Waterer frustration!!

[21hens-incharge]

Thank you. LOL her name is Charger and she earned it. No one can do anything without her involvement.

 

[lsumedic84]

Add Oxine AH to the water. I think it's 1/3 Oz per gallon that will keep it clean. And if it is not EXACTLY level it will leak. I have has these issues and this is how I have fixed them.

 

[MikeTheGardener]

Yes I feel your pain. I put a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in mine and that helps keep the water clean.

There are still two issues that I experience with mine which is making me lean towards switching how I give the girls water.

First, when they scratch, they seem to get the dirt in their water which leads me to get in there and clean it.

Second, the lid on the top does not always seal shut which brings in air pushing all of the water out. They are frustrating. A friend of mine had suggested to raising the waterer for now so less dirt gets in there, and then switch over to the style where the chickens peck at the waterer to release the water. Not sure what that is called.

 

[fisher_of_man]

Horizontal water nipples are the way to go in my opinion. Little to no waste, clean water, easy to use/install. Can't imagine a better way to water.

 

[pdirt]

X2 on the horizontal nipples.

Here is our 5gal nipple waterer setup for winter...just remove the electric de-iced for warm weather.

 

[MikeTheGardener]

Horizontal water nipples are the way to go in my opinion. Little to no waste, clean water, easy to use/install. Can't imagine a better way to water.

Yes that is what they are called. I have heard great things about them.

 

[Kingsley11743]

i cant get mine to drink from the nipples... how did you all?

 

[pdirt]

i cant get mine to drink from the nipples... how did you all?

It's a simple solution, but not one most of us would think of right away:

Remove any and all other sources of water. Thirst will drive them to find water. The red nipples catches their eyes. Flick the nipples a few times so they see the water drip.




Newborn dhicks will figure it out within an hour (usually minutes) and grown birds might take 1-8 hours to figure it out, occasionally longer for everyone to figure it out. At least that has been my experience. Of course, if it is severely hot in your locale right now, you might want to wait until early morning, evening or a cooler season of the year to do this.

Without removing water sources they are familiar with, they will be very slow to nil to learn the new source of the nipples. They will keep drinking from the familiar sources.

I setup my camera phone on video focused on our new nipple bucket (they were brand new to any sort of nipple watering) and it took 1:20 for the first chicken to figure it out.

Also, it can help if you flick or activate the nipples so that water dribbles out. Make sure at least one chicken sees you do this. Eventually they will get curious as to how that water came out and will figure it out. It took 1:20 for our adult chickens to figure it out once I flicked the nipples. It took about 16 hours for me to confirm that every single bird was using the nipples. I didn't take 16 hours of video (only about 2.5 hours) and I imagine they all had learned the nipples long before 16 hours, but during the time I was around that day and the next (not all the time), it took me that long to personally witness all of them using it.

 

[feather13]

After years of spilled/dirty Little Giant and Harris Farm-type waterers, we got a nipple system waterer and haven't looked back.

http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Water...d=1434054118&sr=1-12&keywords=chicken+waterer

It took about a day until the chickens got the hang of it and it does get a little bit of algae at the bottom, but I love the peace of mind knowing that the hens will have a steady, reliable source of water for at least a week. No more spilled or fouled water!

 

[WCHomestead]

We love the nipples! We have two 5 gallon buckets with nipples and one 55 gallon barrel. We fill the buckets once a week. We clean the buckets periodically and have cleaned the barrel once in almost a year. The great thing about the barrel is that the nipples are high enough that any "stuff" settles below the nipples. We started with the "trough" waterers and they just got nasty and got tired of filling them every day!