[CWatters]

I've recently built a heated automatic chicken waterer others might be interested in. It uses an aquarium pump to circulate water from a large bucket upto into their drinking cup. When the cup overflows the excess water runs back to the bucket. A small acquarium heater in the bucket the whole thing from freezing.

I worked well in the recent cold spell but it's surprising how much muck our chickens put in their drinking cup despite it being set quite high. That muck finds it's way back into the bucket which needs cleaning out about once every 5 days.

In the USA they seem to use "chicken nipples" fixed to buckets. Do they work ok or are they a source of leaks? Do they freeze up?

 

[chickadee]

i have a water dispenser with "nipples" and yes they do freeze up i tend to not use it if the weather is very cold and just stick to a large bucket checked several times a day - the chickens still seem to prefer eating snow or shards of ice and mucky puddles!!!!
the nipples may not freeze if you heat the water - an experiment for you...

[ehs284]

Any drips are going to freeze. If you use heated water, the outside of the plastic nipple will be at near atmospheric temperature as the plastic is a good insulator. Easiest is just use a large bowl that they cannot turn over and dump the aquarium heater in it. Top up with water as necessary. My heater is set at 16 C (lowest setting) and the bowl is tall as well as long so they they can just put their heads over the edge. This helps stop debris getting in there, but I don't know of any way of permanently keeping food or water really clean with chooks!