Hot weather, no freezing...watering cups or nipples?

BigIsland · Jun 23, 2022

Aloha,
We live on the Big Island of Hawaii where it is hot and never freezes. I've read a lot of threads about watering cups vs nipples and it seems most recommend the nipples. It seems that the recommendation is because cups eventually get dirty, but mainly because cups can freeze during the winter.
I'm planning to do nipples or cups on PVC from a low-pressure valve from a spigot.
I'm looking for the least maintenance, but also the best for my chickens. I've read that the cups help keep chickens cool because they can dip their wattles in the cup.
Also, if I do the cups, they'd be the type that uses gravity and the weight of the water to stop the flow...no pecking lever!
So, would you recommend cups (keeping chickens cooler?) or nipples (less maintenance?)?
Mahalo for your input,
Bo

PS - I have 32 chickens...how many cups/nipples would you recommend?

U_Stormcrow · Jun 23, 2022

I use cups, ducks can't use nipples, and I have some. They don't use cups well either, so I also have a dog bowl that fills automatically, a battery box with a float so it fills automatically, and a couple buckets I fill manually. They prefer the buckets....

8 Cups. One for each 4 or 5 birds. Not real close together. Not more than 4 cups per bucket.

and mine are all lever action - I use a 275 gallon stock tank (two actually) for the cups, dog bowl, battery box - the air bubble designs won't work for me.

Auntiejessi3 · Jun 23, 2022

I started with the cups but they did get dirty and I got tired of cleaning them so I switched to the nipples. When it's really hot I have a small dog/cat gravity waterer that I freeze and put out for the ladies, it slowly melts and they as they want. It's up to you and what you think will work best for your situation

Aunt Angus · Jun 23, 2022

Nipples! So much better, imo. I have nipples, cups, buckets, and those default plastic waterers. Nipples have never failed me, and they keep the run drier!

For 32 chickens? Hmmmm.... I really don't know. I'd probably do a lot in multiple places to make sure everybody gets what they need. Maybe, like, 10 - 16? Something like that?

On a side note, my ducks absolutely use the vertical nipples. I don't know how much water they actually get, though. It looks pretty funny when they do.

U_Stormcrow · Jun 23, 2022

Aunt Angus said:
Nipples! So much better, imo. I have nipples, cups, buckets, and those default plastic waterers. Nipples have never failed me, and they keep the run drier!

For 32 chickens? Hmmmm.... I really don't know. I'd probably do a lot in multiple places to make sure everybody gets what they need. Maybe, like, 10 - 16? Something like that?

On a side note, my ducks absolutely use the vertical nipples. I don't know how much water they actually get, though. It looks pretty funny when they do.

Yes, but they can't clean their bills - that requires dunking. Which is why I first used the battery box, and then the short plastic 2 gal paint buckets.

Penpal · Jun 23, 2022

I have a pond and it is never warm. But, I still keep water in a dish, a black rubber thing from TSC. When I bring them into the yard or do anything in there I check the water temp. If warm, I dump it out and add fresh. They don't seem to like warm water.

Aunt Angus · Jun 23, 2022

U_Stormcrow said:
Yes, but they can't clean their bills - that requires dunking. Which is why I first used the battery box, and then the short plastic 2 gal paint buckets.

Ah. I thought you were saying your ducks could not use them at all. Gotcha. The buckets I have are for the ducks to drink/dunk/clean eyes and nostrils. But they'll drink from anything I put out there.

3KillerBs · Jun 25, 2022

For 23 adults and a mess of juveniles, I have 3 large horizontal nipple waterers with a total of about 14 nipples.

This is more nipples than they really need, I think. 4 on the big bucket instead of 6 would have been enough. But I want another waterer to ensure that they have enough for 2 hot days if I'm working and my arthritis is acting up.

RubelliteRose · Jun 25, 2022

I would choose nipples over the cups. We had the type of cups you are thinking about. 4/5 failed by either not filling or over flowing and draining the water bucket. We now use rubber feed pans from TS and the chickens love them.

BigIsland · Jun 27, 2022

Mahalo everyone. As suggested, I've decided to try the Rent-A-Coop nipples. We'll see how it goes!

Hot weather, no freezing...watering cups or nipples?

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