Brothers M. Mondays in May(MiM) is our tradition of sharing our excitement about our chickens every Monday in May.  This year’s Monday’s in May focus on Did it Work? We’ll look at some of the things we’ve done and give an update on how well it worked.

Today we’re again talking about waterers and it’s less of a ‘did it work’ and more of a ‘what works for us’.  I’ve been eyeballing the plastic 5 gallon waterers for a while now wondering if they’d work better for us.  Well this year I needed one and the only kind my favorite farm store had was plastic so I got a chance to try one out.

The metal dual wall waterers are traditional and well proven.  They are also super convenient to fill with a 5 gallon bucket because the opening is so large and all you have to do is pull the top cover off, I only twist and hook the tops when I’m carrying them empty so it’s easy to pull straight up when filling.  However, they are a bit harder to clean, I use a small kitchen brush to clean the trough.   They are also more cumbersome to carry when they have water as you have to take the top cover off and carry them by the sturdy inside handle.  They have a “plunger” that prevents water from flowing out, but some always seep out anyway and will overflow until you can replace the top cover.

The plastic waterer is easily carried by the handle on top and there’s a small cap that you place over the bottom hole to prevent water from coming out as you carry it or while you are filling it.  The bottom tray comes off, so it’s easier to clean too.  Filling the plastic waterer is more difficult as the lid/handle is hard to unscrew, at least for the first little bit.  The hole is not very wide and the flow of water from a 5 gallon bucket tends to be wider than the hole and harder to hit.  You also have to place the small cap over the hole to prevent losing water while filling, then return it to the top where there’s a convenient place to keep it.

What made the decision easy for me happened the second evening.  I was relaxing in the house and started questioning if I had removed the black cap off the fill hole.  I went back out to the field only to confirm yes I had done it right.  SO…  I know how forgetful kids are, and this was just a recipe for disaster.  With the metal waterers,  I’ve never questioned whether myself or my kids put the covers back on the waterer.  A big metal cover is just too obvious and much harder to miss.