goofychickens
Chirping
Guys please vote in the poll this time
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
There's no comparison for clean water. A nipple system is best by far. Any open container will get dirty.
I've not had any experience with a nipple system but I do know this whole germaphopic gotta have crystal clean water business is a bit overblown. I've watched my birds drink from a puddle of water in a hoofprint down at the barn many a time. Then head for the next pile of horse apples to kick apart looking for bugs n bits of grain.
Not cutting on what works best for you, just sharing my experience.
That is very true. I can have a clean fount with fresh water and they'll drink out of a puddle.
That said, consider a few things. Free range chickens will consume lots of bacterium, viruses, protozoa, worms and other pathogens even with clean water so they aren't being deprived of a healthy level of exposure.
A poultry nutritionist I spoke with acknowledged the same thing. He said, "Sure they'll drink dirty water, but given the choice, would you drink muddy water or clean water?"
Even old timer poultry husbandry men will disinfect their water founts at least weekly.
Founts left exposed to the sun will get algae growing in them. Blue-green algae can quickly prove fatal to poultry.
Moreover, a bulk water nipple system saves an incredible amount of time. With 8 flocks, a nipple system can save me 10 hours of work a week easily.
I agree that to someone with large flocks then a nipple system would be better.
They work equally well with small flocks and can reduce maintenance and cleaning even with a few chickens... No need to get fancy with a regulated piped system, you can screw nipples into a bucket for a small flock...
I don't know what u mean by "reduce maintenance n cleaning"
I take the pretzel jug off the glass base n fill it from the 5 gal.bucket of water I keep by the coop door.Once or twice a wk I take another full bucket out. If the jug gets to smelling 'skunky' I pour some fresh water in swish around n dump b4 I refill. Not a whole lot of time needed to water 24 free ranging birds.
In the winter I do the same thing with the heated dog bowl,it mite need to be dumped more often due to them kicking stuff around. Half a minute 2-3times a wk ain't a lot of time. Takes longer to walk 50yds to the barn to get their feed n feed them than to give em water.