Nipple wateres vs. cups; My experience.

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/7118/42492433.jpg

As far as quality goes either the nipple pictured or the yellow one sold directly out of China are tied for the poorest quality of all.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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We switched our birds over to nipples (in a 2-gallon bucket) about two months ago. They're doing find with them, but we were only ever filling the bucket about 1/3 to 1/2 because they didn't drink that much and we weren't pitching a gallon of water when we changed the water each day.

Now that they're drinking more, we started filling the bucket more...and it's leaking! If we fill the bucket more than halfway, every single nipple leaks. We twisted, cleaned, poked, prodded, all of it to no avail. It's not the seal where they are screwed in, either, but the darned nipple itself. Sooo mad (a 2-gallon bucket we can only use 1-gallon of - what a waste).

So we're planning on getting new nipples. Where do you suggest finding the ones of decent quality that you mentioned? We keep water in the coop and plan to continue to do so (in case weather ever makes it a necessity they stay in) and just cannot afford to have it leaking like a sieve (especially with winter approaching). Thanks!

What is the water column height? If the pressure is to great any other problem is multiplied.
The nipples straight up and down.
Is the height of the nipples correct for the size of the birds?
Could there be particles in the water that are lodging the nipples open?
I will send you a link where top end nipples are offered for sale.

 

[ChickenAl]

We had been using the nipples I'm a five gallon bucket in the run for a few months. Over the weekend a leak developed and the bucket ran dry. It looks as if it is coming from one of the nipples itself. Have got to look more closely when I have the time. Thry were installed with teflon tape and never leaked before this The girls use the metal double wall that is in the coop for now.

I love the nipples, and the girls took to them right away. They are much cleaner and better for the chickens and us than the double wall, which always gets dirty water. Would be nice to find an industrial grade setup where the nipples were preinstalled in a bucket with quality fittings.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

I wonder... since the added water increases your water pressure... would lowering your bucket allow you to add more water without adding more pressure?

That is not the way it works. The difference in the verticle elevation of the top or the water and the nipple creates the pressure.​

 

[ronniewayne]

I bought some industrial ones from a broiler house quitting business...they are screwed into a square pvc pipe with the bucket or in this case a factory resivor with a float attached to the end...if you can find a broiler or laying house quitting they will almost give them away as they have thousands....

 

[Avonlea22]

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I'd like to know as well. please.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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Your problems with nipples are most likely from misoperation ot misinterpretation of the situation.
First of all - are the birds producing well (eggs or growth)? If they are doing well there is no water problem.
If they are not producing well then first examine how high the nipples are. If they are either to high (unlikely) or to low the birds will not get enough water and production will suffer.
Chickens probably do prefer to drink out of a pool of water rather than a nipple. But that in no way means that they cannot get enough water. And when presented with the novelty of a pool of water when used to drinking from a nipple the birds will flock to it and may appear to be satisfying something other than the difference.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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Sounds like it's leaking from your thread attachment. Unfortunately no matter what anyone says the idea of threading these or nipples directly into PVC holes is poor.Stainless steel nipples are the only ones designed to cut their own threads into plastic but they are three piece and prone to difficulties in a backyard fabrication. With a perfect hole and care the plastic used in higher grade nipple sill cut reaonably well into other (softer) plastics. Threads are meant to mate with threads, not make there own. I used silicone on the nipples which managed to seal the threads, you could try that. My suggestion however is to get the appropriate adapter, or at the very least tap the hole before threading them. I am using these brackets which adapt the threads to a 1/4 nipple Here and using 1/4" tubing off of it. They also make brackets that you can glue to pvc pipe, but I have not used those since it's so much easier to use tubing.

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That was always one concern I had with the nipples, unfortunately I still have this worry with the cups as they are fairly empty when they drink from them and hit the lever (not enough water pressure from my gravity feed.) But I can fix this.

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Do you have a link to the high quality ones? I would like to see pictures of the insides of them. Regardless though, a lot of the other pros still apply even if they did not leak at all.
I will send you the link. There are no high end nipples screw-in made of plastic that come apart. Many twist in types do come apart but few backyard poultry people use them because they are not sold online.


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I don't see why.
With more experience and understanding of the situation I am sure you would recognize why.
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I think they have them screwed directly into the bucket, so that wont help.

REsponded to Mike otherwise. The the elevation of the bucket itself has nothing to do with pressure. Only the height of the water in the bucket.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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I think they have them screwed directly into the bucket, so that wont help.

Yep, they are actually screwed directly into the bucket. We picked it up at a swap at a feed store already assembled for cheap...it's true that you get what you pay for, I guess.

We just wanted to see if the chickens would take to it because this set up saves a ton of floor space in the coop. Just need to find out where to get well-made nipples...ours don't even come apparently to be able to access the bearing, so I'm guessing they're the cheap-is-free variety.

I do not know of any higher end threaded or screw-in plastic nipples that can be disassembled. All of the multiple parts plastic ones are substandard.

 

[FarmerJ0hn]

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I don't see why.

With more experience and understanding of the situation I am sure you would recognize why.

So in other words you have no real reason to make that statement (besides that you obviously sell nipples or are some how invested in them).