Water is the cheapest input on a broiler farm and the one most often ignored. A broiler drinks about twice as much water as it eats feed, and much more in summer. If water is short, hot, dirty or salty, birds eat less, grow slower and get sick more. Check how much they drink every day, get your water tested once, clean the lines between every batch, and keep water cool.
How much water broilers drink
Water intake rises every day as birds grow. The table below is rounded from Mississippi State University extension data for modern broilers in normal weather. Use it as a rough guide, not an exact target.
| Age (days) | Litres per 1,000 birds per day |
|---|---|
| 7 | about 65 |
| 14 | about 130 |
| 21 | about 190 |
| 28 | about 240 |
| 35 | about 290 |
| 42 | about 320 |
In a Pakistani summer, with shed temperatures above 35°C, birds may drink three to four times more than normal. Your drinkers, pipes, pump and tank must be able to keep up on the hottest afternoon, not just in the morning.
Use a water meter
A water meter on each shed's main line costs little and tells you a lot. Write the reading at the same time every day. A sudden drop in water intake is often the first sign of trouble, a day before feed drops and two days before deaths rise. Common reasons:
- Blocked nipples or a closed valve
- Water too hot
- Disease starting
- Pump failure or load-shedding
What good water looks like
Most farms in Punjab, Sindh and KP use bore or tubewell water. Its quality changes a lot from area to area and even between two wells in the same village. Some areas have hard water, some have salty (brackish) water, and some wells pick up bacteria from nearby drains or septic tanks.
Get a water sample tested at a proper lab, such as the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) labs or a university or livestock department lab. Ask them to check these:
| Test | What it means | Rough guide from extension sources |
|---|---|---|
| pH | Acid or alkaline | Birds prefer slightly acidic water, about 6 to 7 |
| Total dissolved solids (TDS) | Salts in water | Below 1,000 ppm is good; 1,000 to 3,000 may cause wet droppings; above 3,000 get expert advice |
| Hardness (calcium, magnesium) | Scale in pipes | Scale likely above about 60 ppm with pH above 7 |
| Bacteria and coliforms | Dirt and dung in water | Coliforms should not be there at all |
| Nitrate, iron | Fertiliser or dung pollution, bad taste | Ask the lab to explain any high value |
Test once a year, and again if you dig a new bore or see a sudden problem.
Hard water
Hard water is not usually poisonous to birds, but it leaves white scale inside pipes, regulators and nipples. Nipples then stick open and leak, or stay closed and birds go thirsty. Mississippi State extension advises against water softeners for poultry in most cases, because most softeners add sodium. Flushing and acid cleaning between batches help; ask a water specialist about the right product for your water.
Salty water
High TDS water makes birds drink more and gives wet droppings, which wet the litter. If your water is salty, tell your feed supplier and nutritionist, since salt in the water adds to salt in the feed.
Cleaning drinker lines
Inside every drinker line a slimy layer called biofilm grows, especially when vitamins, sugars or medicines are added to water. Biofilm feeds bacteria and uses up chlorine.
Between batches
- Drain the tank and lines.
- Fill the lines with a strong line cleaner made for poultry, following the product label. Leave it to stand, often 12 hours or more.
- Flush hard until the water runs clear.
- Scrub the tank, cover it, and clean the filter.
- Refill with clean water before chicks arrive.
During the batch
- Flush the lines regularly, and always after adding vitamins or medicine.
- Clean bell drinkers every day.
- Keep the tank covered so dust, leaves and birds stay out.
Chlorine basics
Chlorine is the most common way to keep water clean. Mississippi State extension says about 2 to 4 ppm of free chlorine at the far end of the line works when the water is otherwise clean. Test at the last drinker with a simple kit, not at the tank.
- Chlorine works poorly in alkaline water and dirty lines, so clean the lines first.
- Chlorine kills live vaccines given in water. Your vet will tell you how long to stop chlorine before and after a water vaccine. Read our vaccination schedule post for more on this.
Summer water
In summer heat, water is your first cooling tool.
- Shade the tank or put it under the roof. A black plastic tank in the sun can make water too hot to drink.
- Insulate exposed pipes on the roof.
- Flush lines in the afternoon so birds get cooler water from the well instead of water that sat in hot pipes.
- Make sure the pump and the generator can run the water system during load-shedding. A shed without water at 3 pm in June is an emergency.
- Add more drinkers if birds crowd around them.
For the full hot-day plan, read heat stress in broilers.
Chicks and water
On day one, chicks need water at a comfortable temperature, not cold from the tank. Aviagen's guidance suggests about 18 to 21°C. Fill drinkers before chicks arrive so the water warms up in the shed, and keep drinkers close so no chick walks far. See the day-old chick quality post for crop fill checks.
Write it down
Record water meter reading, feed and deaths every day. Poultry Curve's daily log keeps these side by side, and Helper can tell you when water intake drops against the last few days. A good water record is one of the cheapest early-warning systems you can have, and it shows up later in your FCR.