Rodent-type waterers? Video Update!!! It works great!

[chickenwhisperer]

In some of my reading in the last 1/2 hr or so, I have seen a few times where it s mentioned that folks use the rodent bottles to water their chickens . . .

I think this is incredible, and have just added a lix-it bottle to the broooder.
The chicks natural curiosity is teaching them to drink from the bottle, and they are all taking turns, even now I can hear the metalic pecking behind me.

If I can successfully train these birds to drink this way, that would be great!
I have tons of parts to make an auto waterer with as many lix-it nozzles as I want.
Two 5gal closed buckets would mean clean water for probably well over a week.

 

[solidfreez]

I've been researching this and have heard that chicks in particular (I don't know about chickens) have trouble easily getting the volume of water they need from the rodent style waterers. What I have seen people do (I think there's even someone on BYC that posted some info about their setup) is buy some waterers in that similar style that are made for chickens. I think the main difference is in the amount of pressure required to release the water, and the shape of the piece that has to be pressed to let the water out.

If you do a quick search for poultry nipple or poultry nipple waterer, you should find some relevant suppliers. They're pretty cheap.

I've been planning on using these in the coop I'm building right now, where I'd like to build a setup where I've got four or five nipple waterers in a piece of PVC pipe, fed by a water-cooler type jug. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck.

 

[drafthorse39]

My quail drink from water bottles just fine. They used to play in the water, and would splash it everywhere. It definitely solved my problem. I had a little one who would click the metal ball until he got a small pool of water in the bottom of the cage and then play in it, smart little brat.

I've switched them to wire now.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Its hard to get still pics of them using it . . .
Its funny to hear tho- peck . . . peck . . . peckpeckpeck . . .peckpeck . . .peck . . .peck . . .peckpeckpeck

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Anyways, I know the bottle is full right now and not leakin, so Ill see how much they drank by morning.
Im not hearing any loud "give me something" peeps, so I guess all is well.

Since I put it in, they have constantly been pecking at it, and a few seem to already know how to use the bottom beak for an xtra long peck to get a whole mouthful.

The nozzle is at head height, so any bit of water is dripping down into an open beak.

Ill check in the a.m.

 

[RockwaterFarm]

the big egg farms use these types of wateres. I tried to use the rodent type but they just wouldn't use it.

 

[silkiechicken]

I use those for my chicks all the time. Just make sure they all know how to use it. I try to keep at least one bottle per 10 birds. Eventually they learn they get more water by just pushing their beak against the ball instead of beak slamming it again and again. Only batch of chicks the bottle didn't work for was the turkies... they just had fun draining the bottle onto the floor....


I'd use it for the adults, as they do use them in the summer, but the issue is in the winter the bottle tubes would freeze too fast.

 

[Southernbelle]

I've used them before, too. People ask how long it takes the chicks to learn. I said about 0.03 seconds!

They peck it out of curiosity and once one starts to use it, they all do.

 

[chickenwhisperer]