I've decided to give up my nipple waterers / observations

[jmagill]

I don't understand why anyone would use the chickens "preferring" to get water from a bucket as the way to judge which waterer to use.

You do what gets you the best egg production and health and is easiest to maintain. If mine got to chose they chose the mud puddle every time. They don't get to vote at my house.
Mine get enough to lay properly with out adding extra moisture and poop to the mix.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I too was very worried about my girls getting enough water from the nipples and was ready to get rid of them. They didn't seem to visit to the nipple waterers or stay as long as they did the vacuum waterers. Every time they'd encounter free-standing water, like where I irrigate trees, they'd gulp water like they'd been without for days. Here in the desert that can be quite worrisome. So, a couple weeks ago I decided to figure out exactly how much water they were consuming with the nipple waterers compared to the regular plastic vacuum waterers. I measured the exact amount consumed each day over 5 days with the nipple waterers and 5 days with the vacuum waterers. I was surprised to find that my six hens drank 2.75 cups of water per day from the nipples and 2.5 cups per day from the vacuum waterers. Water consumption was also surprisingly consistent over days. I've decided to keep the nipples because the pros seem to outweigh the cons. I think chickens just like to gulp water and it looks to us like they are thirstier than they should be. Even though I don't have the problem with the nipple waterers freezing (it's 82 degrees here right now

), I could imagine the frustration with that.

 

[jmagill]

Quote:
Any frozen nipples with the aquarium heater?

My coop is like 23F this morning and the nipples are not froze. (The only thing I have inside the coop is the nipple water, and dry food.) Out in the run is the open dish of water and their wet mash)


Over open water mine actually perfer snow!..

(This does not mean I will not provide open water..) Me, I am sticking with the nipples..

ON

I only have a 25 watt heater so I get the odd frozen nipple at -15 and below. I just don't fill the bucket up as full and it usually solves the problem.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

OK folks-

Lemme splain this to you.

There is no doubt that chickens PREFER to drink from a pool of standing water. This is provided by the conventional, trough, pan, vaccum waterer, cup, etc with standing water in it. In addition there to the chicken prefers to drink it at ground height, the natural location of water in their ancestoral environment.

Chickens get excited or are very interested in new things in their environment. That is one of the reasons the chickens run to the pool of water to drink.

Chickens have not figured out that they should not drink contaminated water. Yes - I know all about your Grandma's hens drinking horse pee and other such liquids but it is undeniably not as good for them as clean water. In the industry we go to exteme lengths to provide them with as pure water to drink as reasonably possible. If the water is contaminated in in the slightest bit we notice decreased interior egg quality, decreased hatchability and greater carcase rejection from interior (eviscerate) condition in meat birds.

At first the poultry industry resisted the use of nipple drinkers. They saw the same problems that many of you have observed and even more so because of the scale, scientific and statistical anaylasis available to them. But when the "bugs" that really matter were worked out the industry has adopted nipple drinkers almost totally and worldwide.

Grandparent generation, and even more ancesteral, commercial layer breeders (this includes all the white egg layers as well as the ISAs, Golden Comets, sex-linked brown egg layers you know) drink out of nipples. The last flock of grandparent Hy-line brown egg layer breeders that I heard the price on were about $27.00 per bird DAY OLD CHICK PRICE! Now just how much water deprivation do you suppose the owners of these birds would tolerate?

Parent generation broiler breeders (those are the parents of what you call cornish x) cost about $25 each (females, the males cost more) when they go to the breeder house. They lay an egg that by rule of thumb is valued at $0.50 per egg. Depriving these birds of water would be foolish. Especially in hot climates. I can tell you because I have personally seen it that broiler breeders are watered with nipples in rather warm climates. How about Isreal and Egypt?? Let alone GA and AL

Then take the 9.2 Billion meat chickens raised in the US per year. They all drink out of nipples. Do you suppose that they are denied the most essential and cheapest nutrient available.

And. Almost all of you maintain greater water column heights on the nipples than commercial operations do thus delivering even more water to the bird.

What you perceive as your chickens "likes and dislikes" are not the most relevant factors in good animal husbandry. Just like your kids and chocolate, video games, tattoos and motorcycles.

