Colorado

[uzisuzuki]

I will more likely still have him. He is hed roo at the moment. Maybe we could just swap some hatching eggs for him. I dont really expect money for him. He is quite striking. One of my neighbors gave him to me. She said i needed him. Lol. She was overrun with roos. I think she has about 300 or so chickens at the moment.

Holy smokes, that's a lot of chickens! If I can get some hatching eggs going, you have a deal! I'm running a test hatching on my eggs next month, so I'll definitely be keeping a record of how things go with that here & on my animal blog - http://www.aflockbetweenpastures.com. Right now, the eggs would be Silver Sebright/Golden Laced Polish mix if that's something you'd be interested in.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I would love to see a picture of him but don't feel like you have to go out of you way to get one! I don't want to create work for you,

Hey gang,

So doing some research for streamling the chickens for when I have surgery on my wrist in a couple weeks. I have picked out some PVC style feeders that my BF will install and now I am looking at the whole watering situation. I am looking at a horizontal nipples with probably a bucket system. Was wondering if anyone on here has tried the horizontal nipples? If there is anyone out there who has please share your experience with using them, also what did you do when we got below 0 and the freezing issue, did you use a submersible tank heater as well? Thanks in advance for sharing!

I've also been thinking about this watering system for the new coops/runs. Is it hard for the chickens to move from a watering dish to nipples or is it pretty easy for them to figure out? I'm definitely installing the PVC style feeders since they look like they produce less wasted food than the store bought feeder I have now.

 

[COChix]

Take away all other water from the flock

Holy smokes, that's a lot of chickens! If I can get some hatching eggs going, you have a deal! I'm running a test hatching on my eggs next month, so I'll definitely be keeping a record of how things go with that here & on my animal blog - http://www.aflockbetweenpastures.com. Right now, the eggs would be Silver Sebright/Golden Laced Polish mix if that's something you'd be interested in.
I've also been thinking about this watering system for the new coops/runs. Is it hard for the chickens to move from a watering dish to nipples or is it pretty easy for them to figure out? I'm definitely installing the PVC style feeders since they look like they produce less wasted food than the store bought feeder I have now.

Good question on how quickly the chickens pick up a new watering system. From what I have read, the babies after a couple weeks old transition from the cup style waters to horizontal and pick it up in a matter of hours. The older girls take longer and people said there is one rule for transitioning your flock over when they are older and that is this....

Take away all other water from the flock so they only utilize the horizontal system, and then don't watch, lol. They say that because the girls struggle at first but eventually get it, seems to work out better if you don't see them struggling so you don't worry.

 

[trsturself]

Yes I am reading several threads regarding the horizontal nipples and so far it seems like they don't freeze as long as you have a heater in whatever vessel you are using to hold the water. Also sounds like the chickens waste less water and it doesn't drip, which would be great inside the coop (however we have no room for water in the coop). On the heated water bowl, as I think you have one similar, our roosters and two hens got frost bite on their wattles from drinking out of the heated dog bowl in subzero weather. Rocco's wattles damage is almost half way up his wattles,poor boy. Just something to keep in mind.

Yeah I've seen a couple people have that happen. So far we haven't had any problems but I don't refill their water except in the morning so often times they are out by the time they go to bed. From what I've seen the majority of our birds sleep with their head under their wing also so that might help keep them from freezing.

I had a 5 gal bucket with the vertical nipples and an aquarium heater in my friend's chickens. The heater got unplugged while we were gone and they didn't notice so the whole bucket froze breaking the heater. But even before then I noticed the nipples would freeze too easily even with the heater practically right on top of them in the bucket. Even when they were defrosted, they didn't work very well. I've used the vertical nipples before and outside of dripping while the chickens were drinking from them, I didn't have a problem with them. These ones though never seemed to work right for some reason. I was going to pick up a heated bowl for her chickens today. They need something as the regular bowls freeze too fast.

Holy smokes, that's a lot of chickens!

