How to Keep Your Chickens’ Water from Freezing During Winter: Essential Tips

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Keeping our chickens safe from severe cold and frostbite can be a huge worry during winter.  However, most of the time we can keep them safe through ensuring they’re kept dry and have areas where they can get out of the elements with decent insulation from the cold and ventilation in the coop to heal get rid of extra moisture – all relatively easy to do.

Keeping your chicken’s water from freezing, is a much more difficult task. 

No matter how cold it is, your chickens still need access to water.  Putting the water inside your chicken’s coop to provide a better insulated location for it, is NOT a good option.  Doing so creates extra moisture which can lead to respiratory issues as well as frostbite.  As such, always keep the water outside of the coop where they sleep (if you can). 

When it’s below freezing outside the first areas to freeze on your chicken’s water founts will be the tops and outer areas such as the top and sides which will generally include the area where your chickens actually access the water like an edge or a cup. 

Due to how easily these areas freeze, ensuring your chickens have access to water can become a challenge, but there are definitely some solutions out there (some of which work better than others). 

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Here are some ideas and options to help with keeping your chickens hydrated this winter. 

01 Switch Out Your Waterers

One option for making sure your chickens have access to fresh water in winter is simply by having multiple waterers.  Keep one in their run and the other inside a building in a protected area where it won’t freeze.  After the outside waterer is frozen, simply switch them out. 

Depending on your area, you may be able to get away with just switching them out once, in the morning.  If you live in a particularly cold area, you might need to do this several times a day. 

02 Use Black Rubber Livestock Tubs

Feed stores often sell rubber tubs which can be useful for providing water for your chickens and other livestock during winter.  While these won’t completely prevent your chicken’s water from becoming frozen, they definitely slow down the freezing process and help in other ways.

Because they’re open, your chickens have better access to the water (it’s not coming through a cup etc). 

These tubs are made of a thicker bendable rubber, so they’re also better insulated than your typical plastic chicken waterer.  If the water freezes, they’re very easy to turn over, empty, and then refill.  It’s best to empty any waterer outside of your chickens area to help keep their areas as dry as possible. 

Since the rubber tubs are black they also absorb and maintain heat from the sun (if sunlight is available). 

These rubber tubs tend to smell a little funky, I certainly wouldn’t want to drink from them, but they’re perfectly safe for your animals to drink from so don’t worry about the off-putting smell  (it diminishes after a while).

03 Break the Top Layer of Ice

If you live in a climate where you get a light freeze, then you may be able to get by simply by going out occasionally and breaking the top layer of ice in your chicken’s waterer. 

04 Pour Hot Water Over Thinner Ice

If there’s just a bit of ice on your chicken’s water, you can pour hot water over to melt the majority of the ice and give your chickens access to the water.  I often do this first thing in the morning when I know their water is clean, just slightly frozen over. 

Warm or hot water is preferable (not boiling).  The hot water will quickly mix with the icy cold water and be safe to drink.  Boiling water could potentially damage plastic containers, you don’t want it accidentally splashing on your chickens as you carry it, it’s a pain to carry, and it takes longer to boil water than it does to let your sink water get warm.

05 Use Ping-Pong Balls

Movement on the surface of water will help prevent it from freezing.  A couple ping-pong balls placed on top of your chicken’s water will get blown around by the wind and will help prevent the surface from freezing (in theory).  Make sure the waterer is in an area where wind can actually move the balls around.  As your chicken’s drink, they’ll also be moving the balls around so that’ll help as well.

Technically, any ball that is light and floats will work for this, but ping-pong balls are readily available in several stores. 

06 Make a Saltwater Bobber

Although I haven’t tested this method out myself, many poultry raisers say that keeping a water bottle filled with salt water inside their water container will help keep it defrosted. 

Due to salt waters lower freezing point, the saltwater filled bottle will help slow the freezing of the surrounding water, despite the salt water being contained and not contaminating the drinking water. 

07 Use a Larger / Deeper Waterer

Water kept in larger containers takes longer to freeze (though it will still freeze).  To decrease how often you need to break up use or replace the water, simply buy a larger waterer. 

However, keep in mind it’s not ideal to have something that your chickens can easily jump into and get wet.  If you get a large water container, you may want to put a screen or something on top to block entry so that your chickens can drink the water, but not get their bodies in it.  

