Horizontal nipples, 5 gallon bucket and a 100w ceramic heat emitter.
Not a single frozen nipple all winter. Water was a constant 8-10c.
Initial testing, I was able to raise the water temp 50c above ambient temp.
Horizontal nipples are definitely the way to go. They work great in heated winter waterers or normal buckets or containers like blackdog043 posted images of for summer months.
Vertical nipples are ok for summer months but they can be messy as they waste more water than horizontal ones.
I use a...
Is the bottom of the door at head height by any chance? If it is, make a flat platform outside the door, then they won't pop their heads in unless the door is open.
My chicken door is at head height when they are out in the run, they just jump up but a lot of the time, they will stick their...
They do look like great little waterers, maybe I can find some bigger ones for the summer, less filling. They look to be external waterers, my old ones were internal.
My current waterer is a heated 5 gallon external bucket but because I have to pump the water to the quails, even when the...
No idea. I just assumed because the white ones had food grade written on them and the orange ones didn't.
White bucket
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.19l5-gallon---white-food-approved-bucket.1000784675.html
I used to use one for water. Also used it for an incubator, brooder, seed starting, even in my greenhouse. Has multiple uses, not just for winter waterers.
I probably did get unlucky. It was new out of the package as well. But they are also designed to come on when the temp of the pipes in a house gets cold enough, mine would have been on 24/7 since the ambient temp was always below freezing.
Mine lasted until about mid Feb, the coldest part of...
That exactly how I did last years waterer but with vertical nipples. My nipples still froze when it got too cold, yours should be good though. One thing that did happen, the heat tape failed, keep en eye out for it failing. I don't think they are designed to be constantly used.
They would work great in the summer months. What are they called?
If you get cold temps where you live, you might need to use something else.
Ice expanding might crack them.
If your recirculating heated nipple system blocks the light, which would be very easy to do with that type of setup, it should avoid algae growth altogether.
My waterer is the same, recirculating heated nipple system, I also do a lot of hydroponics.
If I have no light leaks, there is never any...
That's how I do mine also, 24/7 access to an enclosed run. Just hang your feeder so the bottom of it is as high as your smallest chickens head height.
My feeder isn't mouse proof, it's about a foot off the ground but it's attached to the coop wall. I'm guessing mice would just scale the wall if...
Raising the waterer never worked for me, they would still climb in a poop.
That method worked great for my chickens though.
The only thing that worked for me was horizontal chicken nipples.
They caught on fast and have not had dirty water since.