Waterers and what works best in the winter

[Toothpick]

My heated 2-gallon bucket had 1 nipple frozen and another functioning. The wind is plowing through the run more than I expected, so I closed my girls in the coop and am doing the swap out ever few hours, too.

On the bright side …. They stop drinking after dark

 

[Krugerrand]

On the bright side …. They stop drinking after dark

And another bright side ... it gets dark pretty early! .... but, then can that be a 'bright' side?

 

[MrPaw]

Zone 8a eastern NC. Using Large Automatic Chicken Waterer Cups in a five gallon bucket except when the temps stay below freezing day and night (rare but does happen) then I use the rubber tubs, just fill each morning. Love the water cups but don't like the dirty beak mess. BTW I do not stress about clean water. Just empty and refill the bucket about once a week. Ever watched a free range chicken (my chickens all free range during the day) and what they would prefer drinking?

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[LovOutdoors]

you can make your own for much cheaper.

buy a 5-7 gallon bucket along with a pack of horizontal nipples.

drill holes, insert nipples, then drill small holes near the top of the bucket to prevent a vacuum seal. done and done.

if you live where it gets cold, then in the winter, you can drop a deicer in the bucket to keep the water from freezing.

5-7 gallons of water vs 2 gallons means you have to refill the bucket much less frequently.

Hello,

I was wondering how close to the bottom of the bucket do you place the nipples? From the picture of the store bought bucket it looks pretty close to the bottom of the bucket. If the nipples are close to the bottom, would you have to raise them for the adult chickens to use them?

 

[Finnie]

Hello,

I was wondering how close to the bottom of the bucket do you place the nipples? From the picture of the store bought bucket it looks pretty close to the bottom of the bucket. If the nipples are close to the bottom, would you have to raise them for the adult chickens to use them?

Yes, whatever you use to hang the bucket, you want the nipples lower for chicks and higher for adults. You insert the nipples as close to the bottom of the bucket as is practical so that you have the least amount of water in the bottom of the bucket being wasted as possible. Then you hang the bucket higher or lower depending on the size of the birds.

Smaller/shorter buckets often work better because in some coops there isn’t enough room to hang the bucket high enough. Even though that means you have to refill the bucket more often, or hang several up in each coop. But yeah, if you are going to put a deicer in it for winter, you want a bigger bucket. One thing that worked well for me in a coop where I couldn’t hang the bucket, was to set it up on a concrete block. That’s when my bucket was a rectangular kitty liter container and my deicer was a small submersible fish tank heater.