Winter Water Works

Backyard Poultry

Water Pail

If you live any place that can stay below freezing for days on end, you’re sure to be wondering how our hens had drinking water all winter. Well, after some trial and error, we devised the system shown above. We used interchangeable small metal buckets that fit down in a wooden frame, which in turn was attached to the coop wall at hen-eye level. It was then very easy to pull out one bucket frozen with ice and replace it with a pail of warm water. The chore then was facing the 30-mph icy winds and 12”-deep snow to get the warm water out there! Normally changing it every morning and evening kept the water thawed, except for very cold days when we had to go out midday as well. We sure got plenty of fresh air that winter!