How much water do chickens drink daily from chicken nipples?

[Jetpad]

The statistics that I've found on adult chickens say they drink as much as 2 cups of water each day. For everyone that uses chickens nipples to water their chickens, how much water do your chickens drink on hot days? I'm guessing since the chickens nipples are so much more efficient with the water, that it'll be less but how much less?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I can't help since I have 55 gallon drums providing my systems and the numbers of birds in each building is always changing but it is more efficient since I don't have to spend the time changing and cleaning water founts. It also saves water.
One caveat is that you can't put probiotics or vitamins in one of those systems but the water is clean and constantly available as long as you check daily that they're working.

 

[Jetpad]

I can't help since I have 55 gallon drums providing my systems and the numbers of birds in each building is always changing but it is more efficient since I don't have to spend the time changing and cleaning water founts. It also saves water.
One caveat is that you can't put probiotics or vitamins in one of those systems but the water is clean and constantly available as long as you check daily that they're working.

What's the reason you can't probiotics or vitamins in it?

 

[pdirt]

The statistics that I've found on adult chickens say they drink as much as 2 cups of water each day. For everyone that uses chickens nipples to water their chickens, how much water do your chickens drink on hot days? I'm guessing since the chickens nipples are so much more efficient with the water, that it'll be less but how much less? 

My experience is the vertical nipples waste a lot of water. As each bird drinks, they dribble quite a bit onto the ground. The horizontal nipples don't have this dribbling issue.

But in terms of water efficiency...in terms of how often I have to go out and refill the waterers...both styles of nipples win hands down over a waterer that gets dirty daily and requires frequent cleaning out.

But to answer your question, I don't know. I have 3 nipple waterers (2 horizontal, 1 vertical) to feed 30 chickens, plus they drink from a pond during free range time, so it's hard to gauge how much they would actually use from just the waterers. I refill the horizontal ones about every 7-12 days and the vertical one every 2-3 days.

 

[Jetpad]

The reason I asked is because I'm setting up a chicken nipple system for 6 chickens that has a 15 gallon tank. If they are each drinking 2 cups a day, it should last about 20 days but I'm wondering how long it'll really last.