I hate dealing with water in cold weather too. These buckets
http://www.tractorsupply.com/fortex-calf-mate-calf-feeder-2-gal-capacity-black-2171247 help a lot. Right now I don't have electric out at my chicken area, so I have to make do.
Baseball bats work too for breaking the ice! We use them when we feed for my old boss in Feb and he has ethe shallow buckets like that which work the same way and I got tired of having wet boots for 1 hour straight ( yes takes 1 hour to feed his birds!) that I figured out a bat works well plus I use it to fend off the male swans!!
These buckets might be too big for bantams, but are perfect for ducks, turkeys and large fowl. They flex, so you can break the top ice crust with a well-aimed boot heel. If they end up being partially frozen, but too hard to break the crust, just turn them over and stomp on the bottom to knock the ice loose. Helps relieve the frustration of having to mess with ice, lol. Cussing is optional, but seems to improve my aim. If they get waaaay to hard frozen, turn them over and let them sit in a sunny spot for the rest of the day. The ice will come out in a big chunk that can be used for igloo building. Not really, but I always end up with multiple bucket-shaped ice blocks around my chicken yard, and they make me think of igloos. I guess I'm easily entertained.

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