Official BYC Poll: Which waterer is better: Nipples or cups?

[Hteeter2]

I use the vertical poultry nipples. None of my older chicks or younger chicks had much of a problem transitioning to the nipple system. My four Rhode Island Reds were about 8wks old when I finally made the change. For a few days I put their old water in the coop just to make sure they were getting the water they needed. Surprisingly they didn't use the old waterer. Today I upgraded them to a 5 gallon bucket with nipples, so I'm not worried about them running out. Plus they will hopefully won't all four be under one nipple.

 

[jreardon1918]

Horizontal in a 5 gallon bucket. The bucket is located under the raised coop. The coop is only 4x8 so for me, keeping the water outside saves space and eliminates moisture. The water stays clean. In the winter the stock tank de-icer keeps it flowing. I suppose some drips occur, but a little water mixing in with the DLM is probably a good thing. It seems the hens are all content. If I ever expand the number of birds, I would probably do a second water station.

 

[Al Capon]

Gravity waterer and cups work best for me, but not those cheap red cups with the spring n o-ring in them, those went into the Garbage.

Royal Rooster poultry cups are what I use. They have a small float in them so there is always a supply of water. If you have some dumb chickens, they won't go thirsty trying to figure out how to get water. Expensive, yes, and worth every penny, IMO.

 

[bruceha2000]

And yes, the coop cups will get a better stand in about a week when the semester is over!

Yea, school's out for summer! (almost).
Is there a reason you have the cups right at ground level? I would think it easier for the chickens if they are up several inches.

it's incredible how fast mold/algae grows in this hot, humid climate

You can slow that substantially by having the water in a dark enclosure.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

Yea, school's out for summer! (almost).
Is there a reason you have the cups right at ground level? I would think it easier for the chickens if they are up several inches.

The coop cups will be getting a higher and sturdier stand than that. That was another project and it just happened to work well.
The L cups need to be raised yes. We've kept it low for our younger chickens, but plan to strap it up to the side of the coop in ~3 weeks? Then probably have to do a final lift a short while after

 

[Ms Biddy]

Here is a horizontal waterer with a 2 gallon bucket in our chicken tractor. It works great, but I do get some mildew or some kind of algae that I have to clean out of the bucket from time to time. I put a flush valve at the end.

Horizontal nipples work great for full grown chickens. They were too firm for them to push when they were chicks. The next time I have chicks I'll start with vertical nipples and then switch to horizontal. Cups look harder to keep clean.

 

[rjohns39]

Nipple waterers, I imagine both vertical and horizontal, hieght is important for preventing mess. If the chicken can't naturally catch the drip in their beak, they'll just peck until they make a puddle. I use nipples in my brooder, bells for my tractors, and plain ole water bowls on pasture, and during summer lots of them and kiddie pools. I'll also add frozen bottles of water into the bowls. My preference would be the bell waterers, but I have not discovered a way to use them, that the birds haven't figured out how to destroy. But then I have chickens, ducks, and turkeys living in the same pasture. Water bowls, during hot weather are going to get poopy, as the birds will cool their feet in them.

here are my two favorite waterers (I also use saddle nipples in one of my brooders).

1. BELL MATIC DRINKER using a 5 gallon bucket to feed it.
2. Gillis Game Bird Drinker Activator Kit again using a 5 gallon bucket, but you can use a hose too.

I typically will brood 80-100 birds per cell, so forgive the size and they do come smaller. OH! and in response to one of the other threads, "The other Bird's water nipple must be better than mine" I've seen 30 chicks fighting for a single nipple until one wanders off and starts drinking from a different one, then everyone goes over there. Eventually, they break into smaller and smaller groups, but very frustrating to watch.

 

[wamtazlady]

I recently put my 2 month old chicks outside in the grow out coop. Added vertical nipple waterer. This was in the evening. When I checked up on them at 7 am they were getting drinks from the waterer. When winter comes I'll have the horizontal nipples out in the coop as they are wonderful for winter. Have had temperatures down to -22 F without them freezing. Am using a 10 gallon tote with lid, horizonal nipples, and a stock tank deicer that is okay to use in plastic for winter. Only have to fill it up once week or so. they never seem to have a problem changing from the vertical nipples in warm weather to the horizontal nipples in cold. It's probably because I assume they will use what I put out and so they do.

That being said, the best watering system is the one that works best for you.

 

[itsnickers]

We prefer the cups; the girls get more water than when we used the nipples. If we could have an open waterer we would, but too dusty and hot. We live in Arizona and we have months of over 110 degrees. We put ice bottles in the 10 gallon thermos 2x a day and the water stays cold! We even have the thermos part on the outside for easy fill etc., but the cups are in the coop and run.

 

[pginsber]

Nipples work great for us, but I've got some backup cups in the event one of the nipples stops working.

Ours is an L shaped PVC with heat tape wrapping during the winter and a floating stock pond heater in the reservoir. Works great!

Bypass the insulated pipe wrap--the chickens will just eat it. Ask me how I know this...