How did you train your chickens to use the nipple waterer?

[wally escondido]

No no, thank you for your enthusiastic and reassuring response. I'll give it a go, definitely, but believe it's imperative to understand and be able to recognise any signs that a bird may be dehydrated. I'll keep looking around and'll share what I find, if anything.

Cheers.

 

[buckbye]

They'll figure it out. If my guinea-idiots figured out nipple waterers, anything can.

 

[wally escondido]

Well they figured it out alright! Hanging above their water dish since the ladies were first introduced, we've had a lidded bucket with three water nipples in the bottom. I've kept fresh water in it the whole time, and noticed the wet heads on Tanikwa, a darling Silkie in the prime of her youth, and Bruce, a juvenile RIR, most mornings. Never though have any of the birds been seen drinking from the nipples. Why would anybody go to the tap when there's a glass of water on the bench eh?

Last night after curfew, the water dish was removed. This morning instead of going straight out with their breaky, I delayed an hour or so then went out empty handed and headed straight for the nipples. The ladies'll normally jump me for their breakfast, which encouraged their interest as my hands reached towards the nipples. Giving them an enticing flick, the ladies spotted the drops and sipped a few as they fell from my fingers. Our Light Sussex, Schnitzel, who with her enormous persuasion towards all things consumable, could take no more.
"Bugger that," she said, "I'll wet my own whistle, thank you very much," as she went for the second nipple.

***** Hen, a suspect mongrel RIR, followed soon after towards the third nipple, but in a bold display of superiority, was shoved out the way by Tanikwa. From there I stepped away to allow Bruce and ***** Hen to go tags on the original tweaked nipple. The birds took their fill until all thirst was quenched, then simultaneously turned to me and with an intolerant look said, "Well duh! We're chickens, of course we know how to drink from these things!"

These gals hadn't any issue with drinking from the nipples. They may well have known about them all along but while there was a dish full of water, saw no need to use them. I have been getting a bit over the positioning of the bucket in the pen, so today made a new 7.5 litre water feeder out of some 100mm UPVC tubing and mounted it off of one of the roof support posts. This allowed me to fine tune the height so that Tanikwa can still reach the nipples comfortably, and the other ladies don't have to twist and stoop to take their sips.

Job jobbed; more floor space in the pen, no more soiled water dish, a reliable water source for the gals, and almost zero water wastage.