Using Poultry Nipple Waterers in Brooders

[MarissaC]

Alright, so, I finally jumped onto the poultry nipple waterer idea! But now, I'm afraid to use them. I'm going to set them up in some of my breeder pens ALONG with regular waterers in hopes that my older chickens will figure out the nipple waterers. However, I'm not sure how to introduce it to the chicks.
I hatch new chicks every week and sell them quickly. So, I usually only have young young young chicks. Should I just one day replace their normal waterer with the poultry nipples and bucket? Will they figure out how to use the waterer on their own? Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

 

[debid]

I started my 3-day old chicks with nipples. I just put them in the brooder with the water bucket and watched for a while. The shiny metal lever with a bright red plastic base was irresistible and soon there was much excitement around the water bucket with several chicks tapping away at once. It took less than an hour for me to realize that I wasn't going to need to leave a water dish in "just in case".

 

[ChickenWaterer]

One other thing.... for chicks that are a few days old you should place the nipples at eye-level and raise the waterer every 5-7 days as they grow.

 

[debid]

One other thing.... for chicks that are a few days old you should place the nipples at eye-level and raise the waterer every 5-7 days as they grow.

Yep, making it easy to adjust height is a very good idea with growing chicks. If you have a big size variance, it's also a good idea to put a block under for the smaller ones to stand on so you can have it high enough for the larger ones to drink comfortably. They ought to be able to stand underneath the bucket.

 

[MarissaC]

Thanks! I will try this out