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

[jthornton]

I’ll pm you when it’s ready

No need to PM me if the world has been waiting on this...

JT

 

[skyshredder]

Yes, please. Newbie Central responding, over & out

My 3 chickens adapted very quickly to the vertical nipples bucket arrangement from tractor supply.

 

[aart]

No need to PM me if the world has been waiting on this...

JT

Yes, we all want to see @WhatTheDuckingDuck, is the avatar pic your prototype?
Looks complicated, expensive to manufacture.
You should start a thread about it.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Yes, cups will need t be cleaned.
You'll need a pressure regulator for either type of nipples.

Yes, with a pressure regulator of course.

I always shy away from hooking up to pressurized water, perhaps it's being on well water and not wanting to come out to find something has malfunctioned. Using a 5 gallon bucket (or perhaps 2-3 depending on your flock size) and running a PVC pipe with your choice of water dispenser should provide plenty without risking a bunch of wasted water.

If you do a PVC pipe, add a ball valve on the end (instead of a cap) so you can drain the pipe and bucket if need be without having to lift anything heavy.

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking of hooking it to pressurized water so that I really never had to change it. At least, that was my initial thought.

The 5 gal would at least be something to start with and probably be much better than my current system (traditional waterer), as I find myself changing that one almost every day (not because it empties, but because it gets so dirty).

 

[TheBajan]

vertical first and then horizontal. I give them both options at first because the horizontal nipples take more force to operate. I push into the horizontal nipple, get some water and touch a chicks beak. If the chick seems interested I keep working with that one. All you need to do is to get one of them using it and the others will pick it up.

This

View attachment 1369783

Then this

View attachment 1369784

Can you post a link as to where I could purchase the vertical nipples you use?

 

[jthornton]

Can you post a link as to where I could purchase the vertical nipples you use?

I used these vertical nipples from Amazon.

JT

 

[RebelEgger]

We use and like the horizontal nipples. Vertical nipples seemed to leak too much and while the cups seemed to be a good tool to transition them to training onto the nipples I ended up hating them because I had to clean them out more often (or at least just as much) as a regular water dish. The cups constantly collected bedding.

 

[Tango Charlie]

You could, GASP!, get a couple of cups and a couple of horizontals and the chickens can choose to use the ones they like best. Which might be BOTH! And if that is the case, they will have the "less likely to freeze" horizontals for the colder parts of winter.

I have one bucket with horizontal nipples, one bucket with cups, and one open bowl I refill daily. I see them at each type numerous times a day. I don't feel the water is being delivered at a good enough pace from the horizontals. But... they keep going back to it.?.

 

[aart]

I don't feel the water is being delivered at a good enough pace from the horizontals. But... they keep going back to it.?.

I roughly measured the amount of water my birds consumed daily from an open water for a few weeks before changing over to HN's. It took about a week for them to consume the same amount out of the HN's.

 

[Shadrach]

These work well.