drowning question

[kristip]

How old should the chicks be for me to be able to remove the rocks from the waterer, that they will nor drown?

I have the jar that attaches to the base kind, and have little gravel in their to prevent drowning. they are a week old now, but wanted to find out how long I should go with this.

thanks...

I should add this is a small quart waterer since there are only 2 chicks in the brooder

 

[RAWR]

We usually take the rocks out when they're starting to feather out

 

[Katy]

I've been raising chickens for a very long time and honestly I've never put rocks in the waterer and I've never had a chick drown.

 

[greenriver]

I use marbles with small fonts. It may not be necessary for the larger breeds but it is a good practice.

 

[tarragon]

May I ask how do the marbles/rocks keep them from drowning? How much of a drowning risk is there? Do they just fall in beak first and can't get up? I've seen the advice about rocks, but never having raised chicks before I am trying to picture what the issue is all about.

 

[caspernc]

Most of the issue is when someone puts a bowel of water in with small chicks. Yep they will drown in a bowel of water.

 

[key west chick]

Ive never put rocks or marbles in my chicks water. Ive never had one drown. I use the little screw on plastic waterers from the feed store. The bottoms come in lots of colors. So I guess it just comes down to what kind you use.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I had a bantam drown in a quail waterer last night. I hadn't gotten the rocks put in yet when it happened.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
I always use marbles for the first week. Chicks tend to go to sleep when they want to- and it's not unusual to find them flat on their faces wherever they were standing. By one week they are much more coordinated.

 

[chkinut]

i use to put marbles in the water, afraid they would drown. but i don't do it anymore and they've been just fine. although this past time i DID put marbles in the water only to encourage them to peck at the water so they would know that's where the water was. after i got my shipment of chicks, i dipped each chicks' beak into the water to show them, but for hours later, none of them went back to the water....then, after i put something shiny in it, they were interested and pecked the marbles, hence learning "hey, there's water in here"...lol....silly chicks!