Chicken Nipples

canesisters

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You could always stick some sunflower seeds to the bottom of the bucket.. eventually someone is going to hit the nipple and get a little water. Once one figures it out, they will all have it - chicken-see-chicken-do.
 

vfem

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I use these and they are the BEST! We are using 3 gallon buckets in the pens now, but we add these to bottle tops (20 ounce soda bottles) and then pop a hole in the bottom of the bottle for the chickens. They are all smart and get it right away.

So nice to have constant clean water!!! :D
 

canesisters

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vfem said:
I use these and they are the BEST! We are using 3 gallon buckets in the pens now, but we add these to bottle tops (20 ounce soda bottles) and then pop a hole in the bottom of the bottle for the chickens. They are all smart and get it right away.

So nice to have constant clean water!!! :D
Last summer I was freezing several water bottles to cool the 5gal water-er during the hottest days....
I think I might try putting a nipple in a bottle cap and freezing the bottle 2/3 full - I bet it will provide hours of cold water..... :D
 

secuono

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My birds free range 24/7 and use the pig water pool or the rubber pail out in the yard. No poo, just leaves or worms in them.
Nipples aren't very useful in winter when they freeze...
 

MontyJ

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Good point about the freezing secuono. Has anyone ever tried just using an aquarium heater in the waterer? It would have to be designed so that the heater is always surrounded by water, otherwise it will burn up. An automatic waterer would be ideal, but I can see a way to do it with a top fill waterer. I'll do some experimenting when I get a chance. I'll use the chest freezer as the test environment.


Never mind. The more I think about it, the more I don't like an aquarium heater for this.
 

baymule

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Monty I can picture your wife reaching in the freezer for something and finding your chicken nipple bucket on a "trial run" :lol:

Good idea on the aquarium heater. If I lives where I had to deal with freezing water, I would sure have one. Do your chest freezer research and report back to us, I bet a lot of folks here would love to know!!
 

MontyJ

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I'm thinking the aquarium heater may be a very bad idea. I have seen them fail in some spectacular ways. I am worried about the electrocution hazard. I'm going to keep thinking on this. I would like to have this resolved before I run into the problem next winter.
 

thistlebloom

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When I first got my chickens I got the peck-it waterers, but I guess I didn't train my chickens diligently enough, because they always seemed thirsty to me. I put it away the first winter because of the freezing issue and never got it back out....

But they don't ever poop in their water, I keep the fount waterer on a bench that they hop up on in the summer, and in the winter I use a large rubber feed pan that I can just knock the frozen water out of. Not really a problem.
 

MontyJ

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I've got it! Stock tank heater/deicer. Those are pretty tough and reliable.
 

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