Poultry Nipples

Any of you who are involved with poultry may remember the problems I was having with water for my chickens. My chickens would stand around them and kick stuff in and poop in them. They would freeze on cold nights. It was a mess and had to be tended to twice a day.

The plastic water containers we were using could not be suspended off the ground like some metal ones. We tried raising them up on blocks, but the hens still perched on them and crapped all over them. The suspended metal ones cost around $40, but we finally found something really cool at farmtek.com.

Pictured above are watering nipples. They sell for around $2 each. All you do is get a 5 gallon bucket and drill a hole that is slightly smaller than the nipple and screw it in. It fits water tight. You hang the bucket a couple inches higher than a chickens head when standing. Chickens, being curious peck at it to see what this new thing is in their area and they get rewarded with water. Each of my chickens taught themselves how to use it on their own.

The water is always clean if you keep a lid on the bucket. It takes about a week for my 20 chickens to empty it. Chicken owners will be delighted with how cool and clean this is.