How long before baby chicks drink from handy dandy nipple things?

[bigoledude]

I am gonna set up my brooder in the same coop that the chicks will live in for the rest of their lives. There will be a partition that I can slide further and further as they require more room as they grow. The coop will have a really nice set-up with the watering nipples and PVC pipe

Many people write about putting rocks or marbles in the waterer so the chicks don't drown. I'm thinking that most folks are using the old inverted jug-n-bowl rig to provide water to their bitties. I remember, as a kid, watching baby chicks pecking at EVERYTHING. It seems, to me, that they should find the nipples pretty quickly. Would they? Or, how old should they be before we can rely on them to get adequate water from the nipple doohicky?

 

[debid]

There was someone on this board fairly recently who started chicks on nipples without a problem. I'm planning to do the same when mine get here. I figure that the chicks have to learn to drink either way so it shouldn't be any big deal to show them a nipple rather than a dish. And, of course, the silver tip will surely be appealing to them.

 

[featherz]

I put a nipple waterer in the brooder and the chicks start using it right out of the incubator. No issues at all, just make sure it's the right height and close enough so they don't have to walk too far.

(this is a homemade model, using the nipples purchased from qcsupply)

 

[gryeyes]

Chicks use nipple waterers very readily. They learn quicker than adult birds, who often take as much as 20 minutes to learn how to use 'em.

 

[HEChicken]

My first set of chicks drank out of rabbit waterers. With any waterer - whether rabbit, nipple or traditional bowl, you need to teach them how to get water that way. With the bowl, I dip their beaks several times so they know that's where the water is. With the rabbit waterer, we held them and the bottle, and forced their beak against the ball until they got a drop of water on their beaks. Once they understood how to get water, they helped themselves from then on. I would imagine you'd need to do the same with the nipple waterer to get them started.