by-product of a major fertilizer company in WA state. There's a debate for sure, but I'm convinced it is NOT a good thing to put in drinking water. Fluoride that occurs naturally (at sometimes at toxic levels) is another thing. I did a lot of research on how to remove it via filtration and it came down to basically this...the water needs to sit for a fairly long contact time with the filtration media to remove any significant amount of fluoride. This means you need a minimum of a 4-stage in-line or undersink filter system (4 canisters...3 to remove fluoride and 1 for everything else) and bone char and activated alumina are the two fluoride filtration medias. The fluoride filters also need replacement regularly, IIRC, you need to replacement them every 3-4 months with normal use patterns. IIRC, bone char (charcoal made from cow bones) was more cost effective than activated alumina, aka the bone char filters lasted longer. We ended up not ever getting such a system because we ended up moving to the country where we have good well water. Our well water tested negative for fluoride.

A RV (recreation vehicle) filter will NOT remove fluoride. A RO (reverse osmosis system) will, but wastes a lot of water in the process and requires a storage tank...it also removes nearly ALL the minerals, which is not healthy for any animal to drink long term. Much of our bodies' mineral requirements comes from the (non-RO or non-distilled) water that we drink.

I suppose if you could get your hands on some bulk bone char (or make your own), you could fashion a gravity fed filter system that would slow drip filtered water into your chicken water system setup.

Personally, I would not bother about it for solely the chickens, unless I were also to filter the water for our family's consumption.