thepick4uchicks
Songster
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.Do not try to switch to nipples in extreme temps.