tired of kids wading in their water dish...

[Tacampbell1973]

So hello, I have now dumped and refreshed my chickens water for the fifth time today.We are in Washington State and haven't even started the rainy season yet and I am already frustrated. I put down fresh water first thing in the morning and all throughout the day I find them running back and forth thru the mud and consequently their water bowls. Is my problem the run floor or the feeder/waterers. They are on a patch of lawn. Their coops (two) open up into a covered run of about 50 square feet of what used to be grass. Now it is mud. In fact I darn near slipped and went down today.... We are talking about 9 birds of varying bantam sizes and two open round pans of food, a plastic auto/type waterer that looks like an upside down juice container and another open water bowl that used to belong to my dog. I tried for a short time to put the containers on small squares of plywood, but mildew started forming underneath even though i moved them daily. I don't own the house so cannot alter the plumbing to make an auto system.... would greatly appreciate advice, I did tarp off half of the outside run and now looks terrible. Can't wait to see what my landlord thinks of this...

 

[donrae]

Ditch the bowls. Get poultry waterers, where there is only a rim around the main container for them to drink from. Elevate it not quite to the level of their backs. Don't worry about stuff growing under it, it won't kill the birds.

I'm guessing you're also getting a lot of food waste with those open pans. Same advice, ditch them and get poultry feeders. Elevate them to the level of the birds' backs and you'll go through a ton less feed.

 

[LoneOak]

Visit this add in the buy-sell-trade section of this forum, For Sale: HORIZONTAL POULTRY WATERING NIPPLES 5 Pack FREE shipping and set you up a bucket like this.



If you use a loose fitting lid on it you will never get mud in your water again. Read all the post so you know how to teach the birds to use the nipples. The biggest secret is to remove all other sources of water.

 

[jimmywalt]

Use the nipples you can screw into the tops of water bottles, pvc, or the bottom of buckets. You can get them for about $3 for 5 on Ebay from China and they work great!

I have a 5 gallon bucket waterer that I've been using all summer. I also made of a couple water bottles for times when I needed something else.

CLEAN water 100% of the time and easy as heck to put together!