Which waterer do they need?

[lablover]

I have a water fountain type waterer from TSC. It's a big white jug with a red plastic screw-on bottom. My chickens seems to hate it, and almost refuse to drink from it. I guess the area for drinking is too narrow and they can't get a good drink. As soon as they're turned out of the coop in the morning, they run to a bowl/pan of water that's sitting outside for them to drink out of during the day. I also have a small chick waterer that has a slightly wider area to drink out of, and they do better with it. Should I just use pans or bowls?

 

[LaynaDon95]

My chickens drink just fine out of that kind of waterer, so I think they are just being finicky. I doubt there is a legitimate problem with your waterer. You would think they would get over it if they were thirsy enough, but chickens are kinda... not very smart, so you should probably supply them with a water source they like better. (Not that I'm saying you aren't already, I'm just saying you should keep it up.) Bowls and such are really hard to keep refilled in the summer heat, so maybe buckets or something? My chickens have a big red/white waterer (5 gallon. The chickens in tractors drink out of the 1 gallon like you have.), but they prefer the buckets of rain water and the duck pool. A lot of people say chickens will drown in buckets/pools, etc. but mine will hop right up on the side of the pool, dip their heads down for a drink and hop off. No casualties so far at least. I used to water my chickens out of a plastic window planter like this

But most of them come with holes in them. You would have to find one that didn't. Bowls and pans are fine, just harder to keep filled. Make sure whatever they have last them until the next time you can refill.