Chickens drinking rain water?

[farmgirl02]

Hi everyone!
My friend, who is also a chicken raiser also told me that it is not good for chickens to drink rain water because it might give them a disease. I just wanted to verify if this was true or not. When I let them out during the day, I have to run all around the yard shooing them away from rain puddles, and it is about as easy as herding cats away from salmon.

Thank you for your help!

~farmgirl~

 

[CasadasHens]

Mine seem to prefer rain water to their waterer! Just like my cats and dogs do too....... I have not noticed any problems yet but no doubt someone else with more experience will add to this thread.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Could you try to find out the “why” behind that statement? Practically every wild animal in the world is going to drink rainwater. Many farm animals that get to range drink rainwater. They are not falling over dead because of it.

About anything is possible. A piece of space junk may fall out of the sky and hit my house today, I might have a fender bender next time I’m in a car, or the sun might shine today. On my scale of how likely something is to happen, a chicken getting sick drinking rainwater ranks pretty close to the space junk.

Let me clarify that a bit. Chickens can pick up diseases or parasites from the ground. But they’ll eat dirt. Watch them. They can get anything from the dirt that they could get from drinking water from a mud puddle. That’s part of how they build up flock immunities and share probiotics, sharing dirt especially dirt they’ve pooped in. As long as the number of organisms is not concentrated, they are much more likely to build up immunity than get sick. It will strengthen their immune system. I consider that a good thing.

A wet run is a dangerous run. It can raise the number of bad bugs to a dangerous level. But that is not just because of the water. That’s because the concentration of their poop gets so high the bad bugs have something to grow in. But it sounds like yours are free ranging over a pretty big area. The poop is not going to be concentrated enough to cause any problems.

I’d guess that somewhere somehow something got taken out of context to get that rumor started and your friend heard about it. There are a lot of things like that going around this forum. But try to ask where that came from. It’s so wild it just blows my mind.

 

[StruckBy]

Could you try to find out the “why” behind that statement? Practically every wild animal in the world is going to drink rainwater. Many farm animals that get to range drink rainwater. They are not falling over dead because of it.

About anything is possible. A piece of space junk may fall out of the sky and hit my house today, I might have a fender bender next time I’m in a car, or the sun might shine today. On my scale of how likely something is to happen, a chicken getting sick drinking rainwater ranks pretty close to the space junk.

Let me clarify that a bit. Chickens can pick up diseases or parasites from the ground. But they’ll eat dirt. Watch them. They can get anything from the dirt that they could get from drinking water from a mud puddle. That’s part of how they build up flock immunities and share probiotics, sharing dirt especially dirt they’ve pooped in. As long as the number of organisms is not concentrated, they are much more likely to build up immunity than get sick. It will strengthen their immune system. I consider that a good thing.

A wet run is a dangerous run. It can raise the number of bad bugs to a dangerous level. But that is not just because of the water. That’s because the concentration of their poop gets so high the bad bugs have something to grow in. But it sounds like yours are free ranging over a pretty big area. The poop is not going to be concentrated enough to cause any problems.

I’d guess that somewhere somehow something got taken out of context to get that rumor started and your friend heard about it. There are a lot of things like that going around this forum. But try to ask where that came from. It’s so wild it just blows my mind.

x2

If drinking rainwater made them sick there wouldn't be a healthy free range chicken in all of western WA & OR.

 

[donrae]

Mine prefer it. I dump the old water out, clean and fill the waterer, and look up to see them drinking the puddle I just made.

When my birds free ranged, they honestly preferred to drink out of puddles in the horse run. Manure broth, anyone? I'm not kidding, there was something in it they loved.

If they don't die from eating the dirt, or the bugs in the dirt, then drinking water, they're not gonna die from drinking water on the dirt. Your friend's just full of it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Mine prefer it. I dump the old water out, clean and fill the waterer, and look up to see them drinking the puddle I just made. 

When my birds free ranged, they honestly preferred to drink out of puddles in the horse run. Manure broth, anyone? I'm not kidding, there was something in it they loved. 

If they don't die from eating the dirt, or the bugs in the dirt, then drinking water, they're not gonna die from drinking water on the dirt. Your friend's just full of it. 

Rachel mine don't do that until they scratch in it to make it muddy. Then they drink.

 

[zion11]

Rain water is all my chickens drink, unless it hasn't rained in a long time. Their water is filled straight out of the rain barrels.

 

[AmericanMom]

I have had my chickens for alittle over 3 years and they drink water out of any and all available containers, whether its the side of an upturned tub, a puddle in the boat, anything...Never have had a problem.

 

[AmericanMom]

x2

If drinking rainwater made them sick there wouldn't be a healthy free range chicken in all of western WA & OR.

LOL, aint that the truth!!!

 

[farmgirl02]

Hey ya'll!
Thank you so much for using your time to answer my BYC question. I appreciate your sharing all your opinions!