Not dumb my guess is they are used to some sort of dish type waterier. You need nipples that don't leak so they don't have that puddle.Okay, I must have dumb chickens. They simply cannot seem to figure out the whole chicken nipple thing. I tap the nipple and they come running and then just try and drink water off the dirt floor of the coop, never seem to think about looking up to see where the water is coming from. I'm thinking of super-gluing some ribbon to hang down to get their attention.