Waterer Suggestions please

[Aban]

my beloved Husband is working on 'Cluckingham Palace" now and we have been looking at different watering systems. I would love some suggestions from experience please. Something clean and good for the chickens, we would like the coop to be as self sufficiant as possible.

 

[jcinadr]

We tried a couple options. I am currently a fan of horizontal nipples. Brother-in-law mentioned a possible freezing issue-but it never freezes here. The nipples work at low pressure. My yard has several screwed into a 5 gallon bucket. I have them screwed into a PVC pipe in my brooder. An elevated bucket feeds them, but could have just as easily used a pressure reducer and hook it strait to the faucet. Saw another setup that put a float on the reservoir to make it fully automatic.

 

[Aban]

have you ever seen/tried the automatic watering cups? we were looking at thehorizontal nipples and the watering cups, but wasnt sure which one would be better.

 

[jcinadr]

I worked around commercial houses in the 80's. Pretty sure the automatic watering cups were the industry standard in laying houses then, don't think that has changed. (Perhaps they have an advantage of being visibly obvious when they fail- necessary when dealing with caged birds). I think vertical nipples are used in meat houses (where a percentage of nipples could fail and not cause issues).

The odd one out is the horizontal. I can not find them locally - so pretty sure they are not (at least locally) being used commercially. I can imagine that they could have failure issues in cages (plus chickens would always be bumping into them), likewise the vertical system keeps them more out of the way in meat bird houses (plus they are probably marginally more complicated and expensive). That said, they seem to work well with our semi-free range systems.

 

[Aban]

I worked around commercial houses in the 80's. Pretty sure the automatic watering cups were the industry standard in laying houses then, don't think that has changed. (Perhaps they have an advantage of being visibly obvious when they fail- necessary when dealing with caged birds). I think vertical nipples are used in meat houses (where a percentage of nipples could fail and not cause issues).

The odd one out is the horizontal. I can not find them locally - so pretty sure they are not (at least locally) being used commercially. I can imagine that they could have failure issues in cages (plus chickens would always be bumping into them), likewise the vertical system keeps them more out of the way in meat bird houses (plus they are probably marginally more complicated and expensive). That said, they seem to work well with our semi-free range systems.

Thank you for the info. I onky have a few chickens and we are not concerned with commercial due to the fact these are really just pets. but that being said, I would assume that even on pet level it is still best to use the experince of commercial use so that it will last longer and be more efficiant. I want to make sure that they have the cleanest enviroment that I can give them (especially their water) and the most self-sustaining as possible as to be as natural as I can provide. we can NOT have free range it seems as though everytime they come out in the yard we have a set of hawks that start circling and then the chickens wont go back in and I am standing in the yard all day fending off the hawks until nightfall. They will soon have a Large Coop and run that will have a chain roof to delete the hawk issue. the only other issues we are having is the watering system to the new coop and how to set up the inside with areas for our brooding hens to have some peace with their babies. I do thank you, I will probly not go with the nipples. I would really worry about failure considering that we live in Florida where it is always hot and failure of a watering system is NOT an option!

 

[jcinadr]

I have not been in a commercial house since I was in high school - and am making assumptions about why various commercial houses use what they use.

In a commercial laying house, birds are confined to small pens (IIRC, 5 birds to a pen). Given that the houses in the 80's had 100k+ birds per house, they were amazingly automated. I don't know why the automatic cups were used. I am sure the fact that the birds were caged was a factor. The water's might have been protected by the caging. Likewise the birds needed to be protected against failed waterers (99% working would not help if the ones to a specific cage failed - and there were at least 20k cages per house).

Meat birds had different consideration - they were not raised caged. The houses I worked around held less than 20k birds. They would have had hundreds of nipples. If one failed, there would have always been more available. Finding and replacing a failed nipple would not be a life or death matter.
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I currently have 4 nipples in my run, and 4 per layer in my brooder. I have used conventional (inverted jar/bucket) waterers. They needed filling daily, water got knocked everywhere, and poop was in it. I really like how clean and dry the nipples keep things. An added bonus is I only have to fill the 5 gallon bucket weekly.

As for climate - South Texas here. Heat will be an issue, but not ice. Brother-in-law is in Maryland. His waterers were freezing at night.

 

[Aban]

I have not been in a commercial house since I was in high school - and am making assumptions about why various commercial houses use what they use.

In a commercial laying house, birds are confined to small pens (IIRC, 5 birds to a pen). Given that the houses in the 80's had 100k+ birds per house, they were amazingly automated. I don't know why the automatic cups were used. I am sure the fact that the birds were caged was a factor. The water's might have been protected by the caging. Likewise the birds needed to be protected against failed waterers (99% working would not help if the ones to a specific cage failed - and there were at least 20k cages per house).

Meat birds had different consideration - they were not raised caged. The houses I worked around held less than 20k birds. They would have had hundreds of nipples. If one failed, there would have always been more available. Finding and replacing a failed nipple would not be a life or death matter.
----
I currently have 4 nipples in my run, and 4 per layer in my brooder. I have used conventional (inverted jar/bucket) waterers. They needed filling daily, water got knocked everywhere, and poop was in it. I really like how clean and dry the nipples keep things. An added bonus is I only have to fill the 5 gallon bucket weekly.

As for climate - South Texas here. Heat will be an issue, but not ice. Brother-in-law is in Maryland. His waterers were freezing at night.

I hear ya, thanks,because we have to keep our chickens in the coop for now because we are having hawk issues, but their new coop and run will be done soon ( i hope) and then it will be a different story and that is what we are trying to plan on. I love that you have so much input and educated information. It will make our decission easier to make when. do you happen to know if either can be used with a rain barrel?