Drinking The Enemy--The Science of Watering

By: Christian Otrakji, MD
Date: 4/7/2000
Category: Health

"Warm Water makes birds sick", solemnly announced to me one day, a dear
friend, an old timer with a heavy East European accent. Warm water is bad
for the birds. At first, this old adage, certainly worth its weight in gold,
didn't make sense to me. I couldn't see how warm water could make birds
sick.
After all, I had drank warm water myself at times with no ill effects.
Coffee and tea are hot, even warmer than warm, and no problem. But then, the
words he uttered slowly sank into my brain, and before long, I came to a
full understanding of his message. It was all clear in my mind and it made
perfect sense. So here it is to share with you, not without a little round
of math and biology.

Imagine one bug of any kind (Salmonella, Trichomonas, E-Coli, etc.), one
single bug, finding its way in the fresh morning water. It could have
originated from airborne dust particles, or tiny fragments of droppings from
a pigeon fanning its wings, or simply from one sticking its beak for a sip.

So there is one microbe in the fountain. Big deal. But then comes ill to
play the time factor. As most unicellular organisms do, the bug will divide
by binary fission into two identical daughter cells within 10 minutes or so.
In turn, the two daughter cells will double within another 10 min. to 4
cells, then to 8 in 20 min., 16 in 30 min., 32 in 40 min., 64 in 50 min.,
128 in 60 min., and so forth. Now let the water sit in the fountain the
whole day from 8 AM to 6 PM, a 10 hour interval, or 60 ten minute blocks,
and we get 60 doubling, or 2x2x2x2x2...x2 60 times. I don't know about your
calculators, but I am limited by my computer's Pentium processor and I
suspect one has to use a NASA super computer to figure out the grand total.
The figure is astronomical. Already at 40 doublings, one is talking in
phenomenal trillions (18 zeroes after the 1), billions more than the entire
human population of the earth. You get the drift. And this is with only one
bug to start off with. Picture two, three or ten bugs now, and how about
leaving the water overnight, a 24 hour interval, not to mention all the
creepy crawlers that visit the water fountain at night and contaminate it
even more. And then one thirsty victim ventures for a gulp in this microbe
emporium before one gets a chance to change the water in the morning.
Immunity helps some, but with the tremendous and constant pressure of
microorganisms bombarding it day in and day out all year round, it turns
into a state of chronic overload and gives in to the first serious
infection. Hence periodic disease outbreaks in the loft. One could sterilize
the water with Clorox or some other disinfectant, but in trying to poison
those little bugs, wouldn't we be also hurting the little cells that line
the crop and the stomach of our pigeons?

So what is one to do'? Well, exactly what my senior told me to do,
understanding that what he really meant by warm water was water that was
stagnant and left to sit for a while at ambient temperature, or in other
words, water that was not fresh. But how? Simply by offering clean fresh
water to the pigeons only at feeding time, usually twice a day, and then
remove feeding and drinking vessels, some 30 mill later, or a little longer
for the breeders in the evening. The dishes are washed clean and are hung to
dry for the next feeding and watering, some 10 to 12 hours later. Within one
or two days, the pigeons get accustomed to this regimen, and even the heat
of Miami is no hindrance to this method. In actuality, this method has been
used all across the Middle East in countries such as Syria, Lebanon and
Egypt for eons of generations.

Typically, grain is scattered in the morning on the open concrete rooftops
after the pigeons have landed from their flying routine, only enough for one
feeding or the sparrows would clean the rest, and water is only served then
for immediate consumption. After that, the pigeons are driven back to their
boxes or lofts, and are locked away for the rest of the day until late
afternoon, at which time they can be flown again, and the same routine with
the feeding and watering. Even I myself had used this method as a boy, but
had forgotten about it.

Since I have adopted it again, some two years ago, squab production has
almost tripled. The dreaded diarrhea and canker that are usually harbored in
the drinking water, have virtually disappeared. Also, with the water sitting
only for a total of one hour inside the loft, instead of 24, there is less
humidity inside the loft, a definite boon in pigeon keeping.

Water is a source of life, but it can be a formidable vehicle for disease
transmission, and hence a source of death. More life-threatening infections
are passed on from pigeon to pigeon through the water they drink than from
anything else. By analogy, the difference in rates of some human infections
such as cholera, ameba, and enterotoxic bacteria between developing
countries and developed countries have more to do with the simple yet basic
quality of the drinking water than with advanced medical technology or
available medicines. Better have hungry and thirsty, healthy pigeons than
over watered and overfed sick ones. Crystal clean water for our pigeons is a
must, and better no water, than stagnant foul water. "I warned you, warm
water makes birds sick".
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