Wet under nipple waterers?? Help please!

[berriesncream]

About a week ago, my husband built a watering system for our chickens using the farmtek nipples. It's awesome, the chickens learned to use it right away, no more lugging water to the coop. Awesome. *Except* the litter under the inside nipples (which are attached to a PVC pipe) is always wet. The nipples do not seem to be leaking, I think it's more that my chickies are messy with the water. Have looked at getting the cups to go under the nipples, but they all seem to fit a square pipe and wouldn't fit ours. I have searched online for solutions, and all I found was this:

"If your poultry spills to much water, you can use small chicken wire to make a raised floor around the watering system with a house gutter under the chicken wire. It will prevent mud from gathering in the coop."

Has anybody done this or something else to solve this problem? If you have pics of something you've constructed to go under, that would be awesome, too (I'm a very visiaul person!).

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[cklspencer]

Found this on another thread hope it helps.

The West Coast Chicken Whisperer

From: Petaluma,CA
Registered: 12/08/2009
Posts: 359
E-mail PM
View My BYC PageRe: Nipple Waterer InfoPenturner wrote:
pacetruckguy, are those drip trays mounted on round pipe? I am looking at the photo on a very bad computer. If so where did you get them. I really like the trays for the drip issue and I am sure they would work here in our dry climate. a full glass of water will evaporate in a day here.
Those drip catchers are designed for square pipe, but will also work on round 1/2 in pvc. I have since changed the nipples and cups to some orange ones I bought at Cackle Hatchery they wok much better. They are product #4087 they are $25.00 for 5, but you also need the adapters that cost $7.00 for 5. They are a little more exspensive, but in my opinion way worth it. By the way the shipping was free.​

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

what kind of water pressure are you useing? The pressure may be a bit to high on the nipples causing them to leak unnecessarily I know some of ours would leak and would reduce the pressure on the pressure reducer and they would stop leaking.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Quote:
Your problem is most likely the result of a situation other than the lack of some thing to catch the water getting out of the system and not being consumed by the birds. To start with you have to identify why the water is getting out of the system and onto the litter.

Are the nipples leaking water without any action by the birds?
If you are uncertain about the answer to this check the nipples in the dark half an hour after the birds stop using them. If you observe droplets at that time we know that the birds are not involved with that leakage. If there are droplets forming at the bottom of the trigger pin and dropping to the floor check these possible causes;
1) Some sort of sediment or other debris in the water could be getting between the trigger pin and the seat inside the nipple. The very smallest particle lodged between the the two sealing surfaces will cause leaks. Solution - clean and flush, prevent further happening.
2) Nipples not very close to straight up and down. Solution- adjust to a more verticle position.
3) Water pressure way to great. The manufacturer of these nipples does not provide water flow rates at a water column height greater than 16" That is the upper limit of the operating design. The nipples will not leak on their own even with several feet of head pressure. Problems from to much head pressure come in a different way.

Are the birds involved in water wasetage? Check the most likely causes;
1) If the nipples are not verticle and the bird does not have to reach up to get a drink the nipples are to low. Water will escape their mouths as they drink. If the bird has to turn its head sideways under the nipple to drink the nipple is way to low.
2) Nipples are not verticle and the bird has to over reach or jump up at nipples that are way to high. Not likely a problem because most non expereinced users tend to have the nipples to low. This situation is easy to identify by observation.
3) Water pressure to high. These nipples are designed to deliver a flow rate that the birds can consume without wasetage when the water column height is between two to sixteen inches. The bigger the bird the more water they can drink and hence a higher pressure is desired and can be accomodated. In the industrial poultry world we have a rule- find the pressure that causes the litter to get wet and then back it down 1"
Admittedly water pressure this finely adjusted is hard to do with storage tanks. Careful planning should preceed the installation or adjustment should be made to systems that are causing problems.

Drip cups are intended to be used in extremely hot climates or with meat type breeder hens. Since a chicken is disinterested in spending over a certain amount of time drinking beyond what they need to survive in challenging climates or situations a greater water flow may be necessary. With this comes the need for a drip cup to keep the wasted water out of the litter . Since many backyard chickens are raised either out of doors on dirt or in such low densities water wasetage is not seen as a problem very often.
But if it does check out the things mentioned here.

 

[bufforphfan]

I recently installed nipple waterers inside my new coop and I had the same problem with water leaking under the nipples. I soon discovered that excessive water pressure was the main cause of the leakage. I solved that by using gravity pressure only, running 1/4" plastic tubing from a plastic bucket mounted on top of the coop to the plastic pipe going to the nipples . I fill the bucket manually as needed, about once a week. That of course would depend on how many chicken you have. I only have 8 young pullets. I also put an old baking pan (with about a 1/2" rim) under the nipples to catch any drips. The chickens walk over it and it usually stays put! Every morning, as soon as I let the chickens out of the coop and down the ramp to the run, I dump the pan and scrape off the drop boards under the roost, into an old garbage can for later removal to the garden or composter. When I put the clean drop boards and drip pan back inside, I throw a handful of fresh wood shavings on them which helps keep them cleaner and makes them easier to clean. I have about 4" of wood shavings on the floor of the coop and it stays nice and dry and clean inside.

 

[Intheswamp]

These nipples are not intended to be used with regular residential water pressure. If hooking up to residential water pressure then a pressure reducer/regulator should be used between the water source and the nipples.

If using a bucket or barrel as a water reservoir to supply the water to the nipples then it is recommended that the bucket not be over a couple of feet higher than the nipples.

It sounds like the nipples may be over-pressurized and the chickens simply can not drink as fast as the water is coming out. In this case, either lower the water reservoir or install a water pressure regulator/reducer between the source and the nipples.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[farmboydj]

the nipple cups fit onto 1/2 in pvc round pipe very nicely i did it with my brooders and hen houses

Quote:

 

[guitari609]

I am setting up a very similar system to the ones described here. I am using the 360 nipples from Farmtek. I am putting them in a 1" pvc pipe, in a row with roughly 6-8" in between the nipples. When gravity fed from a bucket, as someone above suggested, they work fine. This is how I intend to use them, but at the same time, I'd love to have the option of hooking them up to the hose, and never having to fill up buckets. The obvious problem is water pressure. Typical water pressure around here is something in the 80 psi range. I can't find any recommended psi for these, and I'm sure if I do enough pontificating I could figure out a rough range, but I'd love not to have to do that guess work. Has anyone found a good pressure range for these types of waterers? Lol, I tried hooking it up to the hose just to see what would happen....lets just say that if the chicken had a strong enough tongue to move the nipple, he'd get blasted off with little water in his mouth. Kind of like a dog trying to drink from a fire hydrant.

 

[Tofer76]

Quote:
use a auto tank float on your bucket and hook the hose to it it will fill automatically without putting more pressure on the nipples

 

[berriesncream]

That's what we do, too.