warm water for calves

[hitnspit]

Ok so I have a few things here. I just got 2 awesome calves 5 days old today and doing wonderful. learned a lot from our last 2 last year. Main topic is water. this time around I have been told warm water free choice in about a week. So I went out and bought one of those $50 heated buckets. I just got to thinking this may not work If its any thing like a chicken heated dish where its only warm enough not to freeze. Input on that would be awesome. Now my other question is. Would or could a calf drink off a hog nipple. I have a heated water set up that I used for the pigs and that water stayed warm. Let me know if anyone has done this and if it worked.
Thank you all
jim

 

[Azriel]

The water doesn't have to be warn, the heated bucket will be fine.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

As long as the water is not frozen, it's perfectly fine for the calves. Those heated buckets are great for keeping water above freezing to minimize/reduce the number of times you have to break ice to water the calves.