This is probably one of the best watering systems for the backyard flock owner. If you have problems with chickens sitting on top of or pooping in their water reservoirs, the the Avian Aqua Miser is for you.Ā  It providesĀ large amounts ofĀ clean water without re-arranging your yard’s water pipes and hoses. Great for moveable tractors without worrying about tipping over the waterer.Ā Ā  Developed by a husband and wife who got tired ofĀ worrying about the watering systems in their poultry tractors after two hens died from dehydration and exhaustion when the waterer got tipped byĀ unevenĀ ground and drained dry.Ā 

The Avian Aqua Miser is based on the method industrial chicken farms use to water their birds. In the industrial farms, multiple nipples are attached to a long hose so that each bird has a way to drink clean water in its own cage with no spillage. Unfortunately, the hose setup is hard to carry over to the backyard chicken operation since many nipples require high water pressure to work. The Avian Aqua Miser has the best of both worlds — clean, fresh water for your chickens to drink, but no hoses to drag behind your tractor or clutter up your yard.

The chicken nipple at the bottom of your Avian Aqua Miser is designed to release water from the reservoir when touched. Your chickens will quickly learn to peck at the nipple because of their attraction to the color red. If they don’t catch on right away, poke the nipple a few times with your finger letting the water drip out onto the ground and your chickens will soon figure it out.

Aqua Misers require very little care. Rinse every few weeks with warm water and your chickens will be drinking clean water all day long! Made from food-grade plastic to protect your chickens’ health.

The Avian Aqua Miser will work for most poultry, including ducks, geese, quail, etc. However, ducks should also be given a wading pool or other body of water to swim in. You may need to mount your waterer higher or lower than the height listed in the instructions depending on your birds’ stature — the goal is to have your birds reach up to the nipple in the bottom of the waterer, but not to have to strain to reach it. Your birds may also drink more or less than the amount listed above depending on their size — use your common sense and assume a full grown turkey drinks a lot more than a duckling.

In the summerĀ you can pamper yourĀ hens by putting ice cubes in the Avian Aqua Miser for hours of cool drinks.

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Tell us about your frustrations with your watering system.Ā  Or, if you like your watering system, let us know as well!Ā Ā  Comment in the form below to enter.Ā  If you repost this giveaway via twitter or facebook or write about it on your blog – or anywhere online –Ā you may add an additionalĀ comment or commentsĀ for each time you shared the link (just make sure to share the url address in the comments box).Ā Ā 

(NOTE:Ā  Please also take the time to visit http://www.avianaquamiser.com to learn more about this clever watering system and help support a small business)

This giveaway will end on 10/31/2010 at 12 PM PST. Open to all persons in the United States of America, even contributing authors of this blog.

IMPORTANT:Ā  Sometimes entries will accidentally go to the Spam folder. However, I do go through the spam and all relevant entries will be approved so your entries will be counted!

Winners will be chosen by random.org and will be e-mailed. The winner has 48 hrs. to respond to e-mail or another winner will be chosen. Winners will be announced via a blog post.

DON’T WANT TO WAIT AND WIN?

Support a small business and homegrown ingenuity!Ā  You can buy pre-made Avian Aqua Misers here:Ā  http://www.avianaquamiser.com/readytogowaterers/

Or check out the cheaper DIY solution:Ā  http://www.avianaquamiser.com/diywaterers/

Free shipping in the US!

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29 COMMENTS

  1. I have traditional waterers which look like a bucket with a large lid on top turned upside down. They work well as long as I keep them up on a concrete block so that the chicken’s scratching doesn’t dirty up the water in the pan. I’ve always wanted to try these nipple waterers. This would be a wonderful giveaway to win. Thanks!

  2. This waterer is something we will definitely look into (if we don’t win it:). The problem with our current waterer is that one of our ‘girls’ likes to perch on it. Not only does it get pooped into, it ends up falling over. Not a good thing when it’s 105degrees outside.

    thanks for the great giveaway!

  4. I have exactly the problematic waterer pictured at the top of the page. I would absolutely love to have a product that doesn’t get so nasty that the kids won’t clean it.

  6. Oh boy, my hens just can’t wait to have their daily foot soak in their auto waterer! Winning one of these would be delightful šŸ™‚

  7. I would love this, we are just beginng our chicken set-up in anticipation of two new hens comming this week. I would love to avoid poopy water! Thanks so much for this you are all very kind!

  9. We are currently using a long cement water trough with goldfish in it to water our turkeys & chickens. This watering system requires more labor – frequent cleaning! I came upon the Avian Aqua Miser watering system online recently & have been considering this for our flock. To win an Avian Aqua Miser would sure give us a jump start on the remodeling!! Thanks for the opportunity & keep up the good work on your many websites.

  10. We also have a traditional waterer. We keep it on a stump to help prevent dirt and muck from getting in the water but then we end up with gunk and slugs growing between the stump and the plastic. Plus the girls like to knock it over and then they end up waterless until we notice.

    My son is in charge of keeping the water supply fresh. “Fresh” doesn’t really mean much to a 10 year old boy!! But new gear is very interesting.

  12. This looks like a great product! Our traditional waterer got a hole, so we were trying the kennel bucket (open bucket) hanging from the side of the pen. The hens are still able to scratch straw up into the clean water! Would love to try an Avian Aqua Misers!

  15. Boy your picture says it all…but I love when there’s snow and the temp is frigid and you still have to deal with the mess! What a wonderful invention I hadn’t heard of this until now. This is a great opportunity! Bless you!!!!

