December 2, 2020

Chicken Waterer Upgrade

I haven't blogged much about our chicks lately. So here are a few photos so you can see that they no longer look like chicks!

They look like Barred Rocks, but they're not.

They're Dominques.

With the girls in the background.

We've kind of gone along with our chickens for years, but recently have been discussing their water. We've tried buckets, pans, and the inverted "fountain type" waterers, but the problem is always the same - the water doesn't stay clean. So we decided to try waterer nipples. They're installed in a water container, like a 5-gallon bucket, so the chickens can help themselves and the water stays clean. Here's what one looks like.


The options were to buy the complete bucket with nipples already installed (expensive), or buy a package of nipples only and install them ourselves (inexpensive). Dan had the perfect container for it, the old 5-gallon water jug he used to take with him when he drove over the road.


We were both a little concerned about how to show the chickens where their water now was. But there was no need to worry! One of the little cockerels ran right up to it and started pecking. They figured it out pretty quickly. 

We bought them from Amazon, here. A couple of them were defective, and you can see in the above photo that the one leaks. But it was a 20-pack and they were cheap enough that we haven't worried about it. 

Now, not only does the chickens' water remain clean, but it's cut down on chicken chore time. We used to have to fuss with the waterer several times a day, but now Dan only has to fill it about once a week. This is so much better! I only wonder why it took us so long to switch!

25 comments:

tpals said...

Those are neat. You seem to keep coming up with innovative ideas.

Leigh said...

Tpals, to quote Dan, "there isn't anything you can't find on youtube." :) He was watching a Joel Salatin video on chickens and decided it was time for us to do it too!

wyomingheart said...

Terrific idea! I’m always about working smarter, not harder! I’ll bet it helps with freezing temps, too. We will be definitely be exploring this, and thanks once again for the tried and true information! Have a wonderful week, Leigh!

daisy g said...

I may have to try that! I bet a 5-gallon bucket would do the trick.
Thanks for sharing!

Leigh said...

Wyomingheart, yes, greater thermal mass means less chance of freezing. Definitely a work-smarter-not-harder way to water chickens!

Daisy, oh yes, it would work very well! Just make sure to get a lid with a bung hole so you don't have to remove the entire lid every time the water level needs checking or the bucket needs filling.

Ed said...

Were your inverted watering cans suspended off the floor? Back when we had chickens, we suspended ours off the floor and really never had any problem with fouling (pun intended) of the water. But those water nipples look like a better solution. We had something similar for pigs when we were raising them. We still had to put an eyeball on them once a day because like everything else, pigs were hard on them and occasionally destroy one. We always kept a box of them handy along with a wrench so we could quickly replace them as needed.

Cockeyed Jo said...

Leigh,
Speaking from experience here, buy extra nipples and make a couple 1 gallon containers too. It's winter and the 5-gallon waterer will freeze.

Florida Farm Girl said...

That's a nifty idea. Cleaning out chicken waterers is not a fun chore, as I remember from my childhood days when that was my job.

Goatldi said...

I did that a few years prior to moving from Ash Creek. Only I choose to go to a large supermarket in Redding that has a bakery and ask for empty 5 gallon buckets that their frosting is shipped in. I walked away with two for free. I then put the nipples a bit different but same idea on the bottom and suspended it with laundry line . Worked well and the only difference is mine couldn’t have worked on the sides as you have them.

Nicely done.

Goatldi said...

PS
Some good friends had Dominique and always said they were their all time favorite chicken.

Leigh said...

Ed, we used to set the waterers on a brick to keep them off the floor, but they still seemed to get dirty too often. The too, we only had the gallon size, so they need refilling fairly often. So far, we really like this new system.

Jo, we've never had a waterer freeze inside to coop yet, so I'm not really worried about that. With five gallons, we'll even have better thermal mass. I was glad that we got the 20-pack of the nipples. A couple were defective and it's always nice to have extras just in case.

