Chickens drinking enough ?

[Club cramahe coop]

i have a question . As we have raised our 11 girls we have used several water systems. A small watered as chicks in the brooder changed daily. Then when they went to the coop, we set up a small hanging, one gallon pail with horizontal nipples. We topped it up daily as well. Now , several months ago we set up a horizontal pvc pipe with 5 horizontal nipples. They took to it almost instantly. We had a large Rubbermaid container originally but now have a rain barrel that I fill with a hose with softened, filters water. It seam they are not drinking enough. I see them all use it and it has been several months. They all look healthy . They are 22 week old pullets not yet laying. The days are much shorter now so they are only awake for aprox 10-11 hours a day. It is also getting a little cooler 40-50 degrees. Collectively it looks like they have only drank about an inch out the rain barrel in a week. That’s about 2 gallons collectively. Is this normal ? They have easy access all day in the covered run . I have a small fountain pump circulating the water constantly so it doesn’t sit.

 

[azygous]

First of all, be aware that chickens consumption of water can vary by a huge amount according to the weather. It's definitely not a constant amount being drunk.

There are ways to tell if chickens are drinking enough water, though. If chickens are not drinking enough, their poops will be hard and small. The reverse is poops will be wet when they are drinking a lot of water, especially in conjunction with foods heavy in water content.

At worst, chickens that are dehydrated will behave in an alarming way - stumbling, unsteady, falling down, etc. Most of the time, though, you can be comfortable knowing chickens behaving normally are getting enough water.

 

[TwentyOneChickens]

View attachment 1945619 View attachment 1945618 View attachment 1945617 i have a question . As we have raised our 11 girls we have used several water systems. A small watered as chicks in the brooder changed daily. Then when they went to the coop, we set up a small hanging, one gallon pail with horizontal nipples. We topped it up daily as well. Now , several months ago we set up a horizontal pvc pipe with 5 horizontal nipples. They took to it almost instantly. We had a large Rubbermaid container originally but now have a rain barrel that I fill with a hose with softened, filters water. It seam they are not drinking enough. I see them all use it and it has been several months. They all look healthy . They are 22 week old pullets not yet laying. The days are much shorter now so they are only awake for aprox 10-11 hours a day. It is also getting a little cooler 40-50 degrees. Collectively it looks like they have only drank about an inch out the rain barrel in a week. That’s about 2 gallons collectively. Is this normal ? They have easy access all day in the covered run . I have a small fountain pump circulating the water constantly so it doesn’t sit.

I've noticed that chickens don't drink as much water as other animals. (Chickens only poop, and they don't urinate so they're bound to drink less.)
It also varies on the age of the chickens, and the weather like stated above.

I, personally, think that for 11 pullets in autumn, there's nothing to worry about.

Also, as said above, you will know if your hens are dehydrated. I'm not sure if it was my hen specifically or if it goes for all chickens, but one of my hens had blood-orange colored eyes when she was dehydrated, unlike their normal orange-brown eyes.
Hope this helps!

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Mine took some time to get used to horizontal nipples. We spent several afternoons teaching. When I let them out, they all made sure to visit a small birdbath in the garden. After rain, they would gather around it and drink their fill. Sometimes they drank out of screw holes on the deck (the screws were countersunk). Imagine the amount of water in those!

But they all learned, with no other source of water in the coop, and days with no rain. They are all healthy. I think they will drink available water before letting themselves get dehydrated, barring illness, of course.