Nipple Waterers VS Pail of water.

Yep...we all use what works at our place. If filling your animals full of drugs makes you feel good~I say do it! If filling mine full of probios in ACV makes me feel good..well, I'm gonna do that too.

You're the one that has to eat that stuff, not me!
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And in response to the ill will that is about to be expressed I say; show me the science.

. . . . and they have you right where they want you. Only trusting triple-tested, peer-reviewed, USDA approved (ConAgra sponsored) scientific research that has been properly published in respectable industry publications.

Years ago my father and I used ACV in a commercial rabbit operation. It was incorporated into the water system we utilized. Until we adopted this we were always battling some intestinal malady of one sort or another. Went to ACV supplement in the water supply and the issues were reduced by 95%.

I work in healthcare. Nowhere will anyone tell you the ACV will get rid of warts. We will try to sell you countless concoctions that "research" has shown may work. After having my sons warts burnt off, then frozen off only to have them return we treated with ACV and they are gone -- no official research on that either.
 
I'm a nurse and I've been handing out those "scientifically researched" meds for the past 19 years. I know just exactly what they can do and cannot do for man or beast. I'll pass on using them for the animals I ingest...but thanks anyway.

When I am treating people for ACVRSA(apple cider resistant staphylococcus aureus) and ACVRE(apple cider resistant enterococcus) then I will get concerned about my love affair with ACV.
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How in the world did we stray down this path? Sorry to the OP...resume regularly scheduled programming.
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Hehe, we had the same issue/concern when we switched to a nipple watering system. Despite seeing them all readily drink from the nipples, as soon as we'd let them out to free range, they'd all run to the nearest mud puddle, stagnant pool, or wet looking anything like they'd be left in the middle of a desert for the past week.

Did some research, talked to people, and really, chickens are just nuts.
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If there's no drop in egg production, no other signs of illness or distress, and they're using the nipple water, they're fine. They're just drawn to any standing water by instinct as it's the only sources they'd find if they were still roaming the jungles of Asia. Keep in mind that this means that if you keep a nipple water and a bucket/font in their coop run and let them choose what to drink from, they'll ALWAYS choose the bucket/font. That doesn't mean that they don't get enough water with the nipples, it just means that their programming is still in tact after all of these years.
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You just can't beat the cleanliness of a nipple watering system, though, so we've stuck with it and all of our birds are just fine. We combat their tendency to drink from the nastiest standing water in the yard by putting a bucket of clean water right outside their run door before we let them out to free range. They come running out, they drink from the bucket a bit and then they go about their day without consuming muck. All is well.
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That is a really great idea! I only have chicks right now so I have a question: is a full size bucket (5 gal) too tall for full grown chickens to drink from? How does that work? I really like that idea as I don't want them drinking much from the yard muck.
 
One question: Do anyone else's nipple watering systems get the ground all drippy and wet just from being used? Mine isn't leaking at all (I have watched it for many minutes on end and have never seen it drip, but when the chickens are all using it GOOD HEAVENS do they get the inside of my coop all wet! Right now I have 11 chicks brooding in the coop with deep litter and I had to put down a lid to a rubbermaid bin under their waterer and put shavings on top of that just to sop up some of the water they were making a mess of while drinking. Every day I've had to completely change the shavings on top of the rubbermaid lid (better than getting the actual ground cover shavings wet!). I know this is only problematic while they're receiving water inside the coop since they cannot go outside yet, but is there something I'm missing in using this system in the coop? How do I keep the ground dry?
 
One question: Do anyone else's nipple watering systems get the ground all drippy and wet just from being used? Mine isn't leaking at all (I have watched it for many minutes on end and have never seen it drip, but when the chickens are all using it GOOD HEAVENS do they get the inside of my coop all wet! Right now I have 11 chicks brooding in the coop with deep litter and I had to put down a lid to a rubbermaid bin under their waterer and put shavings on top of that just to sop up some of the water they were making a mess of while drinking. Every day I've had to completely change the shavings on top of the rubbermaid lid (better than getting the actual ground cover shavings wet!). I know this is only problematic while they're receiving water inside the coop since they cannot go outside yet, but is there something I'm missing in using this system in the coop? How do I keep the ground dry?

