Changed the water to nipples

[9000ftchick]

We had a heated larger 3 gallon plastic water container (hanging).
We have 12 chickens and just changed the water container to a new plastic nipple type.
The old one was leaking.

What my question is....

what is everyone's experience with the nipple type with the nipples attached to the bottom?

Do we need to do something special to get them to drink from it?
I was out there for about 10 mins and none were going to it to drink.

Is there a special height from the ground?

Thanks!

 

[member 373180]

Mine hangs so that they reach up to drink. Took them several hours to figure it out. Maybe click the nipples so they have drips hanging from them so they find it when they start looking for something to drink. Then it's best to walk away or you'll go crazy worrying
Did you hang it in the same place where the water used to be?

Also, from what I understand, the vertical nipples will freeze even if the bucket has a heater in it. I use horizontal nipples on my heated buckets. These have an o-ring so they don't have water inside them like the vertical ones do.

Good luck, I hope they figure it out soon!

 

[Jensownzoo]

I just put horizontal nipples in a 5 gallon bucket this afternoon and set it on a concrete block. It took them all of 20 seconds to figure it out...I was super impressed!

 

[9000ftchick]

Thank you for your advice.
yes it is in the same place as old waterer was and I just raised it up a little so they can see the red nipples .
I have my coop heated during winter months so freezing shouldn't be an issue hopefully.
Thank you again

 

[member 373180]

Sounds good. If it's inside you might consider horizontal nipples. The vertical ones leak a lot in my experience.

@jen. Smart birds, mine took longer than that! They still like the vertical ones better so I'm using horizontals only inside the coop and outside in winter with the heater. I'm such a sucker

 

[9000ftchick]

This was a quick fix as my old one broke today and this seemed to be the cheapest and quickest fix I could find in store .
Thanks for the advice again

 

[Chickmom812]

I have used the vertical nipples in the bottom of a gallon heavy-weight plastic jug through the winter. I cut a hole in the top of the jug to allow a water heater to sit on the bottom of the jug. The heater said it was safe for use with plastic, and it has done the trick. The only time the nipples froze was when the temps were about -30F, otherwise when temps were zero and above, the water has flowed freely. I hang it by a chain so the hens have to reach up a bit to drink from it. I jiggled the nipples so the hens could see the water drips, and they took to it right away. This method keeps the water so much cleaner.

 

[member 373180]

No worries @9000, I have done my share of "emergency bucket" runs and totally understand, hope it works out.

Good to know @chickmom. We don't often (ever) get temps like that here!

 

[9000ftchick]

so I might need to get the heater for plastic like chick mom suggested.
It was 4f this morning and the nipples froze but I now have 2 heat lamps going in there and when the temp got a little higher they started to flow.
I agree this system does keep the water cleaner and I am hanging it from a chain too .
Thanks for all the info some of our birds are old girls so just hoping they figure it out I had the coop open today and the older ones opted to eat the snow for a drink !.
This coop is a temporary coop as we had adopted some hens kinda over night.
We will be building a 20 x 10 coop which will be insulated and have power and water inside the coop, then I will be putting in an automatic watering system and I'm thinking if these nipples go well I will use them.
Thanks again

 

[blucoondawg]

I use horizontal nipples in a 55 gallon plastic drum with a stock tank heater in it. The heater had it's own thermostatic control just keeps the water slightly above freezing, I haven't had any freezing issues all winter with this setup though we didn't get a lot of extended -20f and colder temps this year. You might consider a setup like this the tank heater will use far less electricity than running 2 heat lamps and the chickens don't need heat anyways