Chickens And Creeks

[irf1983]

Anyone have any experience with their chickens going in a creek or stream? We have a small creek running through our back yard. It's only inches deep in many places and very gentle unless after a big rain. I have tried to usher my chickens to the edge while they are free ranging just to show them that they can cool their feet and get cold fresh water whenever they want, but they aren't very willing.

 

[pipermark]

Let them do it on their own. They may or maynot. I dug out a little watering area in mine (widen a spot so the water is very still at the edges) . Some of the chickens prefer to drink their some in the running stream. I have never seen a bird use the water to cool off though.

 

[007Dawn]

We do something technically I don't know if your allowed to but have pvc running along our flower bed that is connected to our wash tube, it is used almost daily. So the water from that feeds our herb garden where the chickens like to room.

For the longest time they wouldn't go near it now they hear the water and see it and they all line up for a drink. (We don't use chemicals in that sink at all. It is more for rinising etc.)

Point being it took them about a month before they mustard up the courage of the big bad pvc pipe, that at one time sent them running.

 

[DuckieG]

We had Chanteclers at our old house in the mountains. Their coop was right next to a stream. We put them down there when they were 8 weeks old and they free ranged from 10 weeks on. They LOVED the water and refused to drink out of their gravity waterer in favor of the creek. They would scratch around in it and finally had a nice pool dug out. After we moved, we had to put out a large water pan because they clearly missed having a bathing spot. A couple of the hens would stand in the large pan and scratch at the bottom for 10 minutes at a time--I think they would get bugs from the mud in the creek. We worried about them during flooding periods but we never lost any. During times the water was high, they would drink from a puddly area near the coop (turning up their beaks at the $40 waterer that we would slave to keep fresh for them...

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