Brooder is introduced to the water bottle

[Bettacreek]

Well, I finally got tired of having to mess with the waterer thingy multiple times per day, cleaning it out and allowing air in for the water to come out. So, I decided that it was time to introduce everyone to the water bottle. I was surprised to be honest. The chickens are a couple of dopes, the buttons, they're naturals. The cochin took awhile to learn, s/he was literally attacking it to get water, and attacking the resevoir and just about everything else trying to figure it out, but finally got it down about five minutes later. The silkie, well, that idiot is still picking at the water that drops into the bedding from the others picking at the bottle. The buttons walked right up and gently tapped the ball and started drinking immediately, even the itsy bitsy one. I'm stunned, I was honestly expecting the chicken chicks to figure it out sooner. I'm thinking about using bottles right from the start, but I'm half afraid to.

 

[lilbreeches]

y are you afraid to use them to start? sounds like a good idea to me. i wondered if it would work. seems like it would be much cleaner and easier.

 

[CrimsonRose]

I've tried the bottles to start and for my coturnix it was just too hard for them to get it to work... After several tries to get them to peck at it I finally put in a water dish as well but took it back out when they were 5 days old and they did fine with the water bottle after that...

Maybe since chicken chicks are bigger they have enough power to make it work form the start??? I have a few eggs in the bator that are due to hatch in about a week I may try the bottle with them from the start...

I love the water bottles!!! make life so much less stinky from wet bedding...

Plus my babies get clean water instead of poo water

and I only have to refill it once a day instead of 4-5 times...

 

[andbab]

I was just wondering today if water bottles would work with chicks. Browsing is so helpful.

thanks for answering my question before I asked it.

 

[Bettacreek]

Mainly, I'm just concerned about itsy bitsies being able to get sufficient water from it.

Andbab, definately try the bottles, it's SOOO much cleaner and less disgusting.

 

[deerman]

If using water bottles, get the ones with the red ball, those are the ones for birds. The birds will start pecking at anything red. Note alot of waters and feeders have red base, at least all the one I use,

CHICKS DIG RED, Guess that the reason my new truck is RED.

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. I've never been into red.

I just use the regular old water bottles for rodents at Wal-mart. I'll have to find something else for adult chickens though, something bigger that will actually suffice.

 

[Akane]

I've never had any chickens have trouble figuring it out. Occasionally one will peck the bottle and they do kind of attack the tube at first until they calm down and figure it out but they always immediately started hitting the end of the tube for water. With chicken chicks the bottle worked well right from the start. I put in a dish under the bottle expecting them to drink from that first and at less than a day old they all started drinking from the tube and ignoring the dish so I took it out and for 2 weeks they've been drinking from bottles. With button chicks the bottles don't work until a week or so old. They are too small to push the ball on even the tiniest hamster bottle. There are some hamster/gerbil bottles without balls but they have to be hung properly from the top of the cage and would not work for most button pens. I'll find out with the coturnix chicks as soon as mine hatch.