Heated waterer broke a day or two back

[BladeFireLight]

The girls feet look white and scally. I feel like such an idiot for not testing the waterer like I did every day last winter

How best to safely hydrate the chickens?
Anything I should add to water?

They had some cooked carrots, shredded lettuce yester day and some cut open pumpkin the day before. So the got some water from thoes.

 

[TooCheep]

Just give them a container of fresh water immediately to get them hydrated. Until you get a permanent solution, you may have to water them multiple times/day so they can have liquid water. You don't need to add anything to the water.

Where are you located? What is the temperature? Please put your location in your profile to make it easier to answer your questions.

As for the waterer itself, please replace it ASAP. Heated chicken waterers are available via your local farm supply store or Amazon. My waterer has horizontal nipples which are the best type of nipple to avoid freezing. I simply press the nipple a couple of times to make sure water is still liquid each morning in freezing weather to make sure they can still drink each day. If your waterer doesn't have nipples, then just just pop the top to insure the water is still liquid once/day. Just takes a couple of seconds.

 

[Debbie292d]

Just give them a container of fresh water immediately to get them hydrated. Until you get a permanent solution, you may have to water them multiple times/day so they can have liquid water. You don't need to add anything to the water.

Where are you located? What is the temperature? Please put your location in your profile to make it easier to answer your questions.

As for the waterer itself, please replace it ASAP. Heated chicken waterers are available via your local farm supply store or Amazon. My waterer has horizontal nipples which are the best type of nipple to avoid freezing. I simply press the nipple a couple of times to make sure water is still liquid each morning in freezing weather to make sure they can still drink each day. If your waterer doesn't have nipples, then just just pop the top to insure the water is still liquid once/day. Just takes a couple of seconds.

Also, not sure that the white scaly feet is coming from being without water for a day or two. If it doesn't go away in a day, I'd guess they have scaly leg mites.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I set my waterer up on a cement block, with an incandescent lightbulb in one of the spaces underneath. It never froze last year.