How to keep chicken waterer clean?

How do you chicken tender Permies keep your chicken water clean?



Is it the water vessel itself? Is it the location? What strategies do you employ to keep the crud out of your chicken water?

My story begins with a waterer that looks similar to the image above. It works well, except when my hens decide it is time to go digging into run and kick wood chip into the 'bowl'. My technique to mitigate that issue involves stacking up a bunch of old paver tile that was stacked up behind my shed and placing the waterer on that heightened base. The hens still get access to the water and there is much less crud kicked into the waterer.

Do you have water bowl issues? Let's talk about it.

One of the easiest methods I can think of, would be to raise it up, as you did.

Second easiest would be to put it on a wide slightly raised platform that does not have bedding on it. Large metal mesh works best. They walk across the mesh and the bedding/grass/poop etc falls below, and is not on their feet when they are near the water.

The way I went was with with poultry nipples. I attached them to a PVC pipe which was gravity fed from a bucket. This way, the water never got dirty unless I forgot the lid. You can see my first revision in the bottom of the picture. It was mounted to an old wheelbarrow frame so I could move it easily.

hang it up, about 1/2" below "adam's apple" height on the birds, they recognize where the water is and learn to drink from it. You'll still have to clean the trough from time to time, more if you feed mash or crumble, less for scratch or pellets

I would agree raising the water up works really well!!
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around 40 dollars but works well and stays pretty clean.

'Clean chicken water' is a bit of an oxymoron, sort of like 'business ethics'....... ;-)        Sure, I agree that much success can be had with suspended water sources like you see in the cages at the county fair, but bowls of water on the ground?  I've done everything but map out a grid on the coop floor to see where the "no bombing zones" are located to avoid having the bowls filled with chicken poop each morning, but just as bad is the dirt and dust kicked up in the morning into the bowl before it's been changed.  Pretty sure my last dying breath will be expelled as I pour that last drop of clean water into a bowl only to see the white splat follow from above as eyelids are closing.....  Only then can they pry the cold metal bucket handle from my pale clenched fingers!......  

Okay, a bit overly dramatic, but a tough call for sure.....just glad they don't seem to mind drinking it pretty skanky at times before it gets changed.

I would love to know more tricks for this.

I figured so long as they start the day with clean water...and then watch the chooks shun the lovely clean stuff and slurp the muddy puddles that come from cleaning out the waterer each morning.   Chickens are difficult at times like that.  But it's a ritual now so I have to do it or the chooks will get huffy.

Matt McSpadden wrote:
The way I went was with with poultry nipples. I attached them to a PVC pipe which was gravity fed from a bucket. This way, the water never got dirty unless I forgot the lid. You can see my first revision in the bottom of the picture. It was mounted to an old wheelbarrow frame so I could move it easily.

I bought a load of these nipples years back. I have never installed them as I worry the chickens, who are used to drinkers like Tomothy Nortons's, wont figure out where the water is. What's your experience been? Do you have to teach them or do they work it out?

I'm using chicken nipples for several years with great success.   100% clean water all the time.  Amazon or Tractor Supply

I have a 2 gallon waterer with the nipples on it.  This is used during the winter because it is heated.  I rinse it out every 3 or so days.  It is not dirty from the chickens, but from when I take the lid off to fill it.
Summer time is much easier.  I have a 50 gallon barrel with the nipples on it.  I can fill it up and the water stays cool and clean for many days.  I still dump it a couple times a month tho.

Sarah Joubert wrote:I bought a load of these nipples years back. I have never installed them as I worry the chickens, who are used to drinkers like Tomothy Nortons's, wont figure out where the water is. What's your experience been? Do you have to teach them or do they work it out?

Very minimal training. Because they are colored red and have a shiny part on the bottom, it invites them to peck at it. And once on chicken figures it out, the rest figure it out too. My biggest issue was keeping it at a good height when the chickens were growing. You want it fairly high, but not too high... to allow for easy drinking. My chickens were chicks when they started, and it took them no longer to figure it out than other chicks with a "normal" waterer.

