Water and Feed

Chicken feed and Water

Many of us forget about the importance of water. How valuable it is for our poultry of all ages. A growing chick needs about 2 times the amount of water compared to food. Full grown hens and roosters consume around about 1 ½ times water to feed. Sometimes more depending on body weight.

Crucial nutrient for your poultry

Water is the most crucial nutrient for your poultry. Water intake for poultry can change depending of the level of sodium and potassium salts, protein and fibre and a few other ingredients can form the basis on the amount of water required.
When your chickens require water, they can be sensitive to the temperature of the water. Too warm and they will not touch it, especially in warm weather. Too cold in the winter months and the same can be said. As your chickens grow and increase in body size and fat their consumption of water decreases.

Maintaining good drinking water

Not maintaining good drinking water can effect the growth of your chickens and egg production. So every effort should be made to make sure that your poultry have adequate water supply. This also minimises stress on your birds. A loss of 20% or more of water due to stress can actually cause death.
Change the water regularly and never underestimate the importance of water and the quality of water required. You can never be too careful on supplying good water to your poultry. Clean water containers daily or at the least every 2 days. With chickens clean your water containers twice daily to ensure that disease is kept to a minimum while your chickens are young.
There are many types of drink containers available, I have found the very small ones that come with a float attached are the best to use. They prevent the poultry from standing in our doing droppings in the water. These small float style water feeders can be purchased from your local pet shop and attached to a plastic bottle like a coke bottle. Easy to change and easy to replace the bottle if needed.