“Help!
My chickens can’t figure out the Avian Aqua Miser. What should I do?
I’ve discovered that while 98% of chickens catch on right away, a few flocks need some extra help learning to drink out of the Avian Aqua Miser the first time. Here are some tips to hellp you out if you’re in the other 2%: First, make sure that you follow the introduction instructions to the letter. Take out the previous waterer the night before and leave the birds without water overnight. (This won’t hurt your birds since they don’t drink at night anyway.) Then put in the Avian Aqua Miser when they’re thirsty in the morning. Read over our general FAQ page for more information, or read the extensive instructions file which comes on a CD with your order. You might want to hang the Avian Aqua Miser a little lower than I tell you to in the instructions for the first day. Make sure your chickens can actually see it, even if that means they bump into it. You can always raise it up later once they learn. On the other hand, don’t hang your waterer too low. You don’t want your chickens to have to crouch to go under it.
If they don’t catch on right away, start tapping the nipple with your finger so that water drips out onto the ground. Your chickens should be thirsty and looking for water, so they’ll find this drip and know water is nearby. Keep up your poking and they should find the nipple since they’re attracted to the color red. If one bird, especially your lead bird, catches on, they’ll all follow suit.
You can also pour a container of water slowly over the top of the waterer. It’ll spread out down the sides and then drip from the nipple, attracting the chickens to that point. When you stop pouring, they should keep drinking from the nipple.
If your chickens just aren’t getting it and you have to leave them alone for the day, go ahead and take the Avian Aqua Miser out and put their old waterer back in. Then try again the next day (repeating all of the steps above), but be sure to put fresh water in the Avian Aqua Miser! Chickens are very good at telling the difference between old, stale water and fresh water.
Another trick you can try if you live in a very hot location is to put ice cubes in the water in your Avian Aqua Miser. Chickens love cold water on a hot summer day and catch on pretty fast about where to get it! Finally, if you bought a do it yourself kit, make sure that you drilled a hole in the lid of the waterer. If you didn’t, the waterer will create a suction and your birds will be unable to drink.
Returns:
I hope those tips work out for you. If they don’t, or if you just get impatient and don’t want to mess with it anymore, we have a no-questions-asked return policy. Just drop me an email and then mail your waterer back to Anna Hess, P.O. Box 733, St. Paul, VA 24283. We appreciate your patience!
I packed my Avian Aqua Miser cross country when we moved recently. We built up a new flock and I was ready to put in the AAM…they just didn’t get it! I tried tapping, running water, nothing. Finally I decided to shove a grape on the nipple….FOOD? peck.. peck… peck. WATER! Thought I’d share, I’m sure some homemade jam would do the trick too.
I’m sorry you had trouble, but I’m so glad you shared the solution! That’s a new one, and I’ll definitely pass it on to anyone who’s chickens are in the recalcitrant 2% from now on.
This is certainly an interesting idea. Especially since we are replacing the floor in our coop this year because of water spilling out and rotting the floor.
I’m curious what you do in the winter time to keep things from freezing up. I’d like to use this, but definitely have to have a plan for winter freezing.
Our customers have come up with some great designs for turning our do it yourself kit into a heated chicken waterer.Alternatively, you can do what we did until this past winter and just carry the pre-made waterers in at night — they’re so small and clean that it’s easy to hang them on a shelf in the kitchen overnight. Good luck!
My husband brought home a 15 gallon plastic jug and I drilled 4 holes in the outer edge of the bottom and placed 4 of the watering nipples in the holes. I then turned a 5-gallon bucket upside down and placed the larger 15-gallon jug on top.
As the weather got colder here in Nebraska, I bought a fish tank heater and placed it inside the waterer, which worked great to keep the water in the jug from freezing, but then I found that the nipples froze, so I aimed a couple of heat lamps toward the nipples and that solved the problem.
I am wondering if someone has some sort of thermostatically controlled heat lamp or power strip so that the heat lamps don’t need to be on all of the time.
I will have to check this out and get back to you.
I have to say that I LOVE the watering nipples as I was really sick of the disgusting poop-filled ordinary waterers.
THANK YOU!
