Baby Chicks Can't Find Poultry Nipple

[Wawa Coffee]

I touched every beak to the nipple but none of the chicks are finding it on their own. Anything I can do to help them figure it out?

 

[Kiki]

Is it close enough to the ground so they can reach it?
Do you have a hole on the top of the container so the water flows?

Play with the nipple so it makes sound.

 

[Wawa Coffee]

Is it close enough to the ground so they can reach it?
Do you have a hole on the top of the container so the water flows?

Play with the nipple so it makes sound.

Yes, yes, and will do.

 

[Kiki]

Make sure it is their only water source too.
Once one figures it out the others will too.

 

[Pork Pie]

Just tapping it can help stimulate interest. Personally I use both conventional water feeders and a nipple feeder. As soon as I see a chick using the nipple waterer, I remove the conventional water source. They seem to all catch on almost instantly

 

[Wawa Coffee]

Yep it's the only water source. It will be in their coop too so I wanted to train them early. I tapped it a few times and they've gone up to it, just no pecks yet. I'm sure they'll figure it out. (fingers crossed).

 

[Wawa Coffee]

And as I hit the reply button a barred rock started hammering the thing.

 

[Kiki]

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Funny, my barred rock was the first one to take to the nipple feeder too, then the others followed.
Much neater than the waterer---can't kick all those pine chips into it or drop poop in it!!
One thing I noticed was, in the beginning, there was a lot of pecking but a lot of the water was dropping onto the pine chips. When they were smaller I put a little dish under there to catch the water but as they got older they started moving the dish around the brooder for fun so I took that out.
The dripping has pretty much stopped now that they are champs at using the nipple waterer but I still check under the area for wetness before I put them to bed. If wet, I scoop out the damp chips and put some fresh chips in because they love that corner for snuggling.
I take out the nipple waterer at night and leave some water in a regular quart chick waterer just in case they want some. The reason I take the nipple waterer out is because of the snuggling in that corner---the waterer is in a bracket and if they smoosh against the nipple the water drips continuously on them. I figured that was not a great thing. I take out the bottle and put the nipple waterer back in every morning.

 

[Wawa Coffee]

Funny, my barred rock was the first one to take to the nipple feeder too, then the others followed.
Much neater than the waterer---can't kick all those pine chips into it or drop poop in it!!
One thing I noticed was, in the beginning, there was a lot of pecking but a lot of the water was dropping onto the pine chips. When they were smaller I put a little dish under there to catch the water but as they got older they started moving the dish around the brooder for fun so I took that out.
The dripping has pretty much stopped now that they are champs at using the nipple waterer but I still check under the area for wetness before I put them to bed. If wet, I scoop out the damp chips and put some fresh chips in because they love that corner for snuggling.
I take out the nipple waterer at night and leave some water in a regular quart chick waterer just in case they want some. The reason I take the nipple waterer out is because of the snuggling in that corner---the waterer is in a bracket and if they smoosh against the nipple the water drips continuously on them. I figured that was not a great thing. I take out the bottle and put the nipple waterer back in every morning.

I was worried about the moisture as well so I put the nipple up higher than they could reach and put a brick under it and a piece of 1" flagstone. Now they have to hop up and stand on the stone to peck the nipple, but as they get taller I'll remove the brick and stone. Best part is the water that drips on the stone dries up. I actually don't think it's mounted high enough and I'll probably end up raising it up in a few weeks so that they don't have to stoop down so low to peck at it when they've grown a few inches.