I switched my mother's flock over to this style drinks when they were probably 3 years old. They figured it out in about 30 minutes. And the same thing happened, once one figured it out, the rest watched and figured it out easily.

I agree with all the posts here that
1/ making the chickens jump up on a platform, raisin the water etc. is the best way to keep the water half way clean.
[Certainly, that's is the most important method as they can't kick dirt in it like when it's on the floor].
2/ Narrowing the trough is another one as they can't aim well enough to poop in the trough.
3/ having some sort of an overhang so that if they perch on the waterer, they can't physically poop in it.
4/ other than that, it is just regular stuff, like make sure you don't have to trek a mile with a bucket to water them: that is discouraging, and you find yourself thinking: "Well, I'll change the water tomorrow".
5/ I leave a rubber container outside so the rain assists, but his water gets pretty skanky. Also, having at least 2 containers insures that they do not run out of water, which is terrible for good egg laying.
6/ I have 2 waterers for inside so that when one gets really bad, I bring in out of the coop and pressure wash it, weather permitting and wash it while they are using the other one.
7/ I discovered the benefits of a small pressure washer to remove the gunk out of the waterer.
After I collect the poop form the poop board, I take it outside and pressure wash it. It doesn't stay very clean for long, but it is clean...er than if I didn't.

When we had some that were used to dish waterers we started throwing them raisins for treats near the new water dish (keeping some water in the old ones at first. Then started pushing raisins onto the nipples. It took them about 15 seconds to realize the raisins were there and grab at them releasing water at the same time. That was all it took to teach them.  I guess you could catch a few chickens and tip their beaks into them to release water the way you would dip a chicks beak to show them but the raisins were easy and they loved them.

Sarah Joubert wrote:

Matt McSpadden wrote:
The way I went was with with poultry nipples. I attached them to a PVC pipe which was gravity fed from a bucket. This way, the water never got dirty unless I forgot the lid. You can see my first revision in the bottom of the picture. It was mounted to an old wheelbarrow frame so I could move it easily.

I bought a load of these nipples years back. I have never installed them as I worry the chickens, who are used to drinkers like Tomothy Nortons's, wont figure out where the water is. What's your experience been? Do you have to teach them or do they work it out?

I tried the suspended water cups but they seem to get dirty anyway as they dunk their beaks after eating yucky stuff. Plus these darn things manage to leak when you install more than 6 around a bucket: there is always one that leaks. Throw the bucket, start over...It has to be inside, too, to prevent freezing, and a leak inside the coop is pretty bad.
For the nipples, it just doesn't seem like they would be getting enough water from something like that. I tried it and they did use them but I suspect they can get clogged as well. And again, leaks, either at installation or later.
When it gets very hot, getting just a few drops at a time just cannot be satisfactory. [They can drink a quart a day, individually!] They would also be more prone to freezing because the water has to pass through a narrow tube that has metal in it. You would have to have it in a heated building.
They are also to easy to cross thread during installation, Yeah, [installer error. I'm not proud, so I'll admit it] which will cause a leak: If you have a tube with 20 of them or so and one of them leaks, you will have to change the whole pipe and start all over again. That gets frustrating and expensive.
The way I look at it, chickens will bring in their own dirt in the water, no matter what system you use, so I go with the low tech open container on a platform so they have to climb. Every 2-3 days I bring fresh water, on a sled or in my little cart with wheels. Using 3 of them [one outside, 2 for inside] insures that you have a spare when you need to do a through cleaning, with brush and bleach.
Seeing the water they drink helps me to gage the general cleanliness of the operation: If there is dust floating on the surface, it is too dusty. If there is gunk, it's time to clean. That's just part of life with chickens. We have to get our heads straight with that. Some systems will work better for some folks because of the setup they have. Like I've seen a system where water is pumped continuously from a pond and gets returned to the pond, so the chooks always drink from a clean stream. a half PVC pipe cut in half is where they drink from. If they poop in the water, it gets continuously flushed, like a constant urinal.
[I wish I had myself a pond I could use like that!]