I built a 12 inch holding well for litter inside my coop, so I can have up to 12 inches of litter in the coop before it even reaches the bottom of the pop door. Nothing gets kicked out.
Sorry to hear about your illness. As an RN, I encourage everyone to get the vaccination. Our local hospital was full of COVID patients a month ago, over 95% were not vaccinated.
I live in northern Minnesota. I have a 3 gallon metal water fount sitting on top of my metal base heater inside my coop. The 3 gallon waterer will last my 7 hens more than 10 days. When I need to refill the waterer, I just walk it over to my house outside spigot and fill up the container. I put my garden hoses away usually late October and they stay in the shed until May. There is no way I could use a garden hose in our winters.
If you get a lot of freezing water where you live, I will say that I am very happy with my metal base heater and metal water fount combo. The heater has a built in temp switch and turns on about 35F and keeps the water from freezing. I think they advertise ice free water down to +13F, but I can tell you that my heater base has kept my water from freezing down to -40F last year. I kept my waterer inside the coop where it is not subject to the blowing wind outside. I think that makes a big difference. The heater turns itself off when it senses about 40F, so you don't have to spend money making hot water. Of course, my heater is on for almost 5 months, but in a warmer climate you might only see it kick on a few times during the coldest part of the night. It's only a 125 watt heater. For my electrical costs, that is about $10 per month running 24/7. Well worth it.
In any case, nothing is more important than fresh water for the birds. No way at my age am I going outside 3 times a day to give them fresh water in a pan. The metal base heater and metal waterer were worth every penny I spent on the combo.
