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

[thepick4uchicks]

Do not try to switch to nipples in extreme temps.

That’s for sure. My chicks always have water available hanging in the coop and run at all times that is via a very large waterer- huge plastic one (3 gallon) and they cannot turn over or knock over, or clog up with shavings by themselves. We check them throughout the day and fill each once a day and clean all thoroughly daily hands down -family policy. We made it a deal before we got chicks. We have a neighbor who doesn’t like to feed or water his animals. He gets dogs and or cats in the manor of allowing folks to give animals to his kids. He doesn’t buy them really. He allows the kids to accept them because it settles their desire to get them but he doesn’t want to pay to feed, care for, vet them, shots, spay or neuter, etc, and any other vet bills that arise because everyone has donated. Then based on type he gets them seen about to free up the calendar space on the vet’s calendar. Yes.I am completely serious. Then he keeps the dog in the house for about a month, then it’s outside on a lead in the shade for about a week eating good you think but it never has both water and food bowls at the same time and rarely water and food interchangeably even if you look and watch closely. The dog gets water if the rain goes in the bowl or if he gets in the house and drinks it out of the commode. That’s if it’s not like the first dog they had a sweet little precious weenie dog. Next, the dog gets tied out and it’s in the sun a little more then a little more, then a little more, then a little more, and never any bowls. Never any water ever. Never any food. Then it gets out in the box we call it. The 10•10 dog kennel. It barely has any shade from one tree and it always has empty bowls and never any water ever ever ever. That’s where the puppies go to live out the last of their days at their house and starve. So that is what I have to live up against and guess what? Right now they just got the smartest new blue heeler/Australian Shepard mix who is smart as a whip. She is now mostly in the box phase. She has been their nine months. So I made sure my husband and kids new- my husband already knew but he has not had animals like I have and he is really busy so I made sure that if he helped me he knew the arrangements. That if he helped me with the girls that they always had to have two things. 1) water accessible at all times come hell or high water and food too ( that’s a given but they can forage in the run if we ran out for a few minutes. It’s a large run and we can round up something in the house if we were completely out until we could get to the local feed store. 2) Protection Protection Protection: the chicks we have - have never had a mother to teach them other than me ...so they do not know the dangers of the outdoors if they were to get outdoors beyond the confines of the coop and run. They would be killed in a heart beat and probably within minutes. We must keep track of them and take care to rescue them ASAP if they were to ever get out from our care but always to try our very best to be sure that them getting out of our care doesn’t happen.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

Just leave them both out, they'll experiment with the nipples,
then pull the regular waterer once it cools off.

I don’t know. I just can’t tell how much they are drinking. Of course we can’t tell how much either one is drinking with the old style either because there is no way to measure or monitor how much each chicken drinks unless you watch them all day or out white lightning in there and see which one falls over first and each one when!lol!? Y’all like that idea? It’s colorless like water and comes in the same clear gallon jugs. Ha! Ha!

 

[CoopedUpNJ]

Put a ounce or so of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar in the water.

JT

Just read that earlier in the thread! Thank you!

 

[aart]

Of course we can’t tell how much either one is drinking with the old style either because there is no way to measure or monitor how much each chicken drinks unless you watch them all day or out white lightning in there and see which one falls over first and each one when!

I didn't find out exactly much each bird was drinking, just a rough estimate of how much the flock went thru daily. I marked my waterer at half and whole gallon(typical flip-over gravity waterer) and filled it the same amount each day.
After a couple weeks you get a pretty good idea.
Also added marks on nipple water and added same amount each day, from a marked gallon jug that I carry out each morning.
Natural for me to measure and evaluate things with my engineering background,
others might not think that way.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

I didn't find out exactly much each bird was drinking, just a rough estimate of how much the flock went thru daily. I marked my waterer at half and whole gallon(typical flip-over gravity waterer) and filled it the same amount each day.
After a couple weeks you get a pretty good idea.
Also added marks on nipple water and added same amount each day, from a marked gallon jug that I carry out each morning.
Natural for me to measure and evaluate things with my engineering background,
others might not think that way.

Yes it would be and for those with common sense. Me I have very little of both. No not really. I actually have what is called ADD and ADHD mixed together with a dash of OCD in the wrong places enough to be annoying to myself and my husband and kids. I actually and very high functioning and very high GPA but I get too bored too quick with things and quit paying attention too soon and forget things too quick. But not my animals and kids.

 

[Shezadandy]

At this moment I'm 100% open bowls with one metal bell waterer set outside. The chickens love walking into the shallow pan (a water heater drip pan) to cool off - it when I dump the bowls to rinse and refill - they chase the water down the hill, so eventually I made a little trench that turns into a stream when I do my water chores. Nothing works better to get chickens drinking in hot weather than creating a moving stream. Of course, I have the advantage of a hill, so I'm not creating mud that then turns into an insect haven when I do this. They'll all line up down the length of it to get their moving water fix(es) for the day. One of these days I'll remember to get a picture. One of these days.

 

[aart]

I actually have what is called ADD and ADHD mixed together with a dash of OCD

Yep, same here......the OCD is the part that measures things.

 

[pinewoodacres]

For less mess? Probably nipples. But in the heat, the birds have to work harder for their water and that’s not good.

I actually hate cups, too, though. I have so many problems with them clogging up or otherwise not working properly.

The cups and nipples both also can damage the container and cause leaks. I’ve spent way too much on these and am constantly troubleshooting what’s wrong at any given time so I need to figure out something else. We have straight dirt in the run so my first concern was making mud in the waterers, but I have them set on pavers now to help keep their nails down so that also keeps the dirt sufficiently out of the water source. I will probably just go to using founts. Tired of lugging water out there to refill leaky containers.

 

[jthornton]

In 6 years I've tried a lot of nipples, cups etc and I've found a large dog bowl on a 1/2 milk crate works the best. Easy for the chickens to drink, anyone can use one as no skill, knowledge or tools are required to use one. While I still like creating clever things the dog bowl is king of watering devices. I have a heated water bowl so in the winter I plug it in and never have frozen water.

JT

 

[Earthdale]

Is it weird that I enjoy these polls so much?