Ensuring that your chickens get enough water

One of the most frequent problems our customers email us about is a concern that their chickens aren't drinking enough water when they switch over to the Avian Aqua Miser from traditional, gravity-feed waterers.  We're all so used to swishing half a gallon of water around the rim of our traditional waterers to wash the poop loose that we don't realize how little water chickens actually drink.  As a result, we often think that the water level is dropping far too slowly in our new automatic chicken waterers.

Chickens are pretty small animals, and they usually drink less than half a cup apiece per day.  On hot days they may drink as much as two cups apiece, and we've noticed that our old chickens are always heavy drinkers.  If you're getting started with the Avian Aqua Miser and are concerned that your chickens aren't drinking enough, try paying attention to the handy markings on the side of the reservoir for a day to see if your chickens are getting enough to drink.

Other customers see their chickens drinking out of the Avian Aqua Miser, but still feel like the birds aren't getting enough hydration since they run back to their old waterer when given the chance.  We've seen this in action, and mused over it for a while before figuring out that chickens are big fans of fresh water.  If you give them a traditional waterer full of fresh water versus an Avian Aqua Miser full of three day old, stale water, the chickens will run to the traditional waterer every time.  On the other hand, if you give them an Avian Aqua Miser full of fresh water, your chickens will run straight to the Avian Aqua Miser (and will also get the benefit of not having to drink their own fecal matter.)