Water filled milk jugs as insulation?

[bonder]

My family drinks a ton of milk. At least 5 gallons every week. What I'm wondering is... If I fill the empty milk jugs with water and put them inside my chicken house, along the tarp which divides the building, would they provide additional insulation?

The water itself will freeze but would a frozen jug of water make it warmer, colder or have no effect? The jugs would be on the mostly empty half of the building, not the chicken half.

Eskimos built houses out of ice and stayed very warm, so why not chickens? OTHO, ice is cold and tends to make the stuff around it cold.

I realize there are better insulators, but I'm trying to use what we have on hand.

Thanks for any input!!!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Fill them with salt water so they don't freeze?

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Frozen water jugs are a huge favorite for helping to cool the coop and/or shade areas in warm weather

Maybe filled with foam and stuffed/wedged in the wall?

 

[jmagill]

Water acts as a mass that buffers temp swings. It will only work to keep the coop warm if the water warms up
enough during the day to slow the heat loss at night.

 

[patandchickens]

The water itself will freeze but would a frozen jug of water make it warmer, colder or have no effect?

Water-filled jugs are totally NOT insulation at all (whether frozen or liquid).

What they are is thermal ballast -- they will store some of the heat of daytime and release it slowly into the evening/night.

This can be useful when the amount of thermal ballast is large relative to coop size AND the coop is very well insulated. Otherwise, some jugs full o water in a big poorly insulated building would not do anything meaningful for you.

A big difficulty with using milk jugs is that they tend to split when frozen (at least when frozen repeatedly) and then leak all over the place when they thaw. Which is obviously a bad thing in a coop where you're trying to keep things dry.

So, I don't know exactly what your coop is like but it does not sound to me like a situation where milkjugs will do you much good.

Sorry, good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I wouldn't think that filling the jugs with water would be helpful --


but have you considered filling the jugs with playing SAND instead?


Earthen materials should insulate, I would think.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I don't know about as a permanent insulation, but I do fill some with hot tap water on the coldest nights and sit them in the coop. They act as a heat sink or themal ballast as Pat calls it. They are sometimes frozen the next morning, but I figure it helps on the front end.

 

[Wifezilla]

Water acts as a mass that buffers temp swings. It will only work to keep the coop warm if the water warms up
enough during the day to slow the heat loss at night.

Exactly.

I use water jugs to keep plants alive in winter. It has worked well so far, be we are about to get below zero temps next week

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

When the milk jugs freeze at night, they will make the coop colder during the day as they thaw out.

You would have to fill them with nice warm water in order for it to be helpful, IMO.

 

[MTopPA_18707]

What breed(s) of chickens do you have ? Are they cold weather hardy ?

And how cold is it getting ?

If the coop is well insulated (but still well ventilated up near the roof) then I wouldn't worry about heat at all until it got down around 0'F

Give the birds some cracked corn in the evening - so they have the carb's to generate their own body heat.

Have wide roosting posts to keep their toes warm.
(Thin posts result in toes curling underneath where they can't be warmed by feathers.)

-----------------

But yes warm water from the house technically would act as a warm thermal mass and would bleed off heat during the night.

If you heat your house with a wood stove you could heat fire bricks and then take them to the coop in the evening.
Be careful where you put them as you don't want a fire, or burned birds.

But I kinda think - unless it is wicked cold ~ like 0'F, then just let the birds adjust to it.

If human heating tactics aren't consistent then the birds may really suffer if those heat sources fail.

food for thought,

Xriva