Watering Cups With no Water in Them.

[Stuart77047]

I have watering cups installed in a PVC pipe for my chickens. If I push on the yellow plastic water come out and fills the cup. Then later when I come back the chickens have drank all the water in the cup. I took out the old waterer for a day and then put it back in that night to make sure they had water. They all swarmed it like they were really thirsty. I did this for three days and today I got the same result. The water is not going down in the reservoir much at all. Has anyone else had any problems with the chickens learning to operate the drinking cups?

 

[TBTT]

I have watering cups installed in a PVC pipe for my chickens. If I push on the yellow plastic water come out and fills the cup. Then later when I come back the chickens have drank all the water in the cup. I took out the old waterer for a day and then put it back in that night to make sure they had water. They all swarmed it like they were really thirsty. I did this for three days and today I got the same result. The water is not going down in the reservoir much at all. Has anyone else had any problems with the chickens learning to operate the drinking cups?

You have to train them to use it. Best way to do it is to push the yellow tab until you have about a teaspoon of water in it. Once they discover it, it will be just the right amount to activate the yellow tab with their mouth so the water will flow in as they drink. Do this periodically through out a day or two and they should learn. Water won't stay in the cups once they learn only what they drink will come out into the cup.

 

[Stuart77047]

Ok. I think I have figured out what the problem was. Yesterday morning when I was topping it off I noticed that it had the smell of the PVC cement. I had rinsed it out well when I built it, but I guess it takes a little longer to get rid of all that smell. I flushed it and will flush it everyday for a week. Once I flushed it the chickens started drinking from it. I am very glad that I put a valve on the end of the pipe. Makes flushing it very easy.

 

[seattlehens83]

I had to use a pen and put little dots on the trigger to get mine to start using their cups. Sounds like you might have figured out your problem already though with the PVC smell though.