If I can get some hatching eggs going, you have a deal! I'm running a test hatching on my eggs next month, so I'll definitely be keeping a record of how things go with that here & on my animal blog - http://www.aflockbetweenpastures.com. Right now, the eggs would be Silver Sebright/Golden Laced Polish mix if that's something you'd be interested in.
I've also been thinking about this watering system for the new coops/runs. Is it hard for the chickens to move from a watering dish to nipples or is it pretty easy for them to figure out? I'm definitely installing the PVC style feeders since they look like they produce less wasted food than the store bought feeder I have now.

I've never had a problem with chickens learning how to drink from them. I usually hit it with my finger a couple times and they come over to see what it is. With the vertical ones if you get the water to drip a couple times they'll run over to see what is moving. Taking away any other water is very important. Why would they even care to work at it, if there is easy water right over there. lol

Btw, even our rabbit used to drink out of our pvc/vertical nipple system. So cute to see her stand on her back legs next to a chicken to get a drink.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Thank you both, @COChix & @trsturself! I think I'll definitely implement that watering system for the new coops/runs. I've been having issues with the chickens getting straw & waste in their water now & that nipple set up would cut that out altogether. Which I would like very much.

This week has been kinda a bad one for my recovery & I ended up staying home again today. Between trying to sleep off cognitive fatigue & my brother's puppy Zelda figuring out all the good toys are up here in Toki's toy box, I think I narrowed down the 3 breeds I would like to try & get breeding pens set up for (granted I'm lucky enough to find roosters & hens to purchase). I will have to do another redesign for the coops/runs & try to figure out how to retain the Victorian style feel I want when I can hold a coherent thought longer than 3 minutes, but I'm kinda excited to start this project even if it's not successful. I didn't exactly have a plan for my chicken keeping beyond just having chickens, so it's nice to have a plan & a goal.

Also, my incubator arrived today & now that I'm getting 3 eggs a day all of a sudden, I can't wait to see if I can hatch some next month!

 

[Latestarter]

I use the horizontal nipples located about 2 inches up from the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I LOVE them! I use a submersible heating element that comes on for 40 seconds at a time any time the water temp drops below 40 degrees F. The chickens had no problems figuring the nipples out after switching over from the standard 1 gallon floor type watering system. I HAVE had nipples freeze up at night when the temps were 10-15 below zero. When I feed them in the morning, I just hit a couple with my finger tip to make sure they are working. If they do freeze up, the heat from your fingers will melt the ice and it'll be back to working order in minutes. I've never found them frozen in the evening after I come home from work, no matter what the temp is. I obviously have the bucket lids on and cut a hole through the center for the cord to come out. When the heater isn't installed, I still had several drilled holes through the lids to allow air flow.

I have silly chickens that like to roost on top of the bucket when it's really cold. I guess that warmth is better than being cold up on the roost... It hasn't caused any frost/freeze damage to her comb or wattles from the humidity coming out of the top of the bucket.

Other pullets get up there during the day, and I have roos that like to get on top of them to crow. So I do get poo on the lids, but very little ends up in the bucket.


You can see one of the nipples in this pic. You can also see the holes I drilled in the lid. They got connected into one larger hole so the plug for the heater could fit through. I placed some broken up concrete paver in the bottom under the heat element to keep it off the plastic bottom, and to act as a heat sink to hold the heat a little better than just the water. Hope this helps.

 

[trsturself]

I use the horizontal nipples located about 2 inches up from the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I LOVE them! I use a submersible heating element that comes on for 40 seconds at a time any time the water temp drops below 40 degrees F. The chickens had no problems figuring the nipples out after switching over from the standard 1 gallon floor type watering system. I HAVE had nipples freeze up at night when the temps were 10-15 below zero. When I feed them in the morning, I just hit a couple with my finger tip to make sure they are working. If they do freeze up, the heat from your fingers will melt the ice and it'll be back to working order in minutes. I've never found them frozen in the evening after I come home from work, no matter what the temp is. I obviously have the bucket lids on and cut a hole through the center for the cord to come out. When the heater isn't installed, I still had several drilled holes through the lids to allow air flow.

