Vertical (gravity) vs. horizontal (spring loaded) watering nipples

[aart]

Quote: Mine lap up rain water puddles even with an open waterer available too...who knows why<shrug>
I know my 15 birds drink about a gallon of water a day, I have my waterers marked because of meds, but I also like to measure things out of curiosity..data freak.lol.
...and they drink less out of the waterer on rainy days.

Marking the HN bottles really helped me see that they were drinking not so much at first then caught on and the water levels dropped much more quickly.
The older chicks took about a week or so to really get the hang of it, the 3 day old got it within about 2 hours. I did spend alot of time 'showing' them all how it worked by using a stick to activate the release pin. Some of them bumped the end of the pin multiple times, others shoved the beak in to push the pin sideways.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well, at least right now, I'm pretty determined to try these for the winter. If they don't stay thawed that will change the whole game as that's the only reason I really want to use them - for winter.


In the summer I put pans all over that they can drink from and stand in to cool off if they like and I use glass for that so they have as little exposure to plastics as possible.

In winter I want easy, restricted opening so they aren't getting wet wattles (frostbite prevention), and something that stays thawed. I have great hopes for the HNs.

 

[aart]

@Leahs Mom did you put the HN's back out there, marking the water level and giving some 'lessons'??

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Leahs Mom did you put the HN's back out there, marking the water level and giving some 'lessons'??

I have left them out for the last 3 weeks or so. I'll work w/them a bit more the next few days

 

[aart]

Quote: Seriously mark the water level every day, it will ease your mind.

 

[KristinaE]

I started with vertical, but didn't like the constant dripping out of all three of the nipples. My run was getting stinky from all of the dripping water, and I worried about mold in the deep litter.

I switched to horizontal nipples a month ago and I LOVE it! I have absolutely no complaints so far. The chickens took all of 1 minute to figure them out.

 

[DaveOmak]

On the subject of water..... My 7 birds drink 1 gallon of water per day.... BUT... this is the desert and we have low humidity... And their run is totally covered in tin roofing so the run is dusty dry.... no rain can get to the ground... no grass grows.... they eat alfalfa hay freely and Layena feed and fresh veggies..... When they use the horizontal nipples, they even try to catch the drips that fall off of the bottom of the pipe...

 

[Leahs Mom]

Mine are not big drinkers except during the summer. But most of their feed is wet (either soaked or fermented) so they don't need as much water to process the dry feed. It always amazes me how little they seemed to drink during the winters. But I'm guessing the soaked feed accounts for that.

 

[aart]

Mine are not big drinkers except during the summer. But most of their feed is wet (either soaked or fermented) so they don't need as much water to process the dry feed. It always amazes me how little they seemed to drink during the winters. But I'm guessing the soaked feed accounts for that.

And if they go out in winter they will eat snow....even with open waterers available mine chomp up that snow!

 

[ladycat]

And if they go out in winter they will eat snow....even with open waterers available mine chomp up that snow!

Mine do too! When we have snow, that is. Which isn't very often.