Watering Cup Systems

[JeffinNH]

I am in the planning stages for my first coop and I am looking for information on automatic watering cup systems such as GQF. Does anyone have problems with these cups overflowing? Are they hard to clean? etc. I think I am leaning towards the watering cups instead of the nipple system as it allows the chickens to ingest more water and just seems more natural. Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[junglebird]

I have a couple of cups installed in a bucket. They stay pretty clean, but are easy to wipe out if debris gets inside, since they remain mostly empty. Mine have not come close to overflowing. I like them.

For the first week, to train my chickens to use them, I depressed the little yellow thing to fill the cups every time I went to the coop, so the chickens would learn that it was a water source. I noticed all my birds had learned to use the cups within two weeks or less.

 

[JeffinNH]

Quote:
Not sure of the climate in southern oregon, but do you have problems with your water freezing? Do you use any type of heater in the bucket?

 

[gsim]

For being maintenance-free, I would do a 5 gal bocket with 3 or 4 nipple-type. /The bucket should have a cap snapped into place with a filler neck and cap on that. Easiest way to refill with a garden hose and to keep clean. Would take a while for the chooks to go through 5 gal of water. I keep all water outside of coop in run in the shade. That way there is no danger of having mold form at bottom layer of litter. mine hangs from a tree in the run. I have not yet taught them to drink from it. So far, we use 3 pans and fill daily. Wish I had built this bucket waterer and trained them to use it when they were chicks.

I used to do a trough (pvc home guttering) inside on wall, 8" above floor. Got tired of picking litter out of it. It is now feed trough only. (Other trough is empty now)
Gerry

 

[celticbird]

Used to have the automatic fount type from little giant they had afloat system and were interconnected with tubing and ran from a spiget they were nice. Had to keep them on a brick though to keep the dirt from clogging them. Foundd mine on ebay.

 

[pacetruckguy]

I have two runs each with a diferent type of waterers both fed from a 5 gallon bucket. They are both on a run of 1/2 inch pvc. One has the metal nipples and red cups that hang under the nipples. The other has some orange cups I bought from Cackle Hatchery. They have a yellow plastic piece in them that the chickens peck at to fill the cups. They occassionally get stuck and overflow, but I think the chickens find them easier to use. Anything is better than cleaning out water dishes. Chickens are pretty good at figuring out what they need to do if they are thirsty.