Warm drinking water ok in winter?

[Yay Chicks!]

Quote:
Warm or hot water can freeze faster than cold water under certain conditions, but not all. When it does, it is called the Mpemba Effect. (I'm not all that knowledgeable on the subject, so I looked it up because I was curious). Don't have any idea of how it will relate to anyone's individual chicken waterers.

 

[al6517]

Quote:
X2

 

[RonBaker]

Would love to see the math on that...

 

[GingersHuman]

I bring a gallon of hot water to the coop and barn twice a day when below freezing. I like to give the chickens a warm mash, and add hot water to either their slushy (partly frozen) water, or dump out solid ice and mix the hot water with some cold. So mine drink warm water to no ill effects.

 

[SunshineMary]

This is so interesting; I had never before heard that under some conditions, hot water will freeze before cooler water. I just read a bit more about this in Scientific American:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-true-that-hot-water/

The conditions in which the hot water would freeze faster are not the ones that you would find in a coop with a typical chicken waterer, though. Personally, I have been using hot tap water (but not scalding hot, of course ) in a standard chicken waterer this past week. The chickens have been drinking it just fine.

 

[MamaPoult]

Hi there,
For those of us without electricity in the coop is it ok to fill the chicken drinking waterer with warm tepid water? I was just thinking it may help to stave of the eventuality of frozen water. Is that ok to do? Give the chickens warm water to drink?
I was thinking I will be needing multiple waterers to rotate from coop to basement to thaw and then reset in run when thawed.

Same question in reverse for the layer crumbles. Right now I keep them in a brute plastic trash can( still within the bag) in the storage area of the coop. As the temps drop is it bad to be giving the chickens freezing cold dry crumbles? Do I need to move them into basement so they are kept a more reasonable temperature?

Hi there,
For those of us without electricity in the coop is it ok to fill the chicken drinking waterer with warm tepid water? I was just thinking it may help to stave of the eventuality of frozen water. Is that ok to do? Give the chickens warm water to drink?
I was thinking I will be needing multiple waterers to rotate from coop to basement to thaw and then reset in run when thawed.

Same question in reverse for the layer crumbles. Right now I keep them in a brute plastic trash can( still within the bag) in the storage area of the coop. As the temps drop is it bad to be giving the chickens freezing cold dry crumbles? Do I need to move them into basement so they are kept a more reasonable temperature?

I give mine warm water all winter and it lasts longer than cold water. I also bting in my pellets soak them in warm water then set them by our woodstove to stay warm for the night. They love it and it keeps them hydrated .