I agree - fresh water is critical. However, I use a 5 gallon bucket from Lowes with horizontal nipples and a small, stock tank heater that is rated for use in plastic containers. We have barely reached 10 degrees for the last couple of months here in Northwestern Wyoming. We've had consecutive days of temps of 23 below zero, with warm spells of up to 7 degrees. Been like that around here since we got our first major snowfall on October 12. <sigh> I'm so over it! But heat lamps? Not in my setup! Don't need them. I have plenty of ventilation left open and our waterer hasn't frozen once all winter.
SOMETHING is making your heat lamps burst at the collars, with exactly the same damage. It could be a sudden cold draft hitting them. Could be a short. Could be that the fixture isn't rated for the wattage of bulb you have in it. Since it's close to your waterer, (that's the impression I got so if I'm wrong I do apologize) it could something as simple as a chicken that just got a drink shaking it's head like they do and drips of water hit the hot bulb. Could be power surges.
Heat lamps don't have to contact the bedding directly or be flown into to cause fires. Dust collects on them and that can cause a fire. I had a plain old 60 watt bulb in the fixture I have in my coop. The only time it gets turned on is if I didn't get my chores done before the sun went down. Hubby and I were gone most of the day and when we came home we headed out to the coop to check the water, gather eggs, and check on the chickens. The light had only been on a few minutes when we saw little wisps of smoke coming from the ceramic fixture. Dust! As careful as I try to be, dust and dander had collected on it and that was enough. An errant feather floating into the bulb can burst into flame and drop on the bedding. Hot shards of glass from a breaking bulb falling into the bedding or nesting material can smolder there.
If you want to use one, that's certainly your choice. But they scare the pee-wadding out of me and especially when I read that you've already had so much trouble and with your birds flying into it where you had it before. I won't even use one for new chicks. I'm a little confused about how you can have it under the roost, near the waterer, but the chickens can't get near it....isn't there open space around it under there? Please, if you are going to use it, secure it, secure it, secure it. Make sure it can't overheat. Check it over carefully for loose wires. Look to see what the largest size bulb it can safely handle actually is. If you are just using it to keep your water from freezing, a simple, designed-for-the-job stock tank heater will do that. Some folks use aquarium heaters in theirs. Some folks, like my friend @Beekissed , don't use them at all in winter.
And putting horizontal nipples on the same bucket you already have vertical nipples in won't solve the dripping issue unless you can find a way to seal the unused ones off from the inside of the bucket. We aren't trying to be critical....we just don't want to see you go through what so many others have with this unusually cold winter....in one case a woman was burned trying to pull the burning coop away from her house. She ended up with several badly burned chickens. There have been at least 4 coop fires this season that I know of...two of them within two days of each other. What scares me the most is that the cause of the 2 bulbs you found hanging by the filaments isn't determined and you are still using that lamp. Just want you to be extremely careful and explore other ways to keep your water from freezing. Good luck - remember, winter can't last forever and we'll be celebrating spring soon!