 

[LauraG]

jmagill, I am not saying that the nipple waterers did not have their advantage, because cleanliness is VERYY important to me. I will ALWAYS use them for chicks.


However, I do feel they were not drinking as much with the nipple waterers than with the traditional waterer.

Yes, I had good egg production and healthy chickens. I am not implying they were not productive with them, because they were. And certainly they were getting enough water to survive obviously because they all would have been dead otherwise.

I gauge their behavior as my determining factor, and that is *one* of the reasons I decided to nix them for the adults. I'm sure their egg production will be just as well.

Just makes me feel more comfortable at this point.


Schroeder, Instead, I bought a 2 gallon galvanized pail to set on a heated base. I do not have to haul water every day because it doesnt freeze. Not much of a hassle at all.

 

[trilyn]

Amen, Neil! I've loved my nipple waterers from the first day I've used them and will never go back!

 

[LauraG]

Quote:
Neil,
I know you sell these nipples and I agree with you.

If I were running a commercial poultry farm, I would use nipple waterers to maintain cleanliness.

But I dont. I have a backyard flock. I dont have to run it as a commercial business. I have the ability to keep 7 chickens waterers very clean. I could not do that with thousands of hens.

My chicks grew into beautiful birds on the nipple waterers and if they were "being denied" they would have obviously been ill, unthrifty or dead.

I'm not implying that people are denying their critters water by using these.

For my set up, for the winter, I'm preferring to use a traditional waterer. And the chickens like it better too so It works for me.

Respectfully,
Laura

 

[matimeo]

Quote:
I too have noticed that my chickens will drink out of mud puddles and standing water when I let them out of the coop, and I've worried that they don't get enough through the nipples. I think that's normal. But I've also noticed that they were fine when I left them confined to their coop/run for eight days during the summer with only a nipple waterer system. Thing about feelings is they can play tricks on you. As Gallo del Cielo (love the name by the way) showed, his chickens were actually drinking more out of the nipples than out of a conventional waterer. That should mean more than the feeling I get when I see my chickens drinking out of the gutter.

Your post is confusing because you say that your chickens are healthy and productive, but then you say you feel like they aren't drinking enough water. Fact of the matter is, chickens will drink out of a nipple waterer if that's what is available to them, and they also drink out of a mud puddle if that's available, and they'll probably be fine either way. I'm not willing to trade the cleanliness in the coop and the ease of use for an unsettling feeling.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[jomoncon]

Quote:
Thanks so very much for this info. This was the sort of concrete data I was looking for. Granted, it's only one person's experience, and I like the results, but at least you took the time to measure, rather than going on "feelings."

 

[LauraG]

Quote:
I too have noticed that my chickens will drink out of mud puddles and standing water when I let them out of the coop, and I've worried that they don't get enough through the nipples. I think that's normal. But I've also noticed that they were fine when I left them confined to their coop/run for eight days during the summer with only a nipple waterer system. Thing about feelings is they can play tricks on you. As Gallo del Cielo (love the name by the way) showed, his chickens were actually drinking more out of the nipples than out of a conventional waterer. That should mean more than the feeling I get when I see my chickens drinking out of the gutter.

Your post is confusing because you say that your chickens are healthy and productive, but then you say you feel like they aren't drinking enough water. Fact of the matter is, chickens will drink out of a nipple waterer if that's what is available to them, and they also drink out of a mud puddle if that's available, and they'll probably be fine either way. I'm not willing to trade the cleanliness in the coop and the ease of use for an unsettling feeling.

Just my 2 cents.

Totally agree. But I'm doing whats more comfortable for me right now.

I stated several times that they were obviously getting enough water with the nipples or they would be ill.

Whatever works for you should be what you want to do! They clearly wont die either way.


I dont need to defend my decision, nor am I implying that anyone needs to defend their use of nipple waterers.

Why is it we cant just have a general conversation without getting defensive about everything.

I obviously think nipple waterers are great for certain things and in certain circumstances. They are not easy to keep unfrozen in an unheated coop. For ME.

I feel better seeing the hens drinking out of the clean water of my traditional waterer than rushing to my darn dirty pond as soon as I open the run. Sorry.
If that makes me a bad person so be it. Thats just my 2 cents.


If I were starting a new flock, I would be interested to read both sides of the story and make my own decision. Thats just my observation.