is it ok for chickens to drink rain water? (not gray water)

[Sissy]

I have and still do add ACV apple cider vinegar.
1 tablesp. to a gal. of water.( Rain water if I have it.) for the chix.

I take a teasp. in 4oz, sweet juice each day
its good for the joints.
I also use it in a spray bottle for house hold use
cleaning the counters etc,Great disinfectant.and windows..
just dont add too much as to smell up the house.
a little goes a long way.

 

[dirtsaver]

Quote:
Yes, I saw the "don't bother responding.........", but I have say that's fine for city folks. Many rural residents still have cisterns or rain barrel collection systems for ALL their water supply. No "city water" is available in many parts of our "civilized" USA! The critters get the same rain water we do.

Larry

 

[txchickie]

Quote:
Yeah, 'don't bother responding' because you can't back this one up

There is NOTHING wrong with giving collected rainwater to your birds. We have a cistern and a water well, no chlorinated city water for us. No illnesses or sick animals here.
You would also hate to hear that our horses and cattle drink out of a stock tank. One with a mud bottom, fish, and snakes and their poop in it.

 

[Opa]

Yep, you can have your "city water". I have a well that I have had tested to make sure there is nothing harmful. It has a minimal amount of calcium, no iron or sulfur, and absolutely no odor or taste. My son and I have made several trips to norther Quebec caribou hunting and due to the remote location the drinking water comes from the lake or stream we are hunting near. All of our city water drinking fellow hunters always have a reaction to the water yet David and I never have. I'm convinced that the chlorine in city water kills the good bacteria necessary for healthy digestion. Plus I detest the bleach smell and taste of city water, and if that was bad enough, it makes a poor pot of coffee.

 

[Dogfish]

I have a gutter that will supply my watering bucket once I hook it up this weekend. I used drain tile cloth as a filter, and the water bucket is covered. If you are concerned with bacteria, add a few drops of bleach to the bucket and wash it out on a regular basis.

If chickens can crap in their water, drink it, and survive, surely rainwater can't be an issue.

 

[Warthog]

My chicks get our well water, we are just starting to collect rain water, (just waiting for the rain pleeeease) and then they will also get rainwater, we have no city water either.

As another poster said, my chicks would rather drink water from dirty puddles than anything else!!!!

All my animals dogs, cats, goats, get well and rainwater and are all perfectly healthy.

 

[patnjess]

Well I'm sure the one poster only gives her chickens the best, you know bottled spring water and such.

Rain water is a grand Idea, I should do that!

there are things that can creepeth, from a microbiological standpoint but the chances are so few like lechminasis, and ameobiosis, certain strain of cholrae that runs in chickens, and of course others parasites, but you can also win the lottery! seriously they are so much more likely to pick something up in the yard they are chickens!!!!!

 

[Kiwibird]

Unfiltered and untreated rainwater is the only water I ever drank till I reached adulthood and went to study in a city. My grandmother had a profitable egg-selling business, and rainwater is all her chickens ever drank. Yes, some parasites and bacteria enter the rainwater from wild bird poop in roof collection systems. Recently, tanked water is more becoming popular for ecological reasons, and I am hearing or more people developing stomach upsets from the tanked water than was the case in the past. There may also be more problems arising for animals drinking tanked water than when it was the only thing our animals ever got, I don't know. As far as I can see there are three reasons for more problems in human drinkers of rainwater:

1) Lowered resistance from not being accustomed to drinking untreated water.
2) Lightweight plastic water tanks which do not keep the water as dark and cool as the old concrete or wooden ones.
3) Some new pathogens, with Giardia being a local example, mainly affecting stream water, but carried by rats, so possibly entering rainwater collection systems on roofs at times.

So I would say that filtration or addition of vinegar and the like may be more useful if you have a lightweight water tank, or if you have any significant local water borne bugs. You may find they are not necessary at all.

Put in the largest tank you can, as large bodies of water stay cooler - use excess to water gardens, fruit trees and the like.

 

[Nuzzy]

Chickens were around long before city or bottled water

 

[flockof4]

I give mine fresh rain water and they are happy and healthy.