I am the proud owner of 4 chicks for two weeks now. They are GROWING like weeds.. But, the water holder is always full of pine shaving! I elevated the holder off the ground by placing it on a plate, but its still full of shavings, I guess cause the chicks run around and kick up the shavings. Should I get a waterer that I can hang from above and would this keep it clean?
First, change the water regularly. Once a day is pretty good, more than every 2 days is not acceptable. That gives bad stuff time to grow in there. How often depends on how bad it gets. I often do twice a day. Yes, they scratch a lot and are pretty powerful scratchers. Raising it up to their shoulder height is a good way to reduce the problem but you can go further. I don’t like hanging the waterer. If it sways it can leak water. It has to remain level if it is one of those vacuum waterers. Something else you can do is put a platform around your waterer. Raise the platform a few inches above your bedding and put your waterer on that, raised even more. They can stand on the platform and reach up to get the water. At two weeks old, yours should have no problem getting up on a platform. Just try to keep the worst of the shavings swept off that platform. Pretty soon yours may try perching on top of the waterer. If they don’t knock it over, they’ll perch up there and poop in the water. To avoid that you can hang something over the waterer that they can’t perch on and keeps them off the top of the waterer. A plastic milk jug with a bit of sand or dirt in it works pretty well. The dirt is to keep the wind form blowing it around if it is where the wind can hit it.
Thanks for both suggestions. We are really enjoying the chicks, its fun watching them rush around their box.
Our family is in the same boat with our first batch of chicks ever. We got 5 chicks 2 weeks ago and have pine shavings for bedding. Week 1 - the water got mucked up a little with pine shavings. Week 2 - it is really bad and I'm afraid they won't have access to their water even though I clean it twice per day. Chicken nipples were recommended by some friends. I just ordered this which attaches to a Rubbermaid or Igloo cooler. I'm hoping this should do the trick. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009IXBDT2/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I am also have a similar problem with the food tray getting pine shavings. I have a trough type with about a dozen holes but they still manage to make it filthy. It seems like I'm dumping lots of feed it the garbage because the shavings are mixed in so much. I was going to get a hanging feeder in another month when I'm getting ready to move them outside but I may get that sooner or try to raise the feeder to cut down on shavings in their food. Our family is really enjoying these new additions to our household. They are growing tremendously fast. The fuzz is half gone and lots of feathers are coming in underneath. We can't wait for eggs this summer.
I have a half dozen 2 weekers (my first chicks) too, and same issues with them filling the food and water with wood chips. I've been putting in less food, more often. That way when I do need to dump it, there's less food wasted.
Buy a small hanging watered. I use them for chicks and adult chickens. Keeps the water free of mud and shavings.
Nipple waterers 100%. I prefer the horizontal nipples because they don't leak or drip. The vertical nipples are more readily available if you want to go that route. I stopped using the vertical nipples because too much water was ending up in the bedding. Either way, it's better than dumping out icky regular chick drinkers all the time.