Marilyn — Thanks for your kind words!
You might want to check out some of our customers’ other heated chicken waterer ideas.
To answer your question — I haven’t heard of a thermostatically controlled heat lamp, but there is something called a thermocube that’s $12 on Amazon. You can plug anything you want into it, and the thermocube turns the item on when it gets down to 35 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hello
i was ust wondering if any algae will grow on the hanging waterers. I kow that my plasic white and red waterer has algae in it at the end of every week!
Also, i have a smaller A-framed run so I wanted to know where would be the best spot to hang it/ I could hang one fromthe top and then attach another one on the inside wall of the run I suppose. Anyt thoughts/suggestions?
HI ANNA,
WE HAD AN EXCHANGE NOT LONG AGO, AND I TOLD YOU MY STUPID CHICKENS WOULDN’T DRINK FROM THE WATERER…. WELL…WE MADE SOME CHANGES OVER THE WEEKEND, ADDED NESTS ETC. AND MOVE THE WATERER PVC LINE FROM AGAINST THE HOUSE TO THE FENCE AND
HUNG IT AT A 45 DEGREE, TOOK THEIR WATER AWAY ABOUT 4 IN THE AFTERNOON (IT WAS PRETTY WARM HER IN SOUTH TEXAS SAT.) WE STUCK A LITTLE STICK IN ONE TO MAKE IT DRIP, AND I GUESS THEY PECKED THE STICK OUT…AND BEFORE DARK THEY WERE ALL DRINKING ON IT…LOVE THAT LITTLE PECK PECK SOUND!!!�MY HUSBAND IS WORKING ON A 2ND ONE FOR THE ROOSTERS! WE HAD TO DIVIDE THE HENS FROM ROOSTERS…NOW WE HAVE THESE BEAUTIFUL ROOSTERS AND DON’T WANT TO EAT THEM! HA…THANKS FOR YOUR ADVISE, I AM VERY HAPPY AND GLAD WE STUCK WITH IT!!!
Tim — We noticed that our waterers tend to get a bit of algae on the inside after a long summer in the sun — it’s easy to wash it out with a soft-bristled brush every few months. That said, it sounds like you might have a lot more algae in your water than we do if you get algae within a week! You might choose to use a DIY kit to make a bucket waterer out of a container with walls that aren’t translucent in that case.
Alternatively, with your smaller tractor, you might choose to make a PVC pipe waterer.
A waterer like this will fit into just about any space.
Adding a little apple cider vinegar to the water (1 tsp per gallon) will prevent algae from growing. Additionally, it is great for keeping your birds healthy
Tracy — I didn’t know that vinegar would cut down on algae — good reason to add it, along with the health benefits! Thanks for sharing!
My chickens took to the nipples right away! But they have created quite a mess under the water line. Any ideas how to keep the mud down?
Penny’s Eggs — I’m sorry you had trouble. I think the most likely explanation for your muddy ground is that you didn’t install the nipples quite right, so they’re leaking. Well-installed nipples won’t leak at all. (A few hens are messy drinkers and let a bit of water dribble down their chins — that should amount to only a few drops on the ground, though.)
If you flip to page 36 of the instructions file that came on the CD with your order, hopefully one of those tips will fix your leaking problem. If not, drop me an email at info@avianaquamiser.com and I’ll try to walk you through finding the source of the problem.
do these have to be mounted a vertical plane or can they be mounted horizontally? I want to mount them at different heights for the different size birds.
Frank — Our waterers need to be mounted vertically, but several of our customers have used them with birds of different heights by making multi-layered PVC pipe waterers out of our DIY kits. With that type of waterer, you can even put the reservoir outside your coop or tractor, which gives you extra elbow-room.
The area where I want to put my chickens has a lot of cheet grass or foxtails as well as other weeds will this hurt the chickens when the foxtails start drying out?
Chris — I assume you’re worried about the hydrogen cyanide that can show up in warm season grasses during certain conditions? We haven’t had any trouble with that with our chickens despite having various warm-season grasses in their pastures. I suspect that chickens just don’t eat enough grass to get sick, especially if there are forbs like clover or plantain around. I’d be curious to hear your results, though!