Preventing nipple waterer freezing

[winstonsgrrrl]

I'm getting some quail tomorrow, and plan to use rabbit watering bottles or soda bottle waterers. Any suggestions on how to keep them from freezing? I can have extras in the house to swap out, but I work 10 hr days, plus I prefer to sleep through the night without having to constantly switch things out.

 

[fldiver97]

I just started with a nipple waterer and I am not sure if I can use it through the winter.....I have seen a rabbit type lick or nipple type waterer, fairly large - well let's say 500 cc or more if I remember correctly, that has built in heater and was available at a petfood warehouse here in town....Don't know if that would be an option.......The other thing I thought about was having the nipple waterer near a heating lamp but that can be iffy to accomplish as I would have to put the light clear out the chickens reach but not to far from the hanging waterer.

 

[dirtybug]

I dont have my waterer set up yet but was thinking of maybe using a loop system so I could run a small circulator pump to keep the water moving. It may be enough to keep it from freezing but I dont know. There is no electric at my coop yet so it will likely be a 12v pump run off a $20 solar panel. if I get it together I'll let you know if it works.