Will they learn horizontal nipple??

[RobPS]

Hi folks. Newbie here with 8 female quales that I just introduced into my first quail coop (never raised other birds either).

I built a 5 gal bucket feeder using horizontal nipples. So far I have not seen any birds using it. Not sure how often they drink, but I also don't sit out there for hours on end watching.

My water nipples are a little hard to get to for me, but if I remove the floor from the area above them, I can reach in and "force" a bird to tap it. I tried that with one bird but she wasn't too keen on the idea and didn't drink any of the water that came out. So then I just used my finger and tapped the nipples until water dropped out. A couple birds watched but didn't pursue them after.

My question is -- do I just wait and hope that one of these 8 birds will peck, get water, and then the others will catch on? Do I need to have nightly training sessions? What does it take for quail to figure these things out?

Couple of pics:

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[slkyldy4evr]

With my chickens, I just let water out of it with my finger whenever they were around and eventually they got the hang of it.

 

[RobPS]

Thanks. In my case, it's a lot harder to do that due to where I located the watering nipples. I can put a skinny stick through the hardware cloth to activate the nipples rather easily, but to put my hands in there means that I have to go in from above... which means removing the pine shavings from the "upstairs" section, sliding out that floor/ceiling, then reaching in from above.

I suppose that's even more of a disruption than just poking a stick in there, so I'll try that a few times. Maybe they'll catch on?

 

[Binki]

Yes the less disruptive the more receptive they'll be, especially since they're in a new place

I would keep both options available to them, a bowl of water/waterer on a brick is more ideal for keeping it clean and wait until you see the hens drinking from the new setup before removing it.

They're probably stressed and have a lot of things to get used to before they feel comfortable. I think when you put a sand bath in it'll help to relax them ^^

Are they kinda sticking to the solid floor or venturing out to where the waterer is?

 

[RobPS]

Got it. They actually prefer the open area of the coop over the closed in area where they started out. The food and water bowl are both inside the "upstairs/indoor" section and i rarely see any of them in there. They tend to huddle at the bottom of the ramp. They can navigate the ramp though--I've seen that.

 

[Binki]

Nice

There is also this style of cup that has a little pool of water, I see them online for as low as a dollar