nipple waterer ?

[Old MacDanny]

Is there any negatives to using a nipple watering system like the one pictured here? http://tinyurl.com/2unnya I've used similar systems with hogs but never with chickens.

Also, does anyone know how many birds/nipple is acceptable ?

I really liked the ones for hogs. They always had fresh clean water, and I rarely had to replace them. I suppose if you didn't have many birds or had an outside hose running it you would have to come up with something else in freezing temeratures.

 

[delsi64]

I don't really know the answer to this but it is a funny coincident because we are in the process of building a big coop and my mother-in-law was telling me that her father raised chickens and he would take a pvc pipe and drill a hole in them every so many inches and then screw a screw in. Then it was hooked up to a hose with the screw facing down and the water barely turned on. The screw would then get drops of water on them. They also had a trough underneath to catch the extras and then it would just drain onto their garden. They would just out and wipe it out every so often. It sounds like a good plan to me, but we haven't built that part of it. I am interested in this answer too.

 

[TeaLady]

I've been using something similar, but in the bottom of a bucket. I got mine from http://solwayfeeders.com/productsdetail1.asp?STOCK_CODE=1396, but the FarmTek ones look similar & not overseas. Solway used to sell the kit minus the bucket to save shipping costs, and that's what I have.

In freezing weather, we did have a problem -- the first thing to freeze was a little ice cap in the bucket over each nipple, because the steel nipple conducted the heat (or lack thereof) so well. One night the whole bucket of water froze solid. But we got an aquarium heater and dropped it into the bucket, and never had a problem with it again.

We were hauling water to fill the bucket. This summer we want to hook it up to a water line, and we will be looking at ways to ensure that the line doesn't freeze up next winter. Insulated pipe or pipe with electric tape leading to a bucket with an aquarium heater is one option.

The FarmTek site has a "Super Flow Hobby Drinker Kit" they say has 6" spacing on an 8' line, so probably 16 nipples, and they say that will water 200 birds. With the bucket system we have a few girls at a time under the bucket and then they move on to other important chicken business. My impression is that a few nipples will supply quite a few birds.

As a side benefit there's this cheerful clickity-clackity noise when a group of them are drinking. I call it the steno pool. (How many know what a steno pool is???)

 

[treeclimber233]

I have some of my chickens trained to drink off a nipple system. I love it because there is no dirty bowls to wash. And they always have clean water. It will freeze in the winter but as long as it thaws during the day that is not a problem. Where I live it only freezes for 2 weeks in the winter so I just hand water then. It is very easy to train them to the nipple. Just adjust it to drip very slowly for a few days and then tighten it so it wont release water until they peck for water.

 

[Becky_H]

Just out of curiosity (and newbiness) is there a difference between a nipple watering system and the water-bottles used for small animals? ...Besides volume, obviously.

 

[sugar pants]

I don't know the differences...I'm a newbie myself.

I will say my chickens have been drinking out of this for a few weeks and we all love it.

http://www.petco.com/product/108114...-7A19-DE11-B4E3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

It's a little on the spendy side, but I was constantly worried that they weren't getting enough clean water before. I tried elevating the water a zillion different ways....but I must have party girls or something because they always mucked it up within hours.

All I did was stick their beaks in it every once in awhile until I saw them actually drink.

 

[Becky_H]

Quote:
If they can figure out how to use that thing, I'm sure they can figure out a more traditional water bottle. ...Ergo: I'm going to get one because I'm also sick of cleaning out water.

 

[sugar pants]

The only reason I went and got this fancy one is because it's heated....and I was going to need to do something about that come winter anyway.

For dumb birds...they figure most things out pretty quickly!

 

[Old MacDanny]

The difference between the nipple waterer and a bottle waterer is the nipples are permanently plumbed in or hooked to a hose. You don't change the water.

But I think there are some bottles that have similar nipples on them.

It doesn't drip like the screws, it is a valve which opens when the chickens poke it with their beak. When they quit drinking it closes.

I think I'm going to try these this summer, I figure if I run a water line underground and have it come up through the coop floor it shouldn't freeze in the winter and should be fresh, cool water for them in the summer.

 

[kathyinmo]

I don't understand how they work. Do you have to have it attached to a hose and leave the hose turned on all the time?