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How much water does a chicken drink?

Gallons per hen depend on the weather table you use. This page runs the flock through the feed calculator, then applies each published water rate on its own.

Built by Jeremy Panasuk. Published October 3, 2026.

Published daily amounts

Drinker inches and nipple counts are a different measurement. They are on the feeder and drinker space page. A five-gallon waterer that covers up to 75 hens is a container size, not a daily intake.

Worked example: 6 hens

Inputs to calcFeed: 6 birds, 4 weeks, $0 a bag. The price does not change the pounds. The function uses 0.25 lb per hen per day.

• Feed: 6 × 0.25 = 1.5 lb/day. Over a 30.44-day month the function rounds that to 46 lb.
• Kentucky, by weight: 1.5 lb of feed × 2 = 3 lb of water a day under normal conditions. That page does not convert those pounds into gallons in the same sentence.
• Utah, cool: 6 × 0.05 = 0.30 gallon and 6 × 0.08 = 0.48 gallon.
• Utah, hot: 6 × 0.08 = 0.48 gallon and 6 × 0.16 = 0.96 gallon.
• Missouri's twenty-hens line: 6/20 × 1 gallon = 0.30 gallon in cool weather.
• Missouri's layer line: 6/100 × 6 = 0.36 gallon and 6/100 × 8 = 0.48 gallon. Above 80°F, 6/100 × 9 = 0.54 gallon as the minimum on that sentence.
• Kentucky's table: 6/100 × 5.55 = 0.333 gallon at 68°F, and 6/100 × 10.57 = 0.634 gallon at 89.6°F (the exact product is 0.6342).

A 1-gallon fountain, on the Utah page, holds a day's water for 12 to 15 adult chickens in cool weather and 6 to 12 in hot weather. Six hens sit inside the cool-weather capacity of one fountain. The same page says to provide at least two or three additional drinkers beyond the estimated consumption, so the capacity sentence and the extra-drinker sentence both stay in force.

Run your own count

Calculate feed and water

The feed line is calcFeed from this site. The gallon lines multiply the bird count by the constants in the table above. The function does not contain a water formula.

Chicks are a different row

Missouri's chick schedule is 3 gallons a day per 100 chicks at six weeks, 5 gallons at 10 weeks, and 6 gallons at 12 or 13 weeks. Twelve chicks at six weeks are 12/100 × 3 = 0.36 gallon. That is not the adult 0.05 to 0.08 gallon line. Starter feed for those chicks is on the baby chick feed page. The laying-hen quarter-pound rate is the wrong feed input for them.

A broiler water-to-feed ratio stays on the broiler page

University of Georgia's drinking-water primer measured commercial broilers at 1.55 lb of water per lb of feed in cold weather, 1.65 in mild weather, and 1.75 in hot weather, and it says broilers consume about 1.6 to 2.0 times as much water as feed by weight. This page does not multiply the laying-hen feed result by 1.55, 1.65, or 1.75.

Common mistake

Sizing the waterer from the five-gallon "up to 75 hens" container rule and never checking the daily gallons. Six hens can share a small fountain and still drink 0.30 to 0.48 gallon on the cool-weather lines. In hot weather the Utah top end for those six hens is 0.96 gallon, and Kentucky's 89.6°F table is 0.634 gallon. A fountain that is large enough on a cool morning can be empty by afternoon. Utah also says water left sitting grows bacteria and, in winter, freezes. Frozen water is the winter failure mode on the winterizing section.

Limits, and when to call someone

Kentucky says an exact water requirement cannot be stated, and that extreme heat stress may quadruple intake. If birds pant, stop eating, or the drinker is empty on a hot day, treat that as a flock emergency and call a veterinarian. Georgia's management guide says to scrub drinkers daily and gives 1–2 teaspoons of bleach per 20 gallons of drinking water to inhibit bacterial growth. That rate is for 20 gallons. This page does not rescale it to a one-gallon fountain. Georgia's primer says each farm should have its well water tested, and that a county agent can submit samples. Poor water is a lab question, not a gallon estimate.

Search Amazon for a 1 gallon poultry fountain

Affiliate disclosure: as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases — at no cost to you. Utah State describes a 1-gallon fountain as a common feed-store drinker. This link is a search for that capacity. It is not a review.

Related

• Chicken coop calculator — the feed tab uses the same calcFeed function.
• Feed pounds and cost for the same flock.
• Feeder inches, drinker inches, and nipples.
• Coop size by flock size.

Compiled with AI assistance from the sources below. Spot an error? Email jpanasuk@gmail.com.

Sources

• Utah State University Extension, "Basics for Raising Backyard Chickens" (June 2010). https://extension.usu.edu/poultry/research/basics-for-raising-backyard-chickens. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
• University of Missouri Extension, "Small Flock Series: Managing a Family Chicken Flock," G8350 (reviewed September 2017). https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g8350. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
• University of Kentucky, Animal and Food Sciences, "Chapter 12 — Introduction" (water consumption table). https://afs.mgcafe.uky.edu/poultry/chapter-12-introduction. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
• University of Georgia Extension, "Management Guide for the Backyard Flock," Circular 969. https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/C969/management-guide-for-the-backyard-flock/. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
• University of Georgia Extension, "Poultry Drinking Water Primer," Bulletin 1301 (revised April 14, 2015). https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/B1301/poultry-drinking-water-primer/. Accessed Oct 3, 2026.
• Alabama Cooperative Extension, "Feeding the Laying Hen," and University of Kentucky Extension ASC-191, for the 0.25 lb feed rate inside calcFeed. The water pages above are the gallon sources.