Nipple Waterers????

[newchickens2009]

I am looking for any info on using nipple waterers in my chicken coops. Are they worth it? Do they perform well? Will my chickens drink from them after all they have had has been water basins? Do they require much mataience? Etc, Etc, Etc.....
Any first hand knowledge will be very appreciated!
Thank you and God bless!

 

[CiCountryGirlty]

I'm interested in this question too... I got tired of cleaning shavings and poop out of the chick waterer umpteen times a day and gave them a rabbit water bottle instead. I showed them how to use it by tapping the ball to release water and then touched a couple of their beaks to it. They started using it right away and within 10 minutes all of them were drinking from it. Now for 7 chicks I am giving them new water every other day!

I am hoping that the switch to chicken nipples will be just as easy.

 

[crash0330]

they are really easy to install, and they are wonderful, as it saves sooooooooo much time, time that you could use cleaning other parts of the coop lol, you can either use PVC as I do or what one guy told me one day you can use a 5 gallon bucket drill holes on it and then just put the nipple waterers in there and hang the bucket, of course doing this its not as convenient and using PVC and having water avaliable all the time, but it works for people who don't have water access near the coop.
As far as how they will adapt to them, try to get the red ones as the red color attracks them, they'll figure it out right away, once one figures it out all of the other ones will follow.
As far as maintenience, well there pretty much maintaniance free!

 

[lebentier]

I am about to install a pvc/nipple system. I have been using rabbit water bottles for over a year and love then. They are so clean and easy, and now with the new system the water supply will be endless. Yay!

 

[newchickens2009]

Do they all require a presure valve or are there some that I can just drill a hole into PVC pipe, screw them in and then turn on the water supply? I already have a PVC water pipe supply run to my coop from the house (it has 30-60psi at all times).

 

[snazzyboots]

i am thinking about putting them in my coop. how do they do in the winter? would using pipe insulators help them not to freeze?
how and how often do you clean them?

 

[sixshooter60]

Quote:
No you cant use high pressure .. nipples only require about 2 lbs of pressure.. you can get a regulator to adjust thepressure down or another way is to hang a 5 gal bucket and put a pvc fitting on that you can screw a garden hose to and put it from your bucket to your pvc pipe and let it gravity flow donw the line

 

[sixshooter60]

Quote:
its hard to keep the nipple from freezing in the winter unless you have a heated coop.. as far as cleaning goes they are pretty much self cleaning the only thing you need to do is make sure you have a filter in the line or dirt will stop the nipple up if it gets in the line .. i use a garden hose from my bucket to the pipe and put a hose filter in it.. works great..oh its also good to put a ball valve at the end so you can drain it if you need to..i like the bucket system over direct water supply so i can add wormer or vitamins or such to the water from the bucket to fee the line

 

[lizch]

I bought a couple of nipple waterers because I was fed up of the chicks pooping in their water and kicking bedding into it. I did the training step of tapping on the nipple so they could see water drops coming out. Within a day, all of them seemed to be happily drinking from the nipple. I offered them open water on the 3rd day, just in case one wasn't drinking from the nipple, and they weren't interested at all.

So, I'm very happy!