Learning to drink from poultry nipples?

[allseeingeye]

I recently decided to go the route of 5 gallon bucket + poultry nipples for my watering system and I have a few questions...

For those who are using this system, how long did it take for them to learn to use it? My flock is only about 9 weeks old now, or so and they've been drinking from multiple small chick feeders until now. Now the new poultry nipple system is in and they haven't expressed any interest in it, though it has only been in place for a day now.

Are there any tricks I should try to get them to start drinking from the nipples? I have manually tried forcing a couple of them to put their beaks to the nipple to show them that they can get water from it, but they still aren't using it. Perhaps time is all I need? I know they are still so very young but I don't want them to dehydrate themselves.

Thanks!

 

[allseeingeye]

This thread has become obsolete since 5 minutes after I posted it i witnessed my entire flock drinking from it. LOL

 

[pdirt]

Hah! Yes, we can get so easily nervous about our birds, can't we? Unless you're living in Death Valley, they aren't going to suffer much going without water for several hours or even a good part of the day.

When I switched our birds from drinking from a bowl to the vertical nipples, it took them most of a day for all of them to figure out. When I switched them to the newer horizontal nipples, it took over 2 days for all them to take to it. In the first case, I removed all other water and let thirst drive their curiosity, plus showing them water dripping from the nipples by flicking them. In the second case, they were confused and kept looking under the bucket to find the nipples (that were not there) and by the end of the day had not yet figured it out, so I put their other vertical nipple bucket back in. I actually just left it that way and noticed a couple days later that BOTH buckets were much lower on water (no leaks) and I had seen most but not all of the birds drinking from both buckets.

Anyways, glad to hear your birds are liking it. I can never imagine going back to a traditional waterer again!

 

[allseeingeye]

Hah! Yes, we can get so easily nervous about our birds, can't we? Unless you're living in Death Valley, they aren't going to suffer much going without water for several hours or even a good part of the day.

When I switched our birds from drinking from a bowl to the vertical nipples, it took them most of a day for all of them to figure out. When I switched them to the newer horizontal nipples, it took over 2 days for all them to take to it. In the first case, I removed all other water and let thirst drive their curiosity, plus showing them water dripping from the nipples by flicking them. In the second case, they were confused and kept looking under the bucket to find the nipples (that were not there) and by the end of the day had not yet figured it out, so I put their other vertical nipple bucket back in. I actually just left it that way and noticed a couple days later that BOTH buckets were much lower on water (no leaks) and I had seen most but not all of the birds drinking from both buckets.

Anyways, glad to hear your birds are liking it. I can never imagine going back to a traditional waterer again!

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I am so glad that I decided to go with this method of waterer! All 12 of my girls have learned very quickly how to use it, and so my mind is at ease! if only I could get them to want to go back inside the coop at night...

 

[pdirt]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I am so glad that I decided to go with this method of waterer! All 12 of my girls have learned very quickly how to use it, and so my mind is at ease! if only I could get them to want to go back inside the coop at night...

I haven't tried this but have read from many others who do this. Simply withhold feed until you want them to come into the coop at night (assuming you have a place for feed and water inside). They'll come running like no tomorrow! If they free range, I hear they will also do a better job of foraging their own food and thus reduce the amount of feed they eat. Or offer a special treat (such as mealworms) when you want them to come into the coop...the trick is to never offer them that particular treat (or whatever is their favorite one) except when you want them to come into the coop.