How to keep shavings out of waterer

[Dutch552]

I have some week-old chicks in my stock tank brooder and I can't keep the shavings out of the waterer-1 gallon round standard type. What can I put under it to help keep them from kicking shavings into their water?

 

[gale65]

At one week we put the waterer on some bricks.

 

[seminolewind]

If I can't raise it up on something, I put a papertowel around the waterer. It helps.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I did try both of those suggestions in my brooder and still found shavings in my waterer. Another suggestion I saw was to put larger pellets rather than shavings in the brooder b/c they couldn't move the pellets as easily - but I didn't try that b/c I already had an abundance of shavings on hand. I also got the suggestion of putting hanging waterers inside the brooder low enough so they could drink that were attached to the wall. I didn't try that either as mine is plastic tub and I didn't want to put holes in it to hang anything - but that option sounded like a good one and if I wasn't going to repurpose the tub I would have tried this one. I have the coop waterer hanging from the ceiling and I noticed last night that it has a little bit of shavings in it - so I will attempt to raise it up a little for my 4wk olds to see if that helps. However I think it's going to be a constant as long as shavings are on the floor.

Hope you find a solution. I just empty their water dish twice a day and any time I notice it full of shavings - of course they're in my living room so that helps me notice it better.

 

[chickenbythesea]

even as 9 weekers and having our waterer up on bricks, there's still shavings in the waterer.... they just really love scratching and kicking the stuff everywhere. I just try to keep it cleaned out every time I check on them.... usually there's a side that doesn't have as much so I know they are still able to get water. Also, this is why we're going to make a pvc waterer to hand on the wall of the coop so that they can't tip it or get shavings in it.