You can hang the water bottle. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/957712/how-to-hang-a-chick-water-bottle This shows how.
As far as installing chicks in the coop, you can do it from the very start as long as the chicks are secure from adult chickens and predators and cold drafts and weather, and you supply the necessary heat until they feather out between four to six weeks. I brood my chicks right outside in the run under a heating pad. They're two weeks old and it was down to the 40s last night and they were just fine. They have their own secure pen so they are becoming part of the flock by proximity to the adults. It's a very painless method of integration, and in another week, I open small, chick-size portals into to rest of the run so the chicks can begin to mingle with the adults, while retreating to their safe pen when things get too hectic.
Here's another way to keep chick water clean. https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/chicken-nipple-waterers-and-reusing-plastic-bottles/ Make your own nipple water bottles out of old soda bottles.
To the OP: don't fret the learning curve. I've been at this chicken biz for eight years and I still run into disasters. Four months ago I lost two chicks to sickness and a stupid accident and I felt like a complete failure. It happens to all of us at one time or another.
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