How do you keep the dang water from spilling everywhere???!!!???!!!

[hatchaholic]

Okay, I give up. I know that chicks are messy with the water, but this is ridiculous!! This batch of chicks somehow manages to spill the entire waterer every single day. I'm tired of changing pine shavings daily. I've tried putting different things in the bottom of the brooder to set the waterer on to give it a little height and stability. But, so far, nothing has really worked.

So, do ya'll have this same problem? How do you fix it???

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

I have heard of people putting rocks(cleaned) in the water dish to hold it down ....

 

[BeckyLa]

It would help to know what kind of waterer. If it's one of those plastic chick waterers with the plastic jar, it's so light it goes over easily. If that is what you have, try screwing the pan part onto a mason jar. This makes it heavier and harder to knock over. I get most of my mason jars from buying Classico spaghetti sauce.

If making it heavier doesn't work, try taping a small funnel to the top, they may be flying up onto the top and knocking it over that way.

 

[hatchaholic]

Quote:
Sorry, yeah, it is one of those little plastic ones. This is my 4th hatch and these have been by far the worst for spilling the water. They are driving me crazy!!

I think I do have a mason jar in there somewhere. I'm gonna try that to see if it helps. Thanks!

 

[EllyMae]

I never had a problem using the mason jars with the chicks. Sounds like you might have found a solution.

 

[hatchaholic]

I just found a mason jar, even though it's a smaller one, and switched it out with the plastic one. Hopefully, that will do the trick. I never even thought of using a mason jar. Duh!!

 

[EllyMae]

How can you be from the South and not think about a mason jar??? Those things get used a lot around here, and not just for chickens

Kidding....sorta....

 

[hatchaholic]

Yeah, I deserve that one. I don't know what I was thinking, or not thinking in this case.

 

[Akane]

A water bottle. I finally got fed up with it and put in a water bottle next to the waterer. By the time I got the camera out the chicks were drinking from it. Even my button quail chicks figured out the little water bottle within 24hrs. The problem is they are too tiny to push the ball on even the smallest of the hamster bottles.

Not a problem with chicks. My solution until then was to set the waterer up on a brick in the brooder. That worked fine for previous hatches but since I hatched the last batch late I kept them inside until they were beyond fully feathered. They started to get quite wild and were large enough to knock the whole thing off the brick.

 

[chickiebaby]

You can even put rocks in the mason jar itself. Wont stop the water, but willhod the darned thing steady. (rocks only in a layer on the bottom, so it won't topple and hurt the lil ones.)