How to teach chickens to use nipple waterer?

[ChickenGirl555]

We are thinking about using nipple waterers with a heater for this Winter, but how do you teach a chicken to use one? A full grown chicken that is used to the standard waterers?

 

[ChickNanny13]

Patience ... Which are you looking at, horizontal or vertical?
I switched to the horizontal ... Stick your finger under the silver lever until the water drips out into the "cup". They'll get curious & check it out. If you can get one going the rest will copy. Some say to remove the regular waterer, some prefer not to.

Main thing is to monitor, you could remove in the mornings & for peace of mind put the regular on in at night?

I only have 4BO so I use a hard plastic gallon container, drilled a small hole about an inch below the rim, recommended 1 nipple/4 chickens (I installed 2), I mark the level of the water (monitor), test the nipples every time I change out water. For some reason when I change the water they are waiting for me to "test" the nipples & drink what comes out. I know they're drinking on their own as the water level goes down.

 

[PachecoPeeps]

As stated above I would sit out with them and push the nipples so water drips out and they will usually get curious enough to come peck at it. Once one of them gets it the rest will.

 

[ShellyBlanco]

New to chickens myself. We use buckets with the nipple fill cups for some and bottle waterers like you would use for rabbits on the small chicks up to 8 weeks old. It's like, monkey see monkey do. If one figures it out, they all do.

 

[Criticalicious]

Mine grew up with the nipples and now an open pan of water sort of confuses them.

 

[aart]

Question: Do those of you who use nipple waterers in winter only use them inside? I'm talking temperatures that regularly may be in the single digits to below 0 F

Mine is in the coop, so blocked from wind but temps inside coop are generally the same as outside, it has worked down to -12°F(temp measured in coop).
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-heated-waterer-with-horizontal-nipples.67256/

 

[blackdog043]

I'm guessing your gonna use horizontal nipples, vertical nipples will freeze. I don't know what your thinking of using for a heater, but I recommend a 250 watt stock tank deicer. Just put the waterer out there, with the nipples at back height. Tap the rod a few times with them watching. After one or two use it they will all start using it. Below are pics of what I did to run the deicer cord through the lid, using a computer grommet and rubber grommet, that I got at Lowes. Drill a two inch hole for the computer grommet(it's 2 pcs) to go into, slice the rubber grommet so it will go around the cord.

 

[wamtazlady]

You don't teach them. They are attracted to the color red and the shiny silver thing. They will peck at it to see what it is. As soon as one gets water, within an hour they all have learned. The key is to remove all the other water sources. If you do not do that they will not learn. The neighbors on either side of me also had free ranging chickens. Even those chickens learned to use the nipples rather than go home for a drink.

 

[Scott_D]

I literally did nothing but put them out. Within minutes one used it. The others saw and followed suit. Of course they still much prefer the puddle that they've pooped in.

 

[blackdog043]

So many people use nipples for their chickens, so I'm sure this probably isn't a big deal. But it's a consistent observation on how my chickens consume water, and I just wonder if I would be disrupting an organic process for them.

If they didn't work good and give chickens the water they need, there wouldn't be many people using them or recommending them and we'd have dead or dehydrated chickens, from not enough water.

Word of mouth is always the best advertisement for a product weather it works or not. You won't find many people giving rave reviews for vertical nipples because they don't work as well(tend to drip) and they will freeze in cold climates, unlike the horizontal nipples, that don't have these problems.