Dirt in water

[3KillerBs]

How high off the ground are the cups?

When I have open waterers for chicks who haven't learned to use the nipples yet, I put it up at the level of their backs then put a paver or some such thing down to reduce the amount of dirt and bedding they can get into it.

 

[FunClucks]

Horizontal nipples might be a good alternative. Avoid standing water and dirt in it.

 

[McChooky]

Chickens prefer taking a big drink of water so I use a regular chicken waterer on a block.The cups are great if you can keep them clean. Mine used to fight over the cups when they came out of the coop in the morning. Drip waterers (nipples) are like soaker hoses.They only put out a dribble at a time so they were the least desirable option (for me).

 

[gtaus]

Not to be argumentative, but house fly maggots just need moist chicken poop to develop. Mosquitoes need standing water to hatch.

Sounds like a good reason to use dry deep bedding in the coop. The chicken poo will drop on the bedding, dry up, and automagically disappear into the litter. No moist chicken poop for the fly maggots to develop. I don't use poop boards under the roost, probably another good reason not to use a poop board given your example.

Flushing out the chicken water cup would have the water spilling over onto the ground, where it would be soaked up by the soil, and dry out. No standing water for mosquitoes to hatch.

I just don't see where your concern lies with cleaning out these drinking cups. But I see you live in Hawaii and I live in northern Minnesota, so our experiences may be totally different. I suppose OP living in Utah can figure out what works best for that location. I think we both agree that standing water and/or moist chicken poo sitting around the coop/run is not a good thing.

 

[Jeri B]

…You don't really care if the overflow dumps on the ground.

I do care if water dumps on the ground. We are having severe water shortages in my area in Italy. Water dumped on the ground in the chicken pen serves no purpose. I collect the warm “dirty” water daily when I give the girls fresh cool water. The collected water goes on the garden. The garden also gets water from the kitchen from rinsing vegetables and washing up. The garden gets no water from my well or our neighborhood spring which is dangerously low.

 

[gtaus]

I do care if water dumps on the ground. We are having severe water shortages in my area in Italy. Water dumped on the ground in the chicken pen serves no purpose. I collect the warm “dirty” water daily when I give the girls fresh cool water. The collected water goes on the garden. The garden also gets water from the kitchen from rinsing vegetables and washing up. The garden gets no water from my well or our neighborhood spring which is dangerously low.

Understand. I lived in Naples, Italy for 2 years back in the 1990's. Water was precious, and not always available out of the faucet. We had to buy bottled water for everything short of the bathroom needs. And I remember days when there was no water at all out of the faucet. It seems like a lifetime ago, but I still remember those days.

That is probably why I now live on a lake, have my own well water, and never have to worry about a water shortage again in my lifetime. Perhaps I should think of others who have to ration their water. It's hard for me to think about flushing out a tiny chicken drinking cup matters when I can run my lawn and garden sprinklers all day long and never worry about anything. I did not mean to offend. And I truly understand how valuable water is when you have to conserve every tiny bit you can.

It's great to hear from someone in Italy. I would suggest you update your member icon with your geographic location. It's always interesting to see where people live and how they have to manage their backyard flock.

I know some of our southern states have a terrible drought going on and their water supply is at record low levels never seen before. It might be great to see a thread on ways to reduce water use, in general, and more specifically with their backyard flock. Your examples of using collected water from cleaning out the chicken waterers, and from washing food in the kitchen, are some great examples of how to make a good second use of water and not waste it by putting it down the drain.

 

[raingarden]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...become-water-efficient.1533591/#post-25860227

We're having a drought too and the ducks are starting to complain.