A Better Chicken Waterer

It is so surprising that the most commonly bought and sold chicken waterers are so poorly designed. The same can be argued for feeders considering the high percentage of food waste. The common waterers constantly become fouled up with chicken shit within minutes of being in the coop. I noticed this for years but never really thought of a better alternative until one day I saw a poultry nipple setup. After some research, it was pretty clear that this is the superior design for getting birds clean water. I was a bit concerned about them being able to learn to use it after so years of the other, but after phasing the nipple system in, they all picked it up. Chickens are stupid animals, but thirsty stupid animals tend to get smart or die.

My design was too simply put a couple of nipples in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, hang it, and problem solved. It was quite the success, they all picked it up right away. I use this setup today. You could also tie this into some kind of a rain collection system for automatic filling, if one where so inclined to do so.