Chicken Waterers

I'm not using the traditional waterer with chicken nipple, like this below.

  Chicken Waterer with Nipples
http://www.chickenwaterer.com/BriteTap-Chicken-Waterer-and-Cooler-Combo-Pack-p/bt100-2gal-combo.htm

I'm using regular pet store rabbit (or small animal) waterers, like you see in this picture below.

Rabbit waterer

As you can see, I've also got a bowl of water in here.  I was worried, in the beginning, that they wouldn't know how to use the hanging waterer, and in the first few days the birds were too scared of me that I couldn't pick them up and teach them.  However, Oreo (the little one) learned immediately how to drink out of the rabbit waterer with no help from me.  So I didn't have to worry about her.  Eventually Butterscotch picked it up too by watching Oreo, but it took a week.  I just now removed the bowl of water from the cage because I see them going to the hanging water and not using the bowl.  So now there's a bit more space available in the cage, which is nice.

I had to use these rabbit waterers, instead of the large hanging chicken waterer (with nipples) because these rabbit waterers could hang on the outside of the cage (yay more room!) and hang at an angle (since the coop is a triangle).  The chicken nipples have to be pointed directly downwards (so you have to hang them above the chicken's head) or else they leak.  The rabbit waterers can pretty much be hung at a variety of angles and they won't leak.  So I like the rabbit waterers alot better.

I think the rabbit waterers put out less water than a chicken nipple per peck.  But I think the girls just have to peck a bit more to get their full drink.  And I think it's worth the extra room and cleanliness.  And as you can see, I've hung two waterers, at different heights, since the two hens are pretty different in size.  These rabbit waterers are glass bottles, so I don't have to worry about plastics contaminating their water.  So I'm happy!

I think this is the one I got from the pet store:

Rabbit waterer
http://www.drsfostersmith.com