Uggh.. Water-er is Dirty All the Time! Ideas?

[Linn Bee]

I had mine up on a hardware cloth-covered tray, but it still got messy. Now I have mine hanging with the waterer even with their shoulder height and I raise it as the litter gets deeper. That does a great job of keeping the water clean for me.

Love, Linn B (aka Smart Red) Gardening zone 5a - 4b in south-est, central-est Wisconsin

 

[cravenchx]

I have found that the ACV works well for the slime, but
the dirt I don't worry about. Have you ever seen their feet
and what they will eat? UGH!

 

[kerrysmommy]

i switched from bricks to hanging it and i have never had any debris in the waterer cense i hanged it

 

[Nava]

I had the water hanging and then I switched to automatic waterers and still had the same problem until we decided to put sand in the run

problem solved.

 

[FarmGirl01]

All of my water bowels are outside the fence on bricks. I made a nice little hole for them to stcik out there heads and drink. Stays clean and easy to fill.

 

[ChickcrazyCharlie]

Quote:
X2, I have mine in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. I love it!!!!

 

[chickenbuddy]

Can older chickens adjust to nipple waterers?

 

[Carolyn252]

Quote:
Mine did in ten seconds flat. I took their bowl away after they went to bed one night and hung the new waterer up. I had made it from an iced tea gallon jug. When I went back to the coop the next day around 10am they were frantic with thirst. I just bent down and tapped the nipple and they came running. They watched drops of water drop down each time I tapped and that's all it took for them to start tapping at it themselves. (I only had to tap it twice; the resultant two drops that splashed down got them working that nipple like crazy.)

 

[chickenbuddy]

Thanks! I'm considering using them for my bantams.

 

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! I was skeptical about the water nipples, didn't think my chickens would learn to use them, but this summer I got desperate. We were going away for 2 weeks and my chicken sitter really could only do minimal stuff, certainly not clean out the current waterer every day . Also I wanted to keep the water cool. (we live in SC) So we made 2, 5 gallon bucket nipple waterers. I hung then in a cabinet type thingy that kept them in the shade and then put reflective material on the tops. I filled and froze 4, 2 liter soda bottles and swapped them out each day. Much to my surprise, the chickens caught on very quickly. I took a couple of them and tapped their beaks on the nipples and they got water and pretty much ran away. I thought it was a no go. But by the afternoon, most of them were drinking the new cold water. After 2 days they were all using the nipples and ignored their previous waterer that contained warm to hot water and got dirty. I am still pleasantly surprised when I clean out the buckets each week that they are clean and not a bit slimy. I put some ACV in each time and a couple drops of bleach for the 5 gallons. They are very low maintenance and if my chickens can learn to use them, I am sure yours can, too!