HOW OFTEN DO YOU....

[cajunlizz]

I agree on the gross part .

I would not want to drink water thats been sitting in a plastic container all day . yuck . we fill ours twice a day , and when its really hot I dump butter containers of frozen ice . Cools them off .......

 

[EliteTempleton]

Honestly I am reading these and thinking a lot of fresh water gets wasted daily, what's the point of a huge waterer if you are just going to dump it twice a day? It takes years for nature to purify water and a whole lot of energy for man to mass purify it. Keeping their water fresh is great, but if you are going to change it every 8 hours then why use so much? I mean if your 100 strong flock is sucking it up like walking winged fish then cool but otherwise I don't understand.

I don't change it. Don't panic though, I have one of those galvanized 2.5 gallon waters and I use a simple rule, if I wouldn't consider drinking it(mostly meaning its not clear) then I take it over to the hose and use the high pressure setting to flush out any non water particulates. I also add a Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar 'with mother' per gallon, this prevents algae and other nasties from growing, and helps them absorb nutrients, or so I am told, seems to work though.

I also keep it up on some bricks, its probably 5" off the ground, helps alot with keeping it clean.

I've got 3 Hens(RIR, RSL, and ISA Brown).

I can see attempting to cool it down for them, but why not just rotate out some soda bottles, you know, keep one in the freezer while the other thaws in the waterer? I don't like super cold water on very hot days though, the sudden internal temp change hurts some, cool water or tea is great but not cold, cold feels like a brain freeze for my chest, no thanks.

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I fill all water containers early in the morning , when I feed , by late afternoon , 3/4 of the containers of water are empty . they drink alot of water when temps are in the mid to high 90's . Its very hot here with high humidity , they drink alot . I have 61 head

 

[suebee]

EliteTempleton , good post. I agree to only fill half full so you don't waste the water if you only have a dozen chickens or so.

Wanted to ask, where would someone get vinegar with the mother? I've never found it.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Quote:
Health food stores

 

[suebee]

Quote:
Health food stores

Thank you my friend, hope you're doing OK. Remember you sent me the dog meds? Love ya!

 

[flakey chick]

Quote:
You're not kidding about what they prefer. I don't change their water every day, but I do give them a fresh bottle every day and rotate out old water. It seems they like the older bottle.

I love those pop bottle waters. They stay fairly clean and the girls seem to love them. Even when I give them fresh and try to take the skanky one away, they want to drink out of the older one.

A word of caution, even when the water looks clean, it gets a slimy layer all over the container and it does need to be washed out, not just refilled.

 

[simba49450]

i have 3 buff orps and they have a gallon waterer that i change every other day unless its hot or if its gets dirty. if my girls see a little dirt in thier water basin they let me know that they want that icky stuff out of there. they are picky let me tell you, and i mean any little dirt on the bottom. they fuss until i change it,talk about fussy

 

[suebee]

 

[EliteTempleton]

Quote:
Thanks.

I got mine at a local farmers market. Though this particular farmers market is more store like than one pictures when they think farmers market. To get an idea here is a link: http://www.shophorrocks.com/

I mostly go there because I go by it on my way to/from work and it only like a mile or less from my house. So it's an easy bike ride on a day that I have time to do so.

You might be able to ask a smaller scale store to order some for you, typically the type of grocers that the owner spends most of their day at will bend over backward to find products you want.

If all else fails though I did find it on Amazon. For $1.91.