Not getting enough water from nipple waterer?

[Gypse]

My girls were too stupid to learn the nipple. I use a watering cup on the end of 1m of 90mm PVC tube. The cups (red) have a little yellow tongue that causes water to be released when nudged. They seem to prefer this to drinking from bowls. The chooks may be nudging releasing the water accidentally, rather than learning to push the yellow tongue. The cups can get a bit of dirt in them. They come off to clean, but you have to be careful that you are not unscrewing them when removing.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My girls were too stupid to learn the nipple. I use a watering cup on the end of 1m of 90mm PVC tube. The cups (red) have a little yellow tongue that causes water to be released when nudged. They seem to prefer this to drinking from bowls. The chooks may be nudging releasing the water accidentally, rather than learning to push the yellow tongue. The cups can get a bit of dirt in them. They come off to clean, but you have to be careful that you are not unscrewing them when removing.

Cup waterer isn't a nipple waterer. You may get better results if you switch over - nipples don't pick up dirt the way cups do and some people who've tried both say nipples are easier for chickens to learn, though I've never tried cups myself as freezing would be an issue for me.

 

[Gypse]

Freezing is not an issue for me thankfully. Nipples is obviously much better - zero cleaning. I had some bottles with nipples - they would use them when shown, but otherwise never touched em. The cups require no training. When they try to get the last bit out they can't help but push the trigger & make the water flow.

Someone said they use the nipples horizontally. I have to admit, I never thought of that. The nipples and cups have the same thread size. I'm going to swap it and see if they use it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Someone said they use the nipples horizontally. I have to admit, I never thought of that. The nipples and cups have the same thread size. I'm going to swap it and see if they use it.

There's horizontal and vertical nipples, so make sure they're horizontal ones if you intend on trying to swap them.

 

[3KillerBs]

I had the same problem and found that the lid made a seal and the water wouldn’t come out of the nipple. had to drill a little hole in the top to let air in.

This is critical!

It's not the nipple's fault if the person who built the waterer made a vacuum.

I used a finish nail to put a hole not even 1/8" diameter into the plastic just below the lid and it works perfectly.

 

[Tashua]

Nipple waterers are just fine as long as you keep them clean and not frozen up . All depends on what the chickens grew up with . I made my own waterer out of PVC and the girls get plenty of water , BUT they do enjoy a nice bowl as well every day & I have cast iron pots out in the gardens when they free range every evening ...,.

Too add to my original response ........when they were 3 days old I made a nipple waterer out of plastic 1/2 gallon cold brew container ......was tired of the filthy & spilled water to clean up in the brooder after 3 days

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh, interesting. I thought it was supposed to be above their heads so their neck is extended upward slightly when drinking (to make it easier for them to swallow). Seems like every decision to be made has opposing opinions!

Coming late to this thread. I am a big fan of horizontal nipples they keep the water clean and one bucket will last a long time. They also don't freeze (though the water in the bucket does!) and cause leaks.
It is the vertical ones that need to be up high above their heads - my horizontal ones are lower than head height and the chickens seem fine with them.
That said, they will always rush to a muddy puddle of water if they see one and they will always mob the watering can. I think they like the novelty! They also drink the melting snow drips off the wire covering an area of their run.
A dehydrated chicken would be very ill and you would know that. So I keep an eye on their consumption (but not obsessively) and always check each nipple to make sure water flows and then I don't worry about it.
In winter I switch to a heated open waterer and that works fine but have my eye on the heated nipple one that you use. Hard to justify as my current waterer is working fine - but it will no doubt give up at some point and will go with what you have when I replace it.

 

[Johanna Albertine]

Hi All!

I use a 2 gallon Farm Innovators nipple waterer for my 6 girls which they seem to use without issue. My concern is when I go to fill it up using a watering can, the girls always run over and take gulps of water out of the can (see photo!). This makes it seem like they are very thirsty and aren't getting enough water from their nipple waterer. I'd say they are going through a gallon of water every 3-4 days right now. Am I overreacting? Could they just be doing this out of excitement?

Thanks for your insights!

Hi! In summer my chickens love to drink from a plant waterer too, maybe because it’s just the right height. I left the plant waterer all filled up by the coop to satisfy them! They also drink from the goose water bowls and from a poultry water fount. In winter, mostly the big bowls. I’ve never used a nipple waterer and suspect chickens don’t like these.

 

[Tashua]

Coming late to this thread. I am a big fan of horizontal nipples they keep the water clean and one bucket will last a long time. They also don't freeze (though the water in the bucket does!) and cause leaks.
It is the vertical ones that need to be up high above their heads - my horizontal ones are lower than head height and the chickens seem fine with them.
That said, they will always rush to a muddy puddle of water if they see one and they will always mob the watering can. I think they like the novelty! They also drink the melting snow drips off the wire covering an area of their run.
A dehydrated chicken would be very ill and you would know that. So I keep an eye on their consumption (but not obsessively) and always check each nipple to make sure water flows and then I don't worry about it.
In winter I switch to a heated open waterer and that works fine but have my eye on the heated nipple one that you use. Hard to justify as my current waterer is working fine - but it will no doubt give up at some point and will go with what you have when I replace it.

Hmmmmmm I have mine set up vertical & they are getting plenty of water ......... bottom line is *I think* as long as they are getting enough clean water it really doesn’t matter which method you use .

 

[Johanna Albertine]

Too add to my original response ........when they were 3 days old I made a nipple waterer out of plastic 1/2 gallon cold brew container ......was tired of the filthy & spilled water to clean up in the brooder after 3 days

We made a drinking platform with a painting tray framed in wood, covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (found the idea on YouTube). That way they could hop onto the platform and drink from a fount or bowl without getting the bedding wet.