update - we've since bought some of those horizontal nipples and connected them to a 5 gallon water container. chooks only took a couple minutes to learn to use them. hopefully this solves the problem (and also no longer need to fill the little waterers every day ha)
i've put a waterer inside the coop for now - going to look into getting a larger size that i can insulate and leave in the run. i could maybe drill a few holes in this 5gallon water container i have and then screw the droppers into it.
thanks for your help!
as winter draws in a lot of the time now the outside is below the the freezing point of water. i have a small immersion heating element for inside the water bottles but the little pipe that leads to the drinking nipple of the waterer still seems to freeze and prevent the chickens from accessing...