WATER for the CHICKENS

Keeping the water containers clean has always been a chore. Every morning we would drain them, hose them off and refill them only to find them stepping into the trough as soon as we left. Naturally this contaminates the water and puts our birds at risk.

Last week these arrived. It's a nipple used to control the flow of water in a bucket.

The chickens peck at the metal rod, pushing it up and allowing a drop or two of water to flow.

I inserted 4, filled the bucket and waited for the action to start. I waited and waited. I have slow birds. They looked, pecked the bucket but not the nipple. What's wrong with my birds?

Some nipples leaked a little so I removed the bucket, added Teflon tape to the nipple and refilled the bucket.

I'll check after lunch to see if it is being used.

Still waiting for the baby.



Up-Date 7 pm

Apparently it didn't take long for the chickens to figure out their new source of drinking water.

This system is so much cleaner and easier to manage, I decided to add a second bucket.

I moved the old bucket to a new location; installed the new white bucket and the chickens didn't miss a beat.

Now I can have 10 gallons of water available which means we can go away for 24 hours and the chickens will be fine.

Each year the system just gets better.

Now if that new baby would just arrive.