Chickens need a constant supply of clean water – well I’d say most animals do. But lets face it, chickens aren’t the tidiest of animals, and they seem to scratch bedding into the water as fast as you put it out. So here’s a way to save yourself the constant sight of dirty water in the coop – make an automatic waterer.
We bought 2 types of waterer to try. On the left is a threaded screw-in style nipple and the right is a saddle style. The screw-in style is easy to setup: put one in the cap of a bottle or the bottom of a bucket, hang, and you’re ready to go. Just make sure you put a hole in the other end of the jug you use or it will stop working!! You need to let in the air or water won’t come out.
The saddle style is meant to go around a pvc pipe which is fed from a bucket, hose, or other water source. Ours is setup on a bucket which will go out in the coop once it’s built. We currently have both types with the chicks, and I’ve seen them use the saddle style waterer more then the other. I don’t know if they prefer it over the other, but they do seem to get more water from it.
Overall both were easy to install. The saddle style obviously required a little more work to setup, and we did put some silicone around them to stop some leaks. Since then they have worked great. The screw-in style was easy to setup, and with plumbers tape around the threads, has not been leaking. Just be sure to punch a hole in the bottom of the jug you use or it will not work.
We use the screw-in style and love them. We started with a small 20 oz soda bottle. Put the nipple waterer in the cap and a small hole in the bottom of the bottle. The hole is small enough that we can simply put a finger over the hole when refilling the bottle. Then I hung it in the pen using a fabric sling. As our chicks have gotten bigger I’ve moved the cap to a 2 liter bottle. I put a big hole in the bottom and use a funnel to add more water about every 3-4 days. Again, it has worked wonderful.
I did find that the chicks needed to be about 2-3 weeks old before they could really work the nipples, but once they figured it out and could peck them, then we were good to go!
I would HIGHLY recommend this type of watering system since it provides good, clean water and minimal maintenance – just fill and go.