The chicken nipples are frozen! Watering quandry

[chicChickChick]

I’m at a loss for chicken watering.

I’m in the midwest so winters are the real deal.

I used to put a heater plate under a double walled fount but that was forever getting soiled with bedding or droppings from hens roosting on the top.

I thought I’d figured it out with a hanging 5 gallon bucket with a de-icer inside. Unfortunately, this keeps the water inside liquid but the dispensing nipples freeze up and I have to hold them in a warm hand to defrost.

While my family has not yet tired of me shouting, “I’ll be back. The chicken nipples are frozen!” And then laughingly replying , “chickens don’t have nipples!”, I’m over it.

What do those of you in cold weather regions do to keep the girls watered?

 

[Sueby]

Are you using horizontal or vertical nipples? Granted, I’m sure I don’t get nearly as cold as you, but the horizontal nipples here haven‘t frozen on me yet, where the vertical ones freeze up very quickly.

 

[RoyalChick]

I use horizontal nipples. As @Sueby said they are less likely to freeze than the vertical ones (it is all to do with how they work - no spring inside).
Mine are in a 5gal bucket that I put on a very low wattage heated base. You need to check that it is rated for plastic buckets so the bucket doesn’t melt.
That copes well down into the low teens Fahrenheit. I did get some freezing in the bucket as we got down to 6F but not at the bottom near the plate and the nipples were in the part where the water was still liquid. I brought a pint or so of very hot water out from the kitchen and poured it in the top of the bucket just to melt enough to be sure they wouldn’t run out.

 

[aart]

Are you using horizontal or vertical nipples?

This^^^ is the essential question for @chicChickChick
Also pics might help....and is it inside the coop or outside?

I’m in the midwest

Where?.....that can be a large and varied area.
Here's how to add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[chicChickChick]

Vertical nipples in mid-Michigan (lower Penninsula).

We usually have at least one or two cold spells of below zero for some days.

 

[Sueby]

Oh yea, get a new bucket & use horizontal nipples instead - they won’t freeze. Mine have seen below zero & been fine.

 

[JDonn127]

Horizontal nipples and tank de icer has worked for me ….. 3 winters in Southeastern Pennsylvania

 

[Poppy Putentake]

In winter, I just give them water in an open container morning and afternoon/evening.

For a low-tech solution, see also:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/low-tech-winter-waterers-insulated-and-otherwise.1340114/

 

[Yardmom]

I currently live in a relatively warmer place than I use to and still have freezing issues with horizontal nipples, but I don't heat my buckets. I switch to a rubber bowl for winter.
Where I grew up in northern Wisconsin, you would have to bring water out a couple times a day if you didn't heat the bowls. My friends and relatives in WI use old crockpots to water their chickens.

 

[Nodakj]

I am in the middle/upper part of MN. I use the metal double walled with heater plate. I put it up on a couple 2x4 in my coop and it has not gotten to dirty. I also have an upside down funnel on top to keep them from roosting on it. It has worked for me this winter so far. I am fairly new with chickens. And learned the hard way not to put apple cider vinager in the metal waterer. Looks like i will be replacing it sooner rather than later