OK to use well water?

[bigspringshatchery]

Is it ok to use well water with iron in it to water chickens? We have both county water and well water where i live. i have mainly full grown chickens with a few younger ones now.

 

[ninabeast]

The water I use for my chickens is well water, although I can't speak to its iron content.

 

[Kat'sChicks]

I've lived in this country home for 14 years and have always used our iron-laden well water for our livestock (horses,chickens. dogs and cats) with no problems at all.....decades ago there wasn't a choice, and you never heard of any problems. Personally, I prefer the taste of well water over filtered, treated city water anyway! My vote is ..go ahead and use it.

 

[Schwartzfarmnc]

Absolutley Okay, we rotate our waterers from the well water & creek water and they don't seem to care which one, as long as it's clean.

 

[gale65]

I sure hope so. That's the only kind of water we have and the water that we use for the chickens isn't softened either. We have one of those pumps near the pen (you lift up the lever thing and water comes out direct from the well) so that's what we use. All of our other animals (cattle, hogs, dog, cat, rabbits) get the same water.

 

[Nicole01]

I use well water with horrible iron and minerals. My girls are very healthy and happy.

 

[fireguy56]

Ditto on well water.......the girls love how cold it is.

 

[Alethea]

We're on a well. Everybody drinks the water and no one, people, cats, chickens, have had any problems that I know of. Bok.

 

[ReikiStar]

We're on well water and have three large tanks of tropical fish. We've had the same fish on city water (before we moved to the boonies). We lost more fish when we were on the city water, despite our efforts make the water softer, remove chlorine, bring down the Ph...it was a nightmare. Once, while on city water, we had done a normal water change on the tanks. Within days we had lost 5 fish. Even then that was unheard of for us. Come to find they were flushing the pipes in our building. From that time on, we've looked at the health of our fish as an indicator to the health of the water. All of our fish are in the 8+ year old range and have spent 5 of those years on our well water.

Lots of folks and chickens are happy and healthy on naturally sourced water.

You can always have your water tested to find out exactly what you've got going through there right now. But mineral and bacteria levels change all the time. Your water might test one way one year and another the next.

 

[RWPower]

I use well water. Never had a problem. Ground water usually has a good dose of calcium.