A different way to water chickens-Avian Aqua Miser

[dtimms]

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I love mine! I believe they are completely gravity-fed, so I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

If you set it up, please post pictures!!! Sounds like a great idea!

 

[briteday]

My silkies have the milk jug version and seem to do pretty well with it. However, with triple digit heat I'm not ready to pull the water pan out just yet. I can even keep extra jugs (I bought a rubbermaid 1 gallon pitcher at the grocery) in the freezer...lay it on its side so that the nipple doesn't get covered with ice and they have cool water in the hottest part of the day.

The egglayers got a 5 gallon bucket, rigged with a toilet float valve inside, then a hose that you would normally use to connect the float valve from the toilet to your water pipe coming out of the wall (just be sure to get the proper sized ends on the hose so that you go from the thread size on the valve to 3/4 garden hose), connected to a 3/4 typical garden hose, screwed 4 nipples into the bottom of the bucket, put the lid on the bucket loosely, hung it from a hook screwed into a stud on the wall of the shed...self waterer. I float bottles of frozen water or blue ice packs in theirs during the hottest part of the day. Seems to work good but they haven't acclimated to it as well as the silkies did. Once again, not willing to pull the water pans with this awful heat we're having. But I don't have to fill those pans as often

 

[Marbleheader]

Just got my aqua miser in the mail today. I have to say, I'm very disappointed. I know that I'm paying for the convenience of someone assembling something for me, but they charged me $30 for a $2 nipple and a $0.99 plastic pitcher. If anyone is considering this, I recommend that you buy a $2 nipple (google poultry nipple) and a plastic pitcher from a dollar store. Too bad, because I was really looking forward to this.

 

[cjexotic]

r-l-newell yes it will work for your 5 gallon bucket outside feeding inside. But they tell you the screw in ones work better for this than the push in ones.
They are totally designed for gravity fed. The push in will do gravity if at the bottom of a bucket direct as its getting pressure from the 5 gallons.
So that is what I used for my waterer outside my pen. Works great.

 

[SimplyForties]

I made nipple waterers out of 5 gallon buckets with 3 nipples each. One is in a coop with 9 Buckeye chickens and the other is in a coop with a dozen guineas. I put them in a week or so ago and don't think they're using them. My birds free-range so they just dash out and run to the creek to drink in the morning. I left on Thanksgiving holiday a day after installing them. (I had some neighbors letting the birds out while I was gone.) Now that I'm back I'm going to have to start working on some training. I want them to use the waterers so that I can go away for the weekend and leave the birds safely cooped up. I want to install a smaller one in my turkey coop. These are all full-grown birds and from what I've been reading on here, younger birds take to the nipple waterers more easily. I think they're a great idea and hope I can make them work.

 

[jazzman]

I used some of the farmtek nipples and made my own manifold with 1" PVC. I love it. I installed it in the coop and it takes very little space and it is MUCH cleaner. I took a bucket and ran PVC pipe from the bottom of it. The bucket is mounted outside of the coop. Ran the PVC inside and along one side of the coop. Drilled a line of holes along the bottom of the pipe, screwed the plastic nipples into the holes snug after applying a little PVC glue to the treads and they don't leak. We fill the bucket about every 3 days for 12 hens. It works great! By the way, the hens learned to use them after about 2 hrs. I was worried that they would shy from them so I left the old waterer in for a while, but took it out a few hours later. No problem at all. If you do get the Farmtek nipples, make sure you order the ones for gravity fed systems. The pressurized ones probably won't seal off without pressure. I hated to old gravity/jug waterer because our birds constanly fouled the water and it took a lot of attention keeping it clean. Now I just occasionally clean the bucket/reservior and no more mess. I wish I had a picture to post. It took me about and hour to rig and install.
Steve

 

[HippieChickens]

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[briteday]

Yes, the FarmTek shipping was expensive. So I bought a few extra to have on hand since I was paying all of that shipping. However, every time I've ordered from them I seem to get a little freebie in the package like some awesome work gloves.

 

[SimplyForties]

If you buy a bunch the shipping averages out less. I wouldn't just buy 2 or 3. The Avian Aqua Miser has free shipping but they charge so much more for the exact same nipples that I still saved $20 ordering 6 from FarmTek instead of from them.

Steve - sure would love to see a picture of your waterer!

 

[HippieChickens]

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