Does anyone use the tube water cup waterer from Beaktime?

[Nslangton]

I love the tube cup waterer for sale on Beaktime. The self contained tube style one that is not automatic. It would require manual filling. Does anyone use these? Any problems with leaking. I would need two of them and hope for some reviews before I made a $70 purchase. I am already seriously over budget on my coop. Thanks

 

[kengland]

I have both the waterer and feeder. The waterer does not leak but is not effective with my 2 week old chicks. They love to drink from it, but cannot push the valve down to refill (I'm doing the refill). I would be interested to here what others say. Do you have to have full grown hens for these to work?

 

[SweetSarah]

These cups are for mid - full grown chickens and regulate by their drinking so there is no excess water to spill or evaporate.


These cups work well for younger chicks because they are always full to the brim so they can easy drink with no effort.

 

[kengland]

At what age approx can they begin to use the cup with the push valve? I have 4 and 1/2 week olds and they seem to prefer the push valve cup, but I can't tell if they're getting enough water. There is always about one drink in the bottom of the cup. The bird goes down for the drink and sometimes it refills and sometimes it doesn't.

Anyone have any experience with this type of cup that they can share?

Thank you!

 

[Kate1]

That is an interesting gadget. I need to locate one and check it out. I read on one of the chicken sites that someone was giving his hens water from a half gallon rabbit water bottle. I was changing the water all day long to clear the poop so when my chicks hit three weeks old I bought the water bottle from Petsmart. It took me a bit to figure out how to create a vacuum so it would not leak and absolutely no training time for the chicks to figure how to use it. Clean water! Does your little bowl system keep chicks from jumping on the bowl and fouling the water? What is the set-up for holding the water that supplies the bowl?
Kate

 

[kengland]

Hi Kate,

Yeah...if used by the hens effectively, it's a very nice solution to a messy problem. The holding tank is basically a 6" round PVC drain pipe. The cup has been glue in (a hole was drilled into the tube and the cup glued in). The cup is so small that the hens can't get on top of it. When I first introduced the waterer, my the pullets were 2 weeks old. Their beaks were too small and their necks too weak. I reintroduced it two weeks later and most seem to get it, and I think it's working out. My concern is that there is literally only one drink in the cup at a given time. If the drink is used and the bird that gets it doesn't move the valve, the only hope for more water is that a bird shows up that eventually pushes the valve aside.

I'm curious if others have experience with these and how young the pullets were when the started using it?

 

[Nslangton]

I still like the design of the waterer, but I haven't heard a lot of positives. My chicks are only 5 weeks old and I was concerned that they were too small to push the valve. I still might order one to use when the chicks are older. For now we made our own with a mini cup drinker. It has a valve and the cup is always full and there is no valve that the chicks have to push. We are still looking for another container that will fit nicely in our coop and have space to have two or more self filling cups attached. This took about 10 seconds to make and has been working great so far.

 

[kengland]

Update:

The waterer is great. No mess whatsoever. Saves a lot of space. I also appreciate the large capacity. The feeder on the other hand is not effective. There really isn't enough "lip" at the base. As a result, the food is thrown everywhere. Lots of waste. The problem is that the feeder tray is made of a plastic 4X4 end cap. I saw a design that used a round end cap. This makes much more sense because it provides a 2" lip that keep the feed in. I've popped the old one off and plan on buying a round cap. Will let you know how it turns out.

I can't get a perspective on the size of your waterer but it looks great! How tall and how wide is it.

 

[onafixedincome]

Ooh, I like that bin waterer! I want to make one, right now, for my goofball dogs and cats who think that water isn't drinkable unless you walk through it first!

Plans, please?

 

[Nslangton]

Ooh, I like that bin waterer! I want to make one, right now, for my goofball dogs and cats who think that water isn't drinkable unless you walk through it first!

Plans, please?

I used a 2 1/2 gallon rubbermaid container. I bought the mini cup waterer from Fleming Outdoors. It was $11. The installation takes no time at all. You need to drill a 1/2" hole, insert the cup and attach to the bucket. Any bucket can be used as long as you can fit your hand inside the container to tighten. There is a quick video on the Fleming Outdoors site that shows how works. The water level on top of the cup has to be under 18" though. A standard 5 gallon jug will work fine. It is super easy to install and I haven't had any problems with leaks etc.