Soft Water Okay?

[bigredfeather]

With the weather turning cold here in Ohio, watering my birds has become quite a frustrating task. Frozen fountain waters, outside water froze up are the biggest ones. I have water available in my basement, but it is water from the softner. Is it okay to use soft water for chickens? I know chickens aren't supposed to have much sodium chloride, but I'm not sure if the salt is soft water is this compound?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[mdbokc]

Although hard water may cause stains, leave residues, or cause other physical problems in water-handling equipment, hard water has not been demonstrated to have either a positive or negative impact on poultry performance. In treating hard water that is to be used as drinking water for poultry, however, care should be taken not to increase any existing chemical imbalance in the water. - NC Coop Ext Services.

Roush and Mylet (1986) studied the influence of softening water on hens over a 308-day period. The process was concluded to improve performance of birds consuming diets with no added salt. No benefit was shown when diets were supplemented with .35 or .70% salt. It is recommended that the sodium of softened water be monitored because it may influence the amounts of fish meal, defluorinated phosphate, bakery products or salt used by your nutritionist. Univ of FL

Poultry Water Quality Assurance Program (http://www.intec-america.com/resources/Biofilm.asp) says no problem with softened water.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Well that's good. I wouldn't know where to get 'other' water!

From a bottle? That would be some spoiled chickens!

 

[Akane]

Most people's outdoor faucets do not run through their water softener. Not really useful this time of year though. Anything outside is frozen solid. I fill up water jugs from the kitchen sink.

 

[mdbokc]

You are right about spoiled chickens. Mine get RO water with minerals added back for the coop...DW insists on it. She figures they should drink what she does. In the summer, their outdoor bucket is out of the tap. (The RO unit is under the kitchen sink and a local unit. Our water tastes terrible otherwise.)

 

[MuranoFarms]

Quote:
I guess that shows how far out in the country I am! We have a well, so everything has to run through the softener/carbon/chlorine system. Otherwise it looks like tea and smells like iron. Ewwwwww!

 

[Akane]

I have a well and all my outside faucets don't run through the water softener. My mom has a well and all the outside faucets plus the kitchen sink don't run through the water softener. I wouldn't suggest using that water for much. On those faucets that don't get frequent use the water often comes out brown or rust red for several gallons.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Every single faucet runs through our softener system. When we bought the house original system had an oxygenator on it. It made the water 'bubbly' The guy that built the house was weird!

He didn't do a whole lot of stuff the way you'd expect!

 

[bigredfeather]

Thanks everyone. It will be much easier cleaning/filling them in the basement.

 

[ShaggysGirl]

I don't know, but I would guess it would be ok if they are given time to get used to it.
We have a well and softener but I run all drinking and cooking water through a reverse osmosis system. Once in a while I will fill up some jugs of city water from work to use in the coops but I pour 1/2 and 1/2 so as to not shock their systems.