Bird bath frozen over

[BeMintFatball]

Noticed a robin could not drink from the bird bath early this morning. Poured a large mug of boiling water in and soon had feathered friends. But vaguely think boiling water is not ideal. Doesn’t boiling water freeze quicker to ambient temperature water?

Late morning, more sparrows pecking at the edge. This time I broke some of the ice with a stick.

And now it’s frozen again.

What’s my best strategy for tomorrow morning?
Tell me about your bird bath. I have an assortment of sparrows, a male blackbird (his mate doesn’t trust it yet) and at least one robin.

Tip out the ice and re fill with cold water

Put a tennis ball, ping pong ball or cork in - that stops it feeezing over

thebwind moves it around to prevent freezing over

Put a ping pong ball in the water, I've been told this will stop it from freezing.

You could cover it over night? Also not sure if it would work with a bird bath but putting a ball like a football in a trough can stop the ice freezing as it keeps the water moving if there's a breeze. Maybe a small, light plastic ball floating in it?

I don't know if it works but I have heard that putting a small ball in the water stops the water from freezing as any breeze moves the ball around, Might be worth a try,

Thank you to all the people suggesting small ball/cork .

First hurdle tomorrow is removing the existing ice. It’s frozen in block form . Bird bath is stone. Starting with a clean slate sounds sensible.

Rather than defrosting the existing water in the bird bath, how about you find something like a dish or pasta bowl that fits on top of the bird bath, and just fill that with water in the morning?

I remember a cold winter in 1968/9 ( I am so old!) when I stayed with my granny when my sister was born.
She put the bowl she was using for water up on stones, placed a tea light underneath and arranged flat stones around to stop the breeze from blowing the candle out while still allowing air through. It worked!

I empty out bird baths / dishes every night and refill in the morning.
If they refreeze during the day (as they currently are) I break the ice and pick it out.
Someone on here was saying they leave the water at night so nocturnal animals can get a drink but certainly where we are, the water is freezing in a very short while so they can't drink it anyway.☹️

Don't use boiling water in a stone / concrete birdbath as the thermal shock will cause it to fracture and over time, moisture gets into the cracks opening them further.

I was born that winter 🥶

@BeMintFatball yeah, id go for smashing up the ice, removing it, replacing the water & adding a few ping pong balls!!

and putting out lots of seed/feed/fat balls.

id like to have all the wee birds come inside!!

We used to put a ball in our pond. It didn’t stop it freezing over but you could remove the ball in the morning and let any trapped gas out and provide a watering hole for birds

I have tried a cork after this thread and it doesn't work