Drinkers for poultry and pigeons
Hens and pigeons will drink from an open dish, but it fills with droppings, feathers and bedding within hours, which is why most keepers move to a gravity drinker instead. The short answer: size the drinker to your flock and how often you can realistically check it, and plan for freezing weather separately, because standard drinkers stop working the moment the water surface ices over.
Sizing a drinker to the flock
A drinker that needs refilling twice a day is a drinker that will occasionally run dry, so buy for the size of your flock rather than the smallest option on the shelf. A larger reservoir also means fewer trips to the coop, which matters more in winter or if you are away for a day.
Height matters as much as capacity. A drinker set at chest height for the birds stays cleaner than one sitting on the ground, because less bedding, droppings and dust end up in the trough itself. Most keepers hang or stand drinkers on a brick or block rather than leaving them flat on the floor of the run.
Keeping it clean and ice-free
Algae and biofilm build up inside a drinker faster than most keepers expect, especially in warm weather, so a proper scrub with a bottle brush once a week is worth the ten minutes it takes. A drinker that only ever gets topped up, never emptied and cleaned, will eventually affect how much the flock is willing to drink.
Standard plastic drinkers freeze solid in a hard frost, and a flock without water for a whole winter's day is a genuine welfare problem, not a minor inconvenience. Check drinkers daily once the temperature drops, and keep a spare on hand to swap in while a frozen one thaws indoors.
In this section
Everything below is in stock with us, priced with delivery worked out, and packed and posted by hand in the UK.
Peckish Complete Seed
A husk-free garden bird seed mix with Peckish's own added vitamin pellet
From£3.00
Peckish Winter Warmer Extra Energy Seed Mix
A 1KG winter seed mix with 9 ingredients and 20% oil for extra energy
£3.99
Peckish Complete Seed and Nut No Mess Wild Bird Seed Mix
A no-mess seed and nut mix for the garden, built from 12 ingredients for up to 16 bird species
£20.99
Peckish Sunflower Hearts
Sunflower hearts for wild birds, a husk-free, high-energy straight for feeder or table
£5.39
Peckish Extra Goodness Energy Balls
A 6-plus-6-free pack of energy balls with peanuts, sunflower seed and beef tallow
£3.99
Peckish Complete Ready to Use Bird Feeder
A pre-filled, refillable wild bird feeder, ready to hang straight out of the packaging
£5.99
Peckish Robin Seed Mix
A 1KG insect-added seed mix from Peckish, marketed specifically at robins
£3.75
Peckish No Grow Seed Mix
A weed-free wild bird seed mix, husk-free and treated so it won't sprout in the garden below
From£5.49
Peckish Suet & Peanut Feeder
A perforated stainless steel feeder that takes either suet pellets or peanuts
£12.99
Peckish Extra Goodness Crumble Mix
A 1KG crumble-texture treat mix for garden birds, with added vitamins
£4.99
Peckish Winter Warmer High Energy Wild Bird Seed Mix
A high-energy winter seed mix for garden birds, feeder or table
£24.99
Common questions
- How many drinkers does a flock of hens need?
- As a rule of thumb, more than one drinker for any flock over half a dozen birds, positioned apart from each other so a more dominant bird cannot guard the only water source. It also gives you a backup on the day one drinker gets knocked over or freezes.
- Why does my poultry drinker keep going green?
- Algae grows quickly in still water that gets any sunlight, which is common with clear or light-coloured drinkers left in the open run. Move it into shade if you can, and give it a proper scrub with a bottle brush weekly rather than just topping the water up.
- What do I do about drinkers freezing in winter?
- Check water daily once frost starts and keep a spare drinker so a frozen one can be swapped out and thawed indoors rather than chipped at outside. Standing the drinker on an insulating base such as a block of wood, rather than directly on cold ground, also slows how quickly it freezes.
- Should pigeons and hens share the same type of drinker?
- The same gravity design works for both, but pigeons generally need a smaller, more frequently cleaned drinker because loft conditions get fouled faster in an enclosed space than an open run does. A drinker sized for hens is usually oversized and harder to keep clean in a pigeon loft.
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Written by Matt Garnett, who runs Giddy Pets and is a lifelong pet owner — not a vet. This is general information, not veterinary advice, and it cannot replace an examination by the vet who knows your animal. How we write these guides.