Sue, I agree! This is so much better!

Goatldi, you must have had a different style of nipple(?) We looked at a variety of models, but this one won out. And we really like the Dominiques so far! Dan has a special affection for Speckled Sussex, but that was because of a particular hen. I think he'd still like to get a few more, though.

Cockeyed Jo said...

Leigh, we must be at a higher elevation than you because our water freezes in the coop and so do our eggs if left overnight in high 20s temps. I even have to can @ 15lbs pressure.

Leigh said...

Jo, you're definitely at a higher elevation. We're under 1000 feet, 900-something, so I can still pressure can at 10 pounds. Never thought about how elevation affected freezing. Interesting!

Retired Knitter said...

Wow - ingenius. Funny how they seemed to know how to get the wateron their own. I had a similar experience with my cats and a pet gate designed to keep dogs out but had a smaller pet door in the gate for my cats to pass through. Once I installed the pet gate at our bedroom door way, I opened the smaller door and I stood their wondering how I was going to train my cats to use it (cats don't train easily). As I stood there pondering this, one of the cats walked right between my legs and through the open door!! Hahaha. Ok, I thought ... my cats are not stupid!

Nancy In Boise said...

I've seen those before great idea! Our flock is so small that we don't really need to do something like that. I've never heard of Dominique's before but I can see where they look kind of like barred rocks. We have one Barred Rock she's almost 7 and still hanging in there.

Leigh said...

RT, it's amazing how they have that sense, isn't it? Sure saves us humans a lot of quizzical bother!

Nancy, it's a very nice way to water chickens, but it's nice your ladies are so tidy!

Another breed that looks similar to the Barred Rock is the Barred Holland. We had a couple of them with our very first chickens. They turned out to be kind of mean, however, but even so, we haven't revisited that breed. The Dominques are extremely friendly.

Cockeyed Jo said...

Yep! We are at almost 5,000 feet. That's why we freeze.

Ann said...

Nipple drinkers are the best! We made ours from pvc pipe. We also made a winter version that's insulated and has one of those tapes around it that keep pipes from freezing (does require electricity). I'd insert a pic but I don't know how.

Leigh said...

Jo, I didn't realize you were so high up there. It's amazing our weather is as similar as it is.

Ann, glad to hear it! You must live with cold winters. Sadly, I don't think we can insert pics in the blogger comments. :(

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Hmmm. That is (once again) genius. To be honest, I am a little surprised it was so easy for the chickens to figure it out. I wonder if this would work with other poultry (thinking longer out for quail).

Leigh said...

TB, it's the kind of thing where you wonder who first came up with the idea. So simple, and works so well. It's kinda similar for rabbits with their waterers. Maybe they smell the water? Or maybe the red attracts them? I have no idea if quail are as smart as chickens!

Nina said...

The nipple system looks very efficient and the sealed water will definitely keep it cleaner. I still use a galvanized waterer and a galvanized warming base, to keep the water from freezing. I hate using plastic here because it needs to be scrubbed so often and the galvanized seems to keep the algae and slime at bay. The heater because well, I spent a year switching out frozen waterers twice a day for the first wintery 6 months we had chooks and that was no fun at all :)

Leigh said...

Nina, a colder climate definitely requires a more complex system! Interesting about the plastic versus galvanized container. I've never used galvanized for water, so I never really thought about it. Good information.

Chris said...

I've always wanted to try this Leigh, but was concerned about our particular climate. As I've heard chickens can die in the heat, because they can't get enough access to the water. People usually fix this by supplying an open water source (as well as the nipples) during the warmer weather.

Just wanted to put that out there, in case you hadn't hear of it yet. But I really do think they're an awesome idea, and anything which can cut down chores is worth the investment.

Leigh said...

Chris, I hadn't thought about this, but then, our chickens have always had water available from other sources anyway: duck pond and goat buckets. It will be something to be aware of as summer approaches.