- Apr 4, 2014
- 7
- 1
- 9
Ok, I got so so tired of changing water constantly (messy chicks!) so I bought a pack of poultry water nipples from TSC and started experimenting. The chicks took to it after a few days time. I did a slow intro to it with both the standard waterer in the brooder as well as the water bottle with a nipple in the cap mounted in the corner. I kept removing the regular waterer for longer and longer periods of time and they "got it"! I have 6 chicks and only one water nipple for them so I decided to grab some PVC and build something up.
I started with the water bottle installed like this;
That worked, but a pain to refill as you had to "unwire" it and fill it in the sink with water shooting out of the "mount" holes where the wire goes through. It wasn't terrible but wasn't exactly fun either. For the PVC design, I wanted something that could be contained "inside" the brooder so I wouldn't have to cut anymore into the lid than I already had. I also wanted it to hold a decent amount of water and to have a removeable refill cap as well. This is what I came up with;
A few points about this new design;
* Chicks cannot "mess" this up!
* Chicks cannot roost on top of it.
* Can be refilled by removing the top cap (and I do have small "air holes" drilled into it so water will flow)
* Nipples are higher up for growing chicks
* Main sections are 1" PVC, approx. 16" long and a full fill equates to 20 oz of water (I plan to refill daily as I do with their food)
Well, I hope this helps give some others some ideas on how to approach this with their brooders. I believe I'll also be able to utilize this in the main coop when they move. It was kind of fun to build so I may just keep this for future chickens.
-Lyle
I do have more build pics etc if anyone is interested - fairly self explanatory from the pics above I figured so I didn't want to make this a monster post.
I started with the water bottle installed like this;
That worked, but a pain to refill as you had to "unwire" it and fill it in the sink with water shooting out of the "mount" holes where the wire goes through. It wasn't terrible but wasn't exactly fun either. For the PVC design, I wanted something that could be contained "inside" the brooder so I wouldn't have to cut anymore into the lid than I already had. I also wanted it to hold a decent amount of water and to have a removeable refill cap as well. This is what I came up with;
A few points about this new design;
* Chicks cannot "mess" this up!
* Chicks cannot roost on top of it.
* Can be refilled by removing the top cap (and I do have small "air holes" drilled into it so water will flow)
* Nipples are higher up for growing chicks
* Main sections are 1" PVC, approx. 16" long and a full fill equates to 20 oz of water (I plan to refill daily as I do with their food)
Well, I hope this helps give some others some ideas on how to approach this with their brooders. I believe I'll also be able to utilize this in the main coop when they move. It was kind of fun to build so I may just keep this for future chickens.
-Lyle
I do have more build pics etc if anyone is interested - fairly self explanatory from the pics above I figured so I didn't want to make this a monster post.
