Vertical (gravity) vs. horizontal (spring loaded) watering nipples

[pawtraitart]

I've raised many hatches using the horizontal nipples and no other water source from day one. Nudging the pin becomes a source of entertainment in addition to getting a drink. They love it. When I first started using these I was worried that my babies wouldn't get enough water. I forced myself to just let them do it. Yes, they will rush to any new drinker if I put one in there.....but if I don't put another drinker in there they do just fine. I stopped worrying about it after a few hatches. I'll never go back to vertical nipple waters or traditional founts that cause problems with wet bedding. I do use my baby cup bottle with tiny bantams (or the occasional weak chick) and newly hatched quail but I take it out after 10 days and put them right onto the horizontal nipple bottle.

An example with adult birds: The other day I gifted my neighbor with a gallon drinker with the horizontal nipples. Her chickens had never seen one of these before. They took to it instantly. I told her to take their other water out and just let them do their thing. Both the chickens and my neighbor are very happy. Chickens are SMART! They are more intelligent than they are often given credit for.

 

[losa]

Does anyone know how much vertical pressure the horizontal nipples can handle? I assume most have them in near the bottom of a 5 gal waterer. I have a gravity fed 25 gallon drum running down to a dozen vertical nipples in PVC and am wondering what pressure they can withstand without leaking. Right now I have to keep my tank only half full, otherwise the vertical nipples leak. Does anyone have a setup larger than a 5 gallon bucket?

 

[pdirt]

Does anyone know how much vertical pressure the horizontal nipples can handle? I assume most have them in near the bottom of a 5 gal waterer. I have a gravity fed 25 gallon drum running down to a dozen vertical nipples in PVC and am wondering what pressure they can withstand without leaking. Right now I have to keep my tank only half full, otherwise the vertical nipples leak. Does anyone have a setup larger than a 5 gallon bucket?

Sorry, I don't know. Have you tried other vertical nipples or just one brand/style? I have seen (photos) several setups using vertical nipples in 50 gallon plastic barrels. I don't know the folks who had them so I don't know if they leaked or not. But in any case, I look forward to hearing about your solution

 

[pawtraitart]

Does anyone know how much vertical pressure the horizontal nipples can handle? I assume most have them in near the bottom of a 5 gal waterer. I have a gravity fed 25 gallon drum running down to a dozen vertical nipples in PVC and am wondering what pressure they can withstand without leaking. Right now I have to keep my tank only half full, otherwise the vertical nipples leak. Does anyone have a setup larger than a 5 gallon bucket?

I've never tried it.......but I do have a spare 25 gallon drum I can test them on.

 

[LoneOak]

Quote:
I have a 55 gal drum in the loft of my barn that to begin with had way to much pressure for any style of waterer. I installed a kitty litter box in the middle of my system that has a float in it to keep it full.

The 55 gal drum feeds into the smaller bucket with float and then feeds some cups and some horizontal nipples. The pressure out of the litter bucket is perfect for all the gravity feed devices where the pressure directly out of the drum was like turning on a high pressure valve at the watering device.

Here is the litter bucket with the inlet on the upper right and outlet with valve and tee at the bottom.




You can see the drum in the loft, the black pipe coming down is the fill line that I hook a hose to.
The line to fill the bucket is inside the barn.

 

[losa]

That's a great setup, but won't work for me with my space limitations, I'd really like to just put some horizontal nipples near the bottom of a 25 gallon or larger tank and drop a stock tank deicer in it in the winter. I have a float setup in the summer hooked to my sprinkler line, but in winter I use a 5 gal with vertical nipples and a fish tank heater plugged into a thermocube. I have to fill it every week, but would love to fill a 25 gallon once a month.

 

[adacombe]

I have a 30 gallon heated stock tank gravity feeding my system and my horizontal nipples don't leak a drop. My old setup with the same tank and vertical nipples wasted lots of water due to leaking and seemed to allow the chickens to waste more. Horizontal nipples all the way!

 

[pdirt]

UPDATE:

I ordered some of the horizontal nipples from Rich386. Great guy, so nice to have personal customer service like that even though he is the only place to buy them, as far as I know!

Following Rich's instructions, I drilled two holes opposite each other in a 5 gallon bucket, about 1.5" up from the bottom and each just a bit smaller than 3/8". He said 3/8" or a bit smaller. I used no teflon tape and simply hand-tightened each nipple. I filled it up...you can set a full bucket on the ground!! No leaks. I removed all other water and 1.5 days later I think all of them were using it. Except for our cross beaked hen. I put the vertical nipple bucket back in just to see what would happen and the cross beaked bird didn't stop drinking for about 10 minutes. Which leads me to believe she has trouble with the new nipples and was dehydrated. I don't know that her malformed beak allows her to slurp up water from the small pocket on the horizontal nipple. So, not sure that the horizontal nipples will work for our flock, unless we decide to cull the cross beak. Which seems silly since she is otherwise healthy, lays good eggs and just because she can't use the watering mechanism I want her to use? Now if I could train the the rest of the flock to use the h-bucket more than the v-bucket, I'd be all set!

I wrote Rich386 to see if he had any suggestions and will report back when I hear from him.

 

[aart]

I just got some H-nipples but my 3 & 4 week olds haven't quite figured it out yet....but they can't figure out the cups either.
I too worry about them being dehydrated so offer other water a couple times a day, which they guzzle.

Only thing about the H-nipples that I thought rather odd, is that they were advertised as being 1/8" NPT, but obviously are not a typical NPT angle, tho they do screw into a typical NPT thread just fine.

 

[pawtraitart]

I just got some H-nipples but my 3 & 4 week olds haven't quite figured it out yet....but they can't figure out the cups either.
I too worry about them being dehydrated so offer other water a couple times a day, which they guzzle.

Only thing about the H-nipples that I thought rather odd, is that they were advertised as being 1/8" NPT, but obviously are not a typical NPT angle, tho they do screw into a typical NPT thread just fine.

I transition my babies to the horizontal nipples at 7-10 days old. What I do is let them have their drinker cup at night, but only offer the horizontal nipple drinker during the day. I do this for 3 days ONLY. After that, they only get the horizontal nipple drinker. I have yet to have a batch of babies fail to learn how to use this system easily and without stress this way. Offering the other drinker several times a day just confuses them. You need them to be motivated to use the nipple. Otherwise they'll just hold out and wait for you to give them their bowl.

For adult birds, I just take the old drinker out, put the nipple drinker in, and let them figure it out. They always do as long as someone doesn't confuse them by bringing their old drinker back.