Looking for ideas on waterer for winter, heated dog bowl?

[WoodlandWoman]

I have neighbors that use those rubber bowls, too. Everything at their house has to drink their fill twice a day, when they knock out the ice.

 

[spottedtail]

Heated dog bowls work great!
Get 2 x 4" mesh wire and wrap vertically around the bowl, making a cone at the top.
The 2" (horiz) x 4"(vert) mesh allows the hens head in, but it's not enough for them to flip water about.
And if they can still get manure in the bowl, they are very talented indeed!

spot

 

[Wildsky]

I use the heated base for the metal double wall fount, has worked so far, will check again in the AM - going to be 28 tonight....

 

[polychickens]

I plan to use a play from my father's trickbook. He used to raise pigeons back in the 60's-70's and I converted the dilapidated shed into the chickenhaus.

He had a feed room within the shed with pens surrounding it. There he had some strategically placed shelves with light sockets wired above then. Under the light, he placed a gallon milk jug on it's side with a hole cut into the side to drink from. This all sat next to the pen wall where he had a hole for the birds to reach their head thru (and into the jug hole) to get a drink. Of course, there was a ledge in the pen so the birds could sit and drink and this worked beautifully with zero chance for spillage.

The milk jugs were plentiful and it was esy to replace one in the event of a really hard freeze or bulb outage.

Cheap, clean solution and the lightbulb prevented a freeze for many hours at a time.

Always looking to do it on the cheap!
Poly