chick waterer really necessary?

[amcstay]

I am getting some chicks in a few weeks and am trying to lay in supplies now. Do I REALLY need a chick waterer or can I use a regular waterer? If I need something smaller can I not use a weighted low plastic dish? I will only have 6 maybe 7 chicks after I give away the other 20 the next day.....

Also, when can they figure out a hanging waterer? I want to hang everything to keep it up off the floor of their coop.....

Thanks!

 

[Mak]

Mine arrived before I'd had a chance to get out and get all the supplies I needed. Yeah, I know, I knew when they were coming, but "stuff" happens. I used a shallow saucer, with an upside down coffee mug in the center, and filled it with marbles around the cup. I used that for a bit till I got a better waterer. I put it up on a wood block so they would not walk thru it *as much*.

Pros- easy to find around the house, easy to wash out.
Cons- didn't hold a lot of water, so refilling needed several times a day. (I had 10 chicks) And even with the raised block, they managed to walk thru it and get shavings and poop in the water.

I'd use it again if I had to, but the regular waterer is just more convenient, IMO.

 

[33yardbirds]

I have the old glass trough, mason jar type. They're shallow and the mason jar keeps them out of it. I still have to raise up 1 1/2" 'cause they kick so much pine shavings. I would go with a chick water to cut down the odds of a drowning.

 

[amyquilt]

Last time I hatched, I asked hubby to get some type of glass dish at W*lmart while he was there. He came home with some of the "old timey" clear glass ash trays like I remember seeing at restaurants when I was a kid....decades ago. I put in a couple of marbles with the water and they worked perfectly! For the first week....while I still has the rubber mat in the brooder. Once I put shavings in the cage/brooder, the water dish got filled with shavings immediately, so I moved on to small hamster type bowls.

 

[matimeo]

If it were me, I would buy some of the nipple waterers and just plug them into the bottom of an old plastic container and hang it in the brooder. No mess, and almost no need to refill with a big enough container. Has worked awesome for me.

 

[midd2005]

i used the nipple waterers (purchased from Neil on this site) from day one. i plugged in two of them into the caps of small bottles of water. next, i cut off the bottom of the bottles of water. then, i poked 2 holes in the sides of the bottle, through which i threaded some metal wiring and tied it off so it formed a loop. i found a stick long enough to fit across the top of my brooder and then hung those bottles upside down. as the chicks grew i just made the wire loop smaller so that the bottle would raise up higher.

total cost was about 2.50. no poop or shavings in the water. easy to refill. i had 7 peeps and refreshed the water about every other day or so. plus, i still use the nipple waterers now that they are bigger, but with a slightly different container.

 

[DelawareSilkie]

when my friend and I bought chicks many months ago, we used a common cereal bowl for the first few weeks until they were big enough to climb in and get poo into it. I haven't tried this myself but I heard if you have a spare hamster bottle they would figure out how to use that too, although you may need two on opposite sides for them to get equal water distribution.

 

[ninjascrub69]

Nipple waterers would probably work the best, but i've always used just a regular waterer and have never had problems.