I have silly chickens that like to roost on top of the bucket when it's really cold. I guess that warmth is better than being cold up on the roost... It hasn't caused any frost/freeze damage to her comb or wattles from the humidity coming out of the top of the bucket.

Other pullets get up there during the day, and I have roos that like to get on top of them to crow. So I do get poo on the lids, but very little ends up in the bucket.


You can see one of the nipples in this pic. You can also see the holes I drilled in the lid. They got connected into one larger hole so the plug for the heater could fit through. I placed some broken up concrete paver in the bottom under the heat element to keep it off the plastic bottom, and to act as a heat sink to hold the heat a little better than just the water. Hope this helps.

That heat sink is a great idea. I definitely want to change to this eventually.

 

[COChix]

I use the horizontal nipples located about 2 inches up from the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I LOVE them! I use a submersible heating element that comes on for 40 seconds at a time any time the water temp drops below 40 degrees F. The chickens had no problems figuring the nipples out after switching over from the standard 1 gallon floor type watering system. I HAVE had nipples freeze up at night when the temps were 10-15 below zero. When I feed them in the morning, I just hit a couple with my finger tip to make sure they are working. If they do freeze up, the heat from your fingers will melt the ice and it'll be back to working order in minutes. I've never found them frozen in the evening after I come home from work, no matter what the temp is. I obviously have the bucket lids on and cut a hole through the center for the cord to come out. When the heater isn't installed, I still had several drilled holes through the lids to allow air flow. I have silly chickens that like to roost on top of the bucket when it's really cold. I guess that warmth is better than being cold up on the roost... It hasn't caused any frost/freeze damage to her comb or wattles from the humidity coming out of the top of the bucket. Other pullets get up there during the day, and I have roos that like to get on top of them to crow. So I do get poo on the lids, but very little ends up in the bucket. You can see one of the nipples in this pic. You can also see the holes I drilled in the lid. They got connected into one larger hole so the plug for the heater could fit through. I placed some broken up concrete paver in the bottom under the heat element to keep it off the plastic bottom, and to act as a heat sink to hold the heat a little better than just the water. Hope this helps.

Thanks Late for jumping in and sharing your set up and the idea about the heat sink, good idea! What heater element did you go with and how much did you pay?

 

[Latestarter]

Hey there @COChix ... The heater that I chose is this one from Tractor Supply: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/allied-precision-sinking-de-icer-1500-w The metal "stand" that comes with it will not fit in the 5 gallon bucket, so I just left it in the box in the garage. Ya never know, I may get livestock at some point and use it in a larger bucket

That's another reason for the concrete is to keep the element off the bottom of the plastic bucket. I'm sure it doesn't get too hot surrounded by only water, but in contact with a surface, it would get hot, maybe even enough to melt the plastic.

Right now I'm running 4 of these heaters in 4 water buckets off one 15 amp circuit on 100' of extension cords with no issues. The plugs are not warm or hot at either end, and neither are the extension cords. and no tripped breaker.

They have other "heated buckets" but I don't think I could cover them and I doubt I could use the nipples in them either... They are really designed more for livestock use than chickens. Oh, and I got the horizontal nipples off Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Horizontal-Side-Mount-Poultry-Chicken-Watering-Nipples-/161294582526

 

[Percheron chick]

Anyone need a goose to train a dog how to behave around chickens? The dog I have now was trained by some mean geese and ducks and he is the absolute best dog around chickens. We could pass her around as the dogs get broke.

http://fortcollins.craigslist.org/grd/4840237817.html

 

[21hens-incharge]

Funny the geese I had of the same breed were super nice with humans. Never had an issue with my dogs either. I had mine for 4 or 5 years before I moved back to town. My gander even stood out in the heavy hail with his wings spread so the ducks could take shelter under them. The hail was way to loud for them in their shelter and it had driven them out.
I really wish I could take her in. Being in town stinks sometimes.