The first week or two after I put mine in the brooder it was really wet underneath, they have since improved their technique. Another thing that reduced spillage was raising the nipple up, they drink better when they reach up. Put it as high as you can (still comfortable, but a stretch for your smallest chick). It seemed to help in my brooder anyways. good luck!
 
Same here...not much spillage at all.

Note to those who would use a 5 gal. bucket for chicken's second choice....chickens can fall into and drown in them while perching on the side to reach the water.
 
Yeah- too bad.

"If fairy tales could come true . . ."

Well the stuff is great  in salad dressing, I will give it that. But in poultry propagation - a homeopathic myth.

And in response to the ill will that is about to be expressed I say; show me the science.
The science is this. While some folks do make outlandish claims about the preventative/curative powers of vinegar it does have some effectiveness. It doesn't have to be Braggs, nor does it have to be organic, it doesn't even have to be cider vinegar. Plain, old ordinary white vinegar will do. Or citric acid.

The point being that a mild organic acid in the proper amounts significantly changes the pH of the water it is added to. Enough so that many microbes are slowed or prevented from growing at all. I was skeptical myself until I started using it in my chick brooders. My bio-film (slime) problems in the waterers completely went away.

I have never had any sort of sickness or disease problems in my brooders so I can't say that it had any impact on keeping my birds from getting sick, but I can say it largely stopped microbial growth in my waterers (plastic ONLY). There have been many, many threads about the efficaciousness of cider vinegar on the board over the years. Much hyperbole, much folklore, much wild claims, but it's not entirely without merit. The commercial poultry industry uses acetic or citric acid to reduce mineralization and bio-film build up in their watering lines. There was a thread a while back about a scientific study out of Pakistan relating how acetic acid (vinegar) added to the drinking water can improve the shell quality of eggs laid in the warmer climates of the world during the hot season. That alone has caused me to begin thinking of how I can go over to using it with my birds because I've had a problem with this here in Florida.

People make all sorts of claims about vinegar, diatomaceous earth, you name it. A lot of it is exaggeration and unproven folklore, but not all of it. Sometimes there is useful truth to be found though you may have to dig a bit to find it.
 
People make all sorts of claims about vinegar, diatomaceous earth, you name it. A lot of it is exaggeration and unproven folklore, but not all of it. Sometimes there is useful truth to be found though you may have to dig a bit to find it.


Exactly why I don't listen to people that say (whatever it is that's claimed to be wonderful) is absolutely, entirely, without merit. Even DE has some minerals in it that are probably good if fed to the bird though it does nothing to keep them wormed.
 
Like the information found in the links below...it is easy to research the different yeast cultures found in mother vinegar and any scientific studies done on those beneficial microbes. They offer probiotics in the feed store to give to your animals and the feed companies are now placing them directly in the feeds. The science behind probiotics is well documented in the scientific lores and mother vinegar is chock full of the very same ones that provide the benefit found in the "scientifically developed" feeds they now have available.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...osis-and-other-poultry-diseases-in-chicks-acv

http://www.worldpoultry.net/chicken...robiotics-protect-against-pathogens-8703.html

And this link and quote from the Applied Journal of Poultry Research

http://japr.fass.org/content/17/2/315.full


Quote:

In the human medical field, probiotics are also well-documented as being very beneficial for the immune system health....the reason you don't hear about it as much is because no one is making any money off probiotics that one can find in a jug of fermented apple juice or in fermented milk. Money is the factor here and it seems to have convinced those with a follower attitude that you "get what you pay for", so if it is easily obtained and cheap, it must not be effective.

It only takes a mere second to search and produce many scientific studies and articles about the use of the same probiotics found in ACV being used in the commercial ag world now, at this very time.

In the medical field we have a saying, "You only see a duck if you are looking up." In other words, you will never see the obvious unless you actively look in the right places. Those who refuse to look are those who are willfully blind and prefer their information spoon fed to them by those who want them to only eat what they are cookin'.
 
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