Help with nipples, please!

[ninabeast]

Now that I have your attention...

Twelve 4-week old chicks, coop almost ready, planning to get them out there (with supplemental heat) next weekend, and not a moment too soon. Never again will I brood in the house. ANYWAY.

I would like to create a nipple watering system, preferably one where the water is topped up from outside the coop. I love the idea of nipple waterers (cold winters notwithstanding...I'll figure that out later), but have read much here about screw in nipples that leak. That sounds very frustrating.

In searching ebay for nipples this morning, I came across a design I hadn't seen before (and I've been practically living on this site for the last 6 weeks). The nipple wraps around a pre-drilled hose, which I would feed through a small hole in the coop wall, and attach to the bottom of an elevated 5-gallon bucket inside the barn but outside the coop. I'm attaching a picture.

What do you think? Anyone have any experience with this design? It looks great, in theory, and, honestly, the little drip catcher is just too much.

Anyone?

 

[cackydoodledoo]

I bought my nipples from Neil Grassbaugh. He is a BYCer. They are the screw in type and as long as you drill the right size hole to put them in they don't leak. The waterers are amazingly easy to make. I think you can also put some teflon tape on the threads if you want and are worried about leakage. Neil may even sell the type you have shown. He is really pleasant to work with and helpful. He will more than likely respond when he sees this thread. HTH

 

[jmagill]

The drip catchers work fine. They are just more stuff in the way if you don't have a huge coop.

 

[colebarnhart]

I had a hard time drilling the right size hole and mine leaked, however, I put a small ring of mighty putty, or wal-marts version of it and it's in the paint section by the glue and it's blue and white, not green and grey, but really much better than mighty putty. Anyway, problem solved and no leaks, no drip cup needed and the chickens love them. I'm at work right now, otherwise I would post some pics for you.

For me having constantly clean water for the chix and less mess and less things/stuff to clean is what I wanted. The drip cup design seems to increase the amount of "things/stuff to clean", so it's better than the dirty bucket type H2O systems, however, I would go without the drip cup, but that's just me.

 

[cackydoodledoo]

Quote:
I agree! We use these systems to cut down on our amount of work and cleaning drip cups is one more thing. Not sure why they even have those because it's certainly not going to hurt if the water drips to the ground!

 

[ninabeast]

Oh, I'm way sold on the idea of nipples, although I haven't quite figured out the winter thing yet.

I was specifically interested in the difference between this system (where the nipples clamp around a length of hose) and the kind that screw into PVC pipes/buckets. Has anyone seen these before?

 

[cackydoodledoo]

I have the ones that screw into the buckets. I have not used them in winter yet but someone told me you could use a fish tank heater in the bucket to keep water from freezing. That is what I will do I think and if it doesn't I will just have to figure something else out!!!

 

[jmagill]

I use aquarium heaters ( two winters now)/ They work great to about zero degrees for me. I just have the 25 watt ones so you could go with a more watts if you need something at that temp quite a bit.

 

[colebarnhart]

Quote:
I haven't seen that type before. I ordered mine thru Farmtek.com and have seen the same ones I used listed on ebay for the same price which was about $24/doz. I do remember seeing the drip cup ones for sale at Farmtek, but didn't see the pictures of them and remember that they were more expensive. Not sure if they were the clamp style or not. However, if you decide to use a hose instead of the hard PVC plastic then that style in the pic you posted might work out for you, and you could easily remove the drip cup and get the same effect without having to drill, as well as, wrap the hose in the winter with an elec. pipe warmer cord. When the time comes, I think I'm going to use the aquarium heater, sounds really good. Thanks BYC people for all your great ideas, I would be lost without you.....

 

[colebarnhart]

Not sure if this link will post correctly, however, it's farmtek.com then on the left click "poultry equipment" and go from there. Hope this helps

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1;ft1_poultry_equipment;ft1_poultry_watering_systems.html