It might be worth while to make a new waterer, with horizontal nipples.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ock-tank-deicer-and-horizontal-nipples.74609/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ock-tank-deicer-and-horizontal-nipples.74609/
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Snow is very dry and very cold. Trying to get sufficient moisture from snow will cause the creature "drinking" it to suffer a catastrophic loss of body heat resulting in hypothermia and possibly death. An interesting experiment is to fill up a saucepan with snow and heat it on the stove to see how little moisture it actually has. It requires a huge expenditure of calories to warm snow in the body to a useful temperature. I understand that people have frozen to death eating snow.*
Edit: * people lost in the wilderness in extreme situations. Edit #2: while their companions who did not eat snow, survived. Sorry, I am the queen of the afterthought... or of hitting Post too soon....
That's why I use the old style metal waterers, with heater metal bases. They have worked fine here in -15F weather. I have two set up in the coop, so if one fails, there's another.
Heated dog dishes work fine too, as long as you don't have little chicks, or roosters with large wattles.
Mary
So I am manually giving them water in bowls but I have to go out there every 30 minutes and get out the ice and refill. Can I use Snow for them to drink?
Wildlife in cooler climates may not have access to open water for extended periods.
Wife, kids, care taker checked them multiple times per day. Or they got watered once per day from well. Or production nor realized when it gets cold. For most likely last option. Winter production and tight confinement not realized until advent of complete feeds. Everyone with day job in household makes cold winters tougher.Very true. They manage to survive somehow. But I do think having fresh water is a better option for the chickens and puts less stress on them. Nobody I know that raises chickens has every suggested just letting them eat snow.
I wonder how people kept water for their chickens before electricity on the farm?
I am trying to find science to back your assertion up about eating snow. I am not finding it yet. Closest thing comes from forums not like this one where humans are the species involved. Wildlife in cooler climates may not have access to open water for extended periods. Wildlife is often eating food items that are more hydrated. Our confined domestic birds are eating feeds that dehydrated to the extreme to prevent feed degradation during storage.
I was watching a free-range group very closely. They appeared to get most of moisture intake through eating snow. They did not bother to approach water source out for dogs. The dog bowl is used by chickens when ground is dry.Thanks, I did ponder my post afterward (as I often do) and wondered if what is true for humans is true for birds. Birds metabolize much faster than humans so that could be a factor. I wondered what birds do in the wild when streams freeze over, as you said. So bottom line, regarding OP's question: I don't know, for quail.