Chicken Nipples question

[seuferer]

I am using little self filling cups with floaters (they work much like the water tank for the toilet) that install on a bucket just like horizontal nipples. I love those: chickens can actually dip a beak and easily drink enough water and it is easy to clean, and stays relatively clean (it just gets some dirt from their beaks which I rinse out with a strong spray feom the hose in the mornings). It gets hot here in the summer and this system makes it much easier for them to drink.

Can you tell me where you bought these? This sounds really ideal.

 

[blackdog043]

You can buy the cups and horizontal nipples on amazon. I personally like the horizontal nipples better, they never get dirt in them and they won't freeze in the winter, if you put a stock tank deicer inside the bucket. The cups will get dirt in them and freeze if you live in a cold winter climate. I can go away for a week and not worry if my chickens have water, using the horizontal nipples. I also use a 5 gallon no waste feeder. Food and water will last more than a week with 11 chickens.

 

[lins girrls]

I have been watering my chickens with Chicken Nipples, but I recently set out a pan of water and the chickens definitely prefer drinking from it. In fact they wont use the nipples at all as long as the pan has water in it. It seems like it is a little awkward for them to use the nipples.
So I'm wondering if they will get enough water from the nipples when the weather gets really hot.

 

[lins girrls]

I use both the nipples and the pan in summer its too hot out here. They have the nipples in the paddock and a big 4 foot pan in the yard. They stand in the pan to cool their feet. I do have to change the water often though in the pan as they don't get out to go poo

 

[Stephine]

Can you tell me where you bought these? This sounds really ideal.

Search for Dine-a-chook!

 

[Stephine]

You can buy the cups and horizontal nipples on amazon. I personally like the horizontal nipples better, they never get dirt in them and they won't freeze in the winter, if you put a stock tank deicer inside the bucket. The cups will get dirt in them and freeze if you live in a cold winter climate. I can go away for a week and not worry if my chickens have water, using the horizontal nipples. I also use a 5 gallon no waste feeder. Food and water will last more than a week with 11 chickens.

Yes, different climates require different approaches. In the heat, when chickens drink a whole lot more water than in cool weather just to cool themselves down I found nipple waterers to be insufficient - they are just too hard to drink from. Compared to just an open dish the little self filling cups work so much better for me - they stay much cleaner since they can’t walk through them, can’t knock them over, and while, yes, they do get some dirt in them from dipping their dirty beaks, the water that refills the cups is always fresh and clean and doesn’t sit around in there long enough to fester. And a good spray with the hose cleans them in seconds. I have used them in the winter before, too - here in CA they do get frozen overnight, but since we don’t have daytime frost ever, all that was needed was a quick spray of the hose again and they were good to go. I don’t use them in the winter anymore though, since I found they can manage just fine with the vertical nipples then, and nipple waterers are always clean.