Horizontal Nipple Waterer...opinions please! ☺️

[xXDestinyXx]

We’re trying to decide whether we want to get horizontal nipple waterers to use in a watering system and wanted opinions from those who have or still use them! Thanks in advance!

 

[wamtazlady]

Best waterer that can be found. Water stays clean. To get your chickens to use the nipples you MUST remove all other water sources. In my experience the chickens will be using the nipples within a couple hours. I have been using horizontal nipples for 5 or 6 years.

 

[cluckadoodledoo13]

We’re trying to decide whether we want to get horizontal nipple waterers to use in a watering system and wanted opinions from those who have or still use them! Thanks in advance!

We use them and the chickens love them!

 

[jreardon1918]

Only waterer in our coop. At some point this spring we will af some chicks. When that happened. We will introduce a 2nd feeder and water station. To help with integration. But the water wil be a HN bucket .

 

[DobieLover]

That's what I use. It doesn't hurt to wrap the threads with 2 turns of Teflon pipe tape before insertion. I just bought a pack of nipples and put 5 of them on a 5 gallon food grade bucket that I elevate to chest height on some old landscape blocks I had lying around.

 

[xXDestinyXx]

Thank y’all soooo much for your input!

 

[Buckeye Amy]

How do y'all keep them from freezing in the winter?

 

[wamtazlady]

How do y'all keep them from freezing in the winter?

In winter I use an 11 gallon tote with lid, horizontal nipples, and a 250 watt stock tank deicer that is rated for use in plastic. This has kept the water thawed and available for drinking when the temperatures are in the -20s F. I live in northern Montana.

 

[Acre4Me]

How do y'all keep them from freezing in the winter?

not very well. Actually, our experience here was an abysmal failure. We are west central Ohio, looks like you are north of me, so you can get pretty cold there.

H nipples were ok, but winter came so we used bucket de-icer. First cold morning, bucket in coop ( so water system in a protected Area ), directly plugged in to outlet in coop and water froze. Ok, brand new de-icer didn’t work. Took second brand new de-icer out of box, same problem next morning. Return both de-icers. Next up, brand new bucket heater. Wow! Hot water for the birds - in addition, the cage around the heater was soldered with the wrong metal so the birds had Hot rusty water. They would not drink it hot or rusty. Return bucket heater.

now we use a heated base with the large galvanized double-wall waterer. Not a single issue.

last issue that can occur with horizontal nipples is that birds may not drink enough. We noticed they were not drinking enough (prior to cold issues). Egg production will show this issue quickly as that is the first thing to drop off when they don’t drink enough. So watch for that.

horizontal nipples are greAt for the clean factor, but these didn’t work well for us Overall.

 

[wamtazlady]

I am not sure what kind of heaters you were using. The kind I use turn on when the temperature of the water gets near freezing and turns off when the temperature gets up to 40 degrees. There is no welded cage. I use a stock tank deicer. They are designed to work in the worst of weather as ranchers rely on them to provide water to their animals. My last stock tank deicer lasted 4 years before it needed replaced. It cost about $40.

I have also heard some people say their chickens are not drinking enough. If the chickens are thirsty they will hang around the nipples all day. They will be pecking them constantly. Sometimes people notice that the chickens are not using as much water with nipples as they did with some sort of gravity waterer. They forget a couple things. First, water will evaporate if it is open to the air. Second, the chickens themselves splash water out of the waterer if they can get their beaks or feet into it.

When I had a whole flock of pullets they laid very well all winter. I had 12 birds and got 10 eggs a day all winter long without lights. With older birds it is normal for them to stop laying for part of the winter. They stop laying when they go into their 18 month molt. Also chickens need about 14 hours of daylight to produce eggs. If you do not provide artificial light then you will have a period of no eggs. As the chickens get older the length of time they stop laying seems to increase. This is all normal.