Switching from ground waterer to hanging nipple waterer.

[Jbum]

They are definitely smart enough to learn how to use it.

 

[Col1948]

I tried it with mine, they won't go near it, I had to revert back to the ground water.

 

[HeyHo]

I switched waterers last weekend with 4 week old chicks and showed them repeatedly how to get water from the nipple drinker. They all picked it up, reluctantly, but didn't seem to me to be drinking enough. So I put the ground waterer back in before bed and they gulped it down.

So I just started using this and it has been great for the past day or so:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078RD2GT5/?tag=backy-20

 

[aart]

but didn't seem to me to be drinking enough.

Not just for you heyho...but for everyone reading this thread.

It's good to know how much water your birds are drinking before starting the switch over to nipples. Just because they drink a lot from an open waterer when it's available does not mean they aren't getting enough from the nipples.
When I switched my adult flock over to nipples, it took a couple weeks but they consumed just as much from nipples as their open waterer.....and still do 5 years later, unless it has rained or snowed, then they prefer to imbibe there.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I see a lot of people have smarter chicks than I do - I still advise keeping a close eye the first day or two at least, because even if some of the chicks get it, you don't want to risk that some of them don't.

My birds were all on vertical nipples and when I switched to horizontal it was clear a couple of them were having a harder time figuring it out. One got by from drinking in tandem with others... she didn't get that she had to push the silver toggle (just kept pecking around the red, and has a crossbeak too so her aim was bad), so she would wait until another bird was drinking and then get a little off the side, and then wait for the next one to drink and repeat. Every couple of days I'd pick her up, put her by the water, and guide her beak to the toggle, but it took her weeks to solidly "get it."