Hi @katieuppi
and welcome to BYC!
I tried this just recently because I had four chicks I was raising and this is the first time I had to try it out. I did not try and use it until the chicks were about 4 weeks old. I think that's actually a little early and if I was going to do it again I might wait a bit longer... nevertheless I was successful, but only because I watched very carefully and made absolutely sure they were all using it. It turned out that the two biggest strongest chicks picked it up almost right away, from watching me push it with my finger. I made sure there was a tiny amount of water in that little bitty cup and they were both able to do it the first day and never looked back.
The other two took about a week longer before I was certain that they could do it right. In the interim I went out there with them once an hour, and pushed the valve for them which puts a little water in the cup. They got so that they ran up to my finger the second they saw me do it, and drank each time. After the first couple days I only went out every two or three hours, and then by the end I was just doing it in the morning and at night. By then I was certain they were OK.
I do think though that I should have waited and next time I will. I have to say it was really wonderful when they were able to use the valve because all at once the water was always clean! I brood my chicks in a dog crate out on the enclosed porch, with the valve I could set it outside the crate and they had lots more room to run around. It was easy for them to reach through the bars of the crate to get to the nipple.
Hope this helps and best of luck with your chickens!
