Does anyone water there birds with ONLY THE WATERING NIPPLES ?

[hogdogs87]

I have my chickens on a nipple waterer that it fixed to the bottom of an air tight 2 gallon bucket. (I change the water before the 2 gallons is gone) but every now and then i will give them water in a pan to drink for the day. They have went weeks before with just the bucket waterers. But when i put water in the pan they will get excited and drink alot of it. Do they just like the fact that im out there giving them water in the pan or are they not getting enough from the buckets? I'd like to know if anybody else is watering there chickens strictly on the nipples. Thanks for reading!

 

[Blooie]

I use nipple waterers exclusively for my chickens, from the first day I get them all the way through. I use vertical for little tiny chicks and they graduate to horizontal as they grow and get stronger. I never use an open waterer.

Chickens are funny. You can make sure they have unlimited access to water in any kind of system and they are fine. But the second they see a puddle of water in the lawn or on the sidewalk they act like they haven't seen water in months!! Same with food - plenty of good food available but drop a bread crumb on the ground and they attack it like they're starving!

 

[hogdogs87]

Very true about the bread crumbs. I gwed my chickens good but sometimes i take a couple of slices of bread out to them and they act like they havent ate in a month

 

[MrsBachbach]

I have my chickens on a nipple waterer that it fixed to the bottom of an air tight 2 gallon bucket. (I change the water before the 2 gallons is gone) but every now and then i will give them water in a pan to drink for the day. They have went weeks before with just the bucket waterers. But when i put water in the pan they will get excited and drink alot of it. Do they just like the fact that im out there giving them water in the pan or are they not getting enough from the buckets? I'd like to know if anybody else is watering there chickens strictly on the nipples. Thanks for reading!

I noticed the same when I used the water nipples. The chickens literally stayed by the water bucket and visited it often. They acted like a man dying of thirst when I put a bowl of water out there for them. There were only four chickens sharing a three nipple bucket so there were not too many chickens sharing a bucket. The weather wasn't even terribly hot. I took the buckets out because it was obvious to me the chickens were not getting enough water and the last thing I wanted was a dehydrated bird in the summer time. Dehydration can cause a bunch of problems in your bird, besides the obvious, death.

 

[Blooie]

I've never had an issue with dehydration, even during the hottest months of summer. Mine don't hover around the water bucket, either. They drink heavily in the morning, then wander over periodically during the day to top off.

 

[hogdogs87]

Blooie where are you from? Im just wandering because I'd like to know how hot it gets in the summer there. I'm from Georgia and it gets pretty hot here. But I'd like to keep my chickens on these buckets

 

[song of joy]

I have my chickens on a nipple waterer that it fixed to the bottom of an air tight 2 gallon bucket. (I change the water before the 2 gallons is gone) but every now and then i will give them water in a pan to drink for the day. They have went weeks before with just the bucket waterers. But when i put water in the pan they will get excited and drink alot of it. Do they just like the fact that im out there giving them water in the pan or are they not getting enough from the buckets? I'd like to know if anybody else is watering there chickens strictly on the nipples. Thanks for reading!

The problem is the air tight bucket. A nipple waterer will NOT work if it's set up as an air tight system. There HAS to be a small hole in the bucket or bottle to let air in as water comes out of the nipples. Otherwise, a vacuum is formed and no (or very, very little) water comes out. When the container is first used, water will come out of the nipples OK. But as more water is extracted from the nipples, the vacuum effect gets stronger until eventually little or no water comes out. They're favoring the pans of water because they can't access water from the other system, or they are having to work really hard to get very small amounts of water. Drill a small hole in the top or upper side of the bucket and it should work fine.

 

[Blooie]

Blooie where are you from? Im just wandering because I'd like to know how hot it gets in the summer there. I'm from Georgia and it gets pretty hot here. But I'd like to keep my chickens on these buckets

I'm in a semi-desert in Northern Wyoming. We often see several days in a row with 90 and above. Also being up in a Basin surrounded by mountains, the higher elevation means the sun is more intense. Unlike your humid heat, our heat is very dry, and it dries out everything - skin, hair, plants. I've had plants that looked like they'd been purchased as dried flowers!

 

[hogdogs87]

Sorry about that. I think i probably shouldn't have said "air tight" they are only buckets from the hardware store with "snap on" lids. They are not really air tight. Sorry for the confusion

 

[song of joy]

The snap on lids form a pretty tight seal, so I suspect they're not letting enough air in when the birds drink.