Is it necessary to change water daily?

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my4ladies

my4ladies

Songster
9 Years
Jul 4, 2010
251
5
111
Pardon the naive question. I've read so many places that you need to give fresh water daily, just like any other animal, but I've read a number of times also where people are just adding water to buckets putting it on top of the 'old' water. Or using large 5 gallon buckets...do you honestly take those down daily, dump them, and refill? I'm not trying to call anybody out, I just want to know what is typically done.
 
Down here in Texas, I change it every day in summer. In winter, I will usually change it every other day.
 
I only have 4 hens. The water bowl gets cleaned and sanitized daily, along with the treat bowl.

Imp-Wish I did so well with MY coffee mug.
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To summarize from the Great & Powerful Speckledhen: If you wouldnt drink out of it, then clean the water dish.
 
Ours mostly drink out of our pond, not what you'd call fresh (as in clear and treated), they also drink out of anywhere they can find water, filthy black stuff inside old coconuts, air con drips from the cars, watering cans, buckets, puddles after a storm, anywhere really. I think they like trying different tastes.

The water bowls in the coops are changed (dumped, cleaned and refilled) with tap water every evening after they've gone to bed.
 
I add to the water. I clean the waterers though if they even smell funky or look funky. When I had ducks, I dug out the pond by myself for the the ducks to swim in, the chickens would prefer the duck pond water over the water in their waterers.
 
I add water to the 5 gallon bucket with nipples, but clean it out every week to combat algae build-up. Then it's all fresh water again, then topped off for a week, clean. Ad nauseum. I have another type waterer since it's gotten so hot here now, and it cannot be "topped off." So every three days I dump what's left in it, clean it out, and refill. Smaller nipple waterers INSIDE the coop get cleaned out when they get low, every few days.

Meanwhile, the chickens drink out of the duck pool, the fish ponds, the bird baths, the dog's water dish, any bits of splash from watering the garden.....
 
Honestly, after awhile, it can wear you out chaning the water daily out of just habit. Algae never hurt a chicken, duck, turkey, dog cat, horse, cow or ANY OTHER animal when they drink water with it. I keep goldfish in my 100 gallon horse water trough to eat all bugs and mosquito larvae and they feast on the algae.
I DO change the water for my chickens when they get dirty bedding and chicken poo near or in their water sources. And, yes, I do swipe and swish clean their self-waterer and their other water bowl when I refill.
This isn't a criticism of anybody who changes the water daily, because in the heat of the summer, birds really need a lot of water, and if you don't check to change, you might not give them all of the water that they need. Just MHO,
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I agree with the above--as long as the water is wet, the chickens will use it without problems--mine head for the gray water outflow from the laundryroom as soon as they are let out in the morning. That being said, I change mine daily on the chicks since they tend to foul it up but only when it is low for the pullets and hens.
 
THe big issue is the spread of disease. Mine wade in the waterers when it is hot, and thus track all sorts of chicken poo into it.

If wild birds drink out of your waterers, they can contaminate it & spread disease as well.

So changing it regularly, and adding things like apple cider vinegar, will help prevent the spread of disease, worms, and bacteria.
 

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