08 Add Insulation

Adding some extra insulation around your chicken’s water container is another way to help slow freezing.  You would put their water bowl (especially if it’s one of the rubber tub bowls) inside of a rubber tire, or you could simply wrap insulating material around the waterer – just make sure it’s a material that your chickens won’t be able to peck at and eat. 

09 Keep the Water in the Sun

While winter isn’t always known for being the sunniest time of year, what sun we do get will help keep water temperatures higher than if they’re kept in the shade.  If your chicken run is covered, try to keep the waterer in a place that gets the most sunlight during the day, or use clear covers to let in more light. 

10 Make a Greenhouse Around the Water Location

Another way of using the sun to keep your chickens water unfrozen is by creating a greenhouse around where you keep their water.  Just like how greenhouses can keep your plants warmer, so can they keep your chicken’s water. 

If you have any old windows of glass on hand and know some DIY skills, you can build a mini structure around your chicken’s water.  You could make them in an A-frame shape or a box shape (whichever is easiest for you).  Just make sure no window panels are going to fall on your chickens. 

Plexiglass, plastic sheets or even old shower curtains could also be used if you can make a frame to hold them in place.     

11 Use a Heated Water Base

If you don’t mind spending some extra money on your chickens and have electricity running to their area, then there are a couple options available to you which are especially good for those who live in extremely cold areas (negative temps). 

Heated water bases warm up your chicken’s water just like a coffee cup warmer does.  Just set the water fount on top and it will be gently warmed from below.

These typically come with thermostats and are made to not get too hot.  They’re often made of galvanized metal and can be used with metal water founts if that’s what you already have.  The heavier duty rubber tubs and regular plastic waterers can also safely be used with them but make sure to read the directions and warnings that come on the labels.

One issue with these is your chickens might knock the water off the base so make sure everything is secured and can’t be toppled.  Also, keep heated water bases on stone or cement, not on anything flammable like pine shavings as a precaution. 

12 Use a Heated Water Bowl

Heated water bowls are often used for dogs that stay outside during winter months but can also be used for your chickens.  This option works best for smaller flocks since one bowl can only contain so much water and you probably don’t want to have to pay for multiple different heated bowls.

13 Use an Aquarium Heater

Most pet stores will have submersible heaters for use in ponds and fish aquariums.  Since these are made to be in water, they’re perfectly safe for your putting in your chickens’ water containers. 

With any of the electrically corded options, make sure the cords and outlets are protected from your chickens.  You don’t want your chickens pecking at them and getting themselves electrocuted. 

14 Maintain Constant Water Flow with a Water Filter or Aerator

Kind of like how the ping-pong ball prevents the water surface from freezing, water that’s in constant motion is also less likely to freeze.  If you or someone you know is handy, you could set up a pond water filter which will circulate the water out and back into the waterer which would help prevent freezing – it’s still going to freeze if it gets super cold out though… 

Aquarium aerators or bubblers can also be used to create movement in the water. 

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There isn’t a singular fix all solution when it comes to keeping your chicken’s water from freezing.  Which solution works best for you will depend on where you live and how severe your weather gets, how many chickens you have, your set up, how much you can afford to invest in chicken supplies etc. 

Some Extra Things of Note:

• Don’t leave chicks and young chickens that aren’t fully feathered out in cold weather.  If your chicks aren’t fully grown, then they should be kept inside in a more protected environment as they can’t regulate their temperatures as well as adults and drinking overly cold water could be detrimental to their health. 
• Remember to keep your chickens’ water outside of their coop!  Chickens already produce an abundance of moisture through their breath and excrement.  By putting a waterer inside their coop, you’re adding to that moisture which can lead to respiratory infections, frostbite, and other health problems.  It can also lead to wet bedding/substrate which is not good for your chickens during cold weather.  Keep the water outside the coop in the run.  Your chickens don’t need to drink at night while they’re sleeping.
• I don’t recommend using metal of galvanized water buckets during winter.  Water tends to freeze in them much quicker and if they get very cold and your chicken touches the cold metal sides with a part of their face, they could get frostbite.   
• DIY-ing heated water bases – some poultry raises have used lightbulbs or candles inside cinder blocks or bricks; however, I don’t recommend these due to the potential fire hazard.