  16. It would be great to not have to clean out the clay water dish I currently use. Every morning, I have to dump out the mess, scrap it with a stick, rinse it and then fill it–not a nice first thing in the morning chore!

    This product would be a great way to provide my hens with clean water with the hassle.

  17. I just wanted to drop by and answer any questions. In response to Ben — our waterer is for both indoors and outdoors. The nipples don’t drip until the chickens peck on them, so there’s very little water on the floor (although one hen in a hundred is a messy drinker and lets water run down her face onto the ground.)

    Thanks to everyone else for their interest! I’m looking forward to sending out the free waterers.

  18. I have regular waterers. Quite often the birdies will still have water, but the drinking trough gets filled up with dirt and straw. Then there are the time the girls play “queen of the mountain”, trying to see which one can stand on top of the waterer the longest. Well, nature takes its course and the sides of the can get all nasty.
    I’ve seen the Aqua Miser online and I’ve thought how it would solve some of these problems.

  19. Oh My! whether I were to win or not these are the best. We shut our water off the fifteenth of October and we do not turn it back on until June so that means I was carrying water down every morning to our girls and one guy. You heard the “WAS” that’s because I purchased 3 Aqua Miser this summer…………………..WE LOVE THEM!!!! oh and so do our girls and one guy!! It took them less then 30 minutes to get the concept and everyone was drinking. We just sat and watched them look at the bucket and the red nipple and with one peck they got it!!!

  20. Since I am involved in educating others about backyard poultry, I find I am much more concerned about putting my best foot forward when we have visitors to our homestead. Keeping pens dry is becoming a very daunting task as our flock grows. Less water on the ground would make for less waste of both water and bedding. Winning this system would help me to be a much better steward of the poultry that I have been entrusted with.

  21. We have been using traditional waterers that we hung from the top of our chicken tractors thinking that it would keep it clean. I can’t believe it but they still get it all dirty! This new Avian Aqua Miser would be wonderful!

  22. I’m in the process of building a coop, well my husband is! This looks like it would be a great way to go for watering and one less expense if I win. we’ve had the plans for a year and only the base built so far. We’re only allowed 3 chickens where I live so I’d only need the one that does up to 5 chickens, although…I am working with a local school and there is a possibility of us also raising chickens there!

  23. I have one of those metal waterers- you know, the kind that looks pretty much like the plastic ones that everyone has, but metal and old looking… here’s a picture.

    When I bought it, I chose the metal unit over the plastic unit because of its recyclability at the end of its life-cycle at my home. Pretty much every recycling station accepts all common household metals, but few out there would be likely to recycle a plastic poultry waterer when the trough cracked after a few years of use, and it would instead end up in a landfill or incinerator somewhere.

    Like the plastic units, the metal units get filled with debris- dirt, dung, scratch, shavings, …whatever. In an attempt to limit the amount of debris, I’ve raised my waterer to about 8″ from ground level. While this has certainly lessened the amount of debris that gets trapped in the waterer, the issue of foreign matter persists. During the summer, a good scrub of the waterer is required just about daily to prevent bacterial and algae growth on the inside of the unit.

    On top of the debris issue, there’s another big flaw- one cannot see the water level in the reservoir. On several occasions, particularly during the hot summer months, this has led to the birds running out of water for a good half day or so. We’ll look at the feeder and waterer in the morning and all looks good, but when we return at the end of the day, the waterer is bone dry.

    I’d be stoked to win one of the Aqua Misers, it would benefit my flocks health (can one call 6 birds a flock?), and would surely simplify the watering and cleaning chores.

  24. We are getting our first chickens in the spring. It would be lovely to start as we mean to go on with this waterer.

  25. I have 5 free range birds and their waterer is hung up so they cannot poop in it, but they do fling debris into it when they scratch, so I have to rinse it out all the time. It is good for actually providing the birds with water, the worst part is cleaning it. Since it hangs, you can’t set it down once it is filled and the hanging mechanism makes it really hard to unscrew the jug from the base. I have checked out the Aqua Miser website & they seem like a wonderful & affordable solution, but being unemployed my budget is super tight.

  26. I am a wife and home schooling mother of 5 and I am entering this on behalf of my friends and mentors JB and Barbara Short of Sunnyside Farms in Pine Mountain, GA. The Shorts are sustainable farmers who are committed to providing nutritious and local produce to everyone especially the elderly, single parents and children at affordably prices. Despite the average challenges of being senior citizens and running a farm they continue to encourage and educate the youth (adults and children) on history and importance of sustainable farming. Here is their entry in their own words: Sunnyside Farm was established in 1836 and has been a family farm since that time. We sell fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit and farm fresh eggs. A watering system would be of GREAT help. Farmer JB is 73 and has Parkinson’s Disease. He recently ruptured the achilles tendon on his left foot. He will be in a walking cast (boot) for several months because he is not a candidate for surgery. He keeps the chickens fed and watered. He loves his chickens and our customers love our eggs. There is NO WAY he is giving up his feathered friends. A watering system would be of immense help to him by eliminating the need for him to carry water to the hens. God Bless and thank you for this blessed opportunity.

  27. My biggest problem with our watering system is…we don’t have one yet! We’re getting ready for a spring chick order and are working hard to get an old garden shed and play structure converted into a coop and run. Oh, and working at getting chickens legalized in our town as well!

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