Easy, clean waterer ideas

[Sassysouth]

I tried the cups and the chickens keep dirt thrown up in them. I tried the nipple drippers and they leaked like crazy. I am back to using the standard 1 gallon Harris Farm drinker, which stays dirty. There has got to be some great ideas and inventions out there. Help a chicken momma out.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I use rubber hog feed pans and keep my hose close by. Maybe try putting the cup drinker up a bit higher. It can be as high as the back of your shortest bird.

 

[Goosegrrl]

Which nipples did you use... horizontal or vertical.
IMO the vertical nipples are awful. The horizontal nipples with no cups are much better.

 

[Sassysouth]

Vertical. I have my waterer hanging pretty high up too. They just sling alot of dirt I guess.

 

[wamtazlady]

I love the horizontal nipples. Their water is always nice and clean. Made and gifted 2 waterers just like mine to 2 neighbors as they loved mine.

 

[Goosegrrl]

I meant that the vertical nipples were bad re: the leaking. I never had any problem with them getting particularly dirty, but leaks... yeah. Also made bucket scrubbing chores ridiculous as I couldn't set the buckets down for bleaching/good scrubbing. Here in FL the months of high heat means slime in buckets even of there isn't any algae. Easy cleanup is mandatory. I've never had a problem with leaks using the Horizontal nipples, even with scrubbing.

 

[azygous]

Vertical nipples shouldn't leak unless the pins somehow get jammed. With all nipples, chickens dribble water since they lack drinking manners, no matter how many times I try to school them not to leave puddles all over the ground.

The issues can extend to more than just mess. Frostbite from water falling on feet is a real winter danger with these devices. So I've come up with a simple way to prevent this. I've attached plastic ice cube trays about ten inches below the nipples to catch the drip. It's solved all my problems. The chickens keep the drip trays pretty well emptied by drinking from them, too.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I love the horizontal water nipples! Got them attached to a plastic wide mouth container (w/lid)

so I can get my hand in there to clean & elevated it (milk container filled with gravel. I drilled a hole close to the rim to prevent vacuum, which I didn't think about when I first used it. Then one day I noticed the water not coming out, duh...

 

[TinyBirds]

I use one of the metal dog auto-waterers from tractor supply. It attaches to the hose and then I just dump it out every day to keep it clean. It doesn't work with small chicks though since they would drown so if they are still not adult size I put some rocks inside to keep the water from being too deep.

 

[Tillicans]

Depends how many chickens are going to be drinking I guess. I have the normal tub and I re-fill it daily, I think clean water is important. I have also got it on a stand and no dirt gets in.