The Importance of watering your chooks
Keeping fresh, clean water available to chooks is crucial for their survival, health, and productivity, as they can die within 24 hours without it. Because chooks cannot sweat and rely on panting to regulate their body temperature, adequate water is essential to prevent heatstroke, particularly in hot weather when their water consumption can double. Without constant access to water, chickens can become dehydrated within hours, leading to severe health issues, a drastic drop in egg production, or even death.
Here are the details of why keeping your chooks watered is vital:
- Egg Production: A chicken's egg is mostly water, and even a few hours without water can decrease egg production or stop it entirely. Also, hens that are dehydrated will actively seek moisture, which can lead to them breaking and eating their own eggs to hydrate.
- Digestion and Health: Water helps break down food in the crop. If chickens eat dry food without adequate water, it can form solid, dry clumps in the crop (impacted crop), which can restrict the carotid artery and cause paralysis or death.
- Temperature Regulation: Water helps chickens cool down when they pant. Chickens do not sweat. They rely on drinking water to regulate their body temperature, especially during hot weather.
- Cleanliness and Safety: Dirty water attracts pathogens, leading to bacterial illnesses like Salmonella, Botulism, and Coccidiosis.
Some Options for keeping the chooks watered
So, having established that keep water up to your chooks is vital to keep them happy and healthy, what are the options out there? Here are some of the possibilities:
1.0 Repurposed ice cream container
This is one of the cheapest and most readily available of the chook waterers. unfortunately, it is not the best! It easily up turned by the chooks who can also kick soil or bedding into the container, contaminating any water left in there and making it unsanitary and difficult to drink.
Looks good!
But the next morning....
2.0 Plastic gravity drinker (slots in the bottom)
These are one of the more popular designs found it pet supply shops and hardware shops, they are comparatively cheap and come in a variety of sizes from 1.5L to 14L, are light and made from plastic. I have used a number of these over the years but no longer use them, having found out that due to their design (slots in the removable bottom where they attach to the top bit that holds the water) they can easily start to leak and then need replacing.
3.0 Plastic gravity drinker (No slots)
There are other plastic gravity drinkers that look very similar, but the bottom plate has no slots and so there is no issue with leakage over time. They are a bit harder to find, and you might need to find a local stock feed, produce merchant or farm supply shop. Always check before purchasing that the bottom place is whole and the design has no slots. They come from a number of manufacturers and a range of sizes from 600 ml to 12 litres. While all come with a handle to suspend the drinker from, some of these waterers also have small folding legs attached to the baseplate so they can be set up to be self-supporting.
4.0 20 Litre Storage Transparent Round High Density Polyethylene bottles
These can be obtained as a commercial set up with a 20 litre bottle in a stainless steel drinking trough. Or can be put together as a DIY using surplus water bottles, the type you tend to see in water coolers and available as new or second hand with a drinking nipple installed in the bottom.
Commercial waterer
DIY Waterer
Drinking nipple closeup, and components
5.0 Stainless Steel gravity waterer
These are somewhat more expensive than their plastic counterparts but last pretty much forever, they fill through a hole and plug set up in the bottom of the container. One word of warning, many years ago I bought a couple of what I was told were stainless steel chook waterers that looked very much like those below, but they turned out to be galvanised steel and started to rust around the hole where the bottom plug was put in. The hole eventually became so big I couldn’t find a plug to fit and had to be recycled. (The ones below are definitely stainless steel)
6.0 PVC Tube waterer
These waterers are PVC pipes with two nipple water cups fitted at the bottom, the valves on the nipple water cups allowing water to flow from the pipe into the cup as it is consumed by the chooks, meaning there is lass volume to evaporate of be contaminated. These particular ones are produced in South Aus by Royal Rooster. It is possible to buy the nipple water cups separately and use them as part of a DIY chook waterer.
7.0 30 Litre Plastic Tripod Waterer with Metal Legs
While the volume of these waters is nominally 30 litres, it is closer to 22 litres when the waterer is standing upright. There is a flexible ball secured at the mouth of the spout where the water exits which is placed over the spout when refilling the waterer. The legs bend outwards for extra stability and have holes in the feet which can be used to insert pins into the ground to secure the waterer effectively. The lid features a stopper that controls the water supply, working with the vacuum seal to ensure a consistent and controlled water flow.
Note: some of the waterers in 2.0 can have plastic handles while some have wire handles. The plastic handles should be avoided as they tend to break quite early in their service life and need to be replaced with coat hanger wire or similar.
Thanks to Jason from Sun Valley Produce for allowing me to take photos of some of his wide selection of chook waterers.
