Idea for homemade brooder waterer (no mess!)

[buildingmyark]

This may not be a new idea for all of you experts, but I wanted to share this idea just in case anyone is tired of changing dirty water from their brooder.

Supplies Needed:
1. Plastic Mayo jar (or something similar) 2. Threaded Poultry Nipples 3. Wire

I simply drilled holes into the lid of the jar with the recommended drill bit, screwd in the nipple waterers and wired it up so that it could hang on the side of my brooder. Here are the pics:

ETA: Okay, yesterday I figured out a very important step while making another small waterer. It seems that in order for the water to flow through the nipples you must drill 2 SMALL holes at the bottom of the jar/container (the bottom will really be the top once the waterer is hanging). I tried to draw an example on Paint if any of you were interested in making one of these. Just felt like I needed to add this.

 

[paddock36]

Cool idea, Do you have to teach them to drink from it or do they figure it out on their own.

 

[buildingmyark]

I picked them up from the post office and when I got home I put them in their brooder, and to my shock and amazement, they drank from it instantly! I guess curiosity paired with the shiny metal! I was quite impressed considering that I had to give my teen chicks a "tutorial" on the nipple waterers.

 

[WildflowerJLH]

Where did you get the nipples?

 

[vegaschick]

Awesome job! and just like you said...Plastic Mayo jar (or something similar).

My chicks start out with one of these (or something similar)...

and graduate to one of these...

Chicken nipples are the greatest! I ordered mine online from QC supply but I heard someone on BYC sells them too. Regardless of where you get them, they are worth it. All of my chicks, and grown chickens, picked it up right away except for one old biddy headed for freezer camp anyways.

 

[buildingmyark]

Quote:
I ordered them from Farmtek. They are the 360 threaded ones.

 

[buildingmyark]

Quote:
This is just simply the only way to go with regards to watering the chicks! I thought that I would go crazy cleaning out those mason jars with my first batch! Thank you for showing your spin on the project!

 

[tammyd57]

Neil Grassbaugh is a BYC member who sells the nipple waterers. He gives a lot of great info about them in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=328918&p=1

I ordered 6 of them from Neil and really like them. He charges a reasonable shipping on them too, it would have been $11.95 to ship them from FarmTek, but less than $3 from Neil.

 

[buildingmyark]

Wow! Wish I would have known about that! Will keep that in mind if I ever need more! Thanks!

 

[3chimama]

Wow...thanks for sharing!