Keeping chicks supplied with water

My five little Ameraucanas are five weeks old already. As babies they were brown and black pretty little markings on their faces. Then their feathers came in and in one day their faces changed completely. They are now almost fully feathered in beautiful dark browns and russets, except for Rachel who turned white with black speckles. She has a snowy white breast and has just added a coal-black cape. Absolutely stunning.

We got them into an outdoor brooder last week. It's just hardware cloth over a sturdy frame, on the back porch, with clear plastic and moving blankets tossed over, but the girls were so happy to have some space to spread their wings. The plastic tub we used for the starter brooder was getting cramped. The new space even has a low roost, so they'll stop roosting on the feeding trough. However they still fill the trough with the wood shavings we give them for litter, and then it's "Where's the food?" I just dump the trough into the litter and let them scratch for it.

Meanwhile, the four Speckled Sussex chicks are a week and a half old. Amazingly, they are growing even faster than the Ameraucanas. Mind you, the afternoon of the day I brought the Amers home I called my neighbor and said, "I think they've grown already." Got a big laugh until she came over -- they really had. So for the Specks to grow faster is saying something. At one week they were able to fly out of the tub brooder, something the first batch couldn't do at three weeks. They are already showing little serrated combs (no combs yet on batch 1).

And they are more rambunctious. Specifically, they keep emptying their waterer. I'm pretty sure it's usually a matter of scratching the paper towels on the floor of the brooder into the waterer, so that all the water wicks out onto the bedding, but they've dumped the whole thing over a couple of times too. Either way it is a problem. Growing chicks need lots of water IN them, and dry bedding.

Water has been a problem for batch 1, too, although they never dumped it. They just pooped in it. I kept raising it on blocks -- ideally it is about level with their backs, easy to drink from but hard to poop in. When I switched them from paper to wood shavings, the waterer inevitably was filled with bedding no matter what the height, and the bedding just soaks up all the water.

What I really want for watering is what they call a nipple waterer. Water goes into a pipe or reservoir, and fittings hang down to a height the chicks or chickens can reach by stretching their necks up to it. A chicken pushes on a post in the middle of the fitting, which opens a valve, and water trickles down her throat. Chickens don't swallow; they need to stretch their necks up and let the water trickle down anyway. So nipple waterers are a natural for them, and the water never gets dirty or spilled.

Most nipple waterers are designed for commercial operations and are expensive. However there is a company in Scotland that has setups for backyard flocks (look here). I've got the kit, but it isn't set up yet. Eventually I'll have it in a bucket in the coop, but there isn't room for a bucket to hang over the birds in either brooder. We've been scrambling to find a temporary solution using the pieces from the kit.

Meanwhile, we've been trying to use the "ball bearing in a tube" systems that you find in the pet stores for hamsters, parakeets, etc. The chicks love them, but they peck at it so hard that they jam the ball up into the tube, cutting off the water supply. And since the water tube is coming down at an angle instead of overhead, they often miss most of the water -- and there we are with the wet bedding problem again.

So... Today's priority is to get the brooders set up with overhead nipple waterers.