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Looking for recommendations.

I have my chicken waterer hooked to about 500ft of hose then feeding a 5gal bucket with a toilet flange. How do you guys recommend I winterize with this type of setup. My primary concern is that it the hose will burst or freeze up the hose then the faucet and burst a pipe.
 
pr0wlunwoof said:
Looking for recommendations.

I have my chicken waterer hooked to about 500ft of hose then feeding a 5gal bucket with a toilet flange. How do you guys recommend I winterize with this type of setup. My primary concern is that it the hose will burst or freeze up the hose then the faucet and burst a pipe.
Click to expand...
Unless your weather is a lot warmer than ours in middle ga, I think you are gonna have a problem. And cannot figure how you can protect that arrangement. Last year folks got shocked at a 5 degree low and 11 degree high one day. Those with large flocks and farm animals were carrying water all day.

Even if the hose were below the frost line the above ground faucet and water bucket will be at risk.

Don't know how large your flock is but a cinder block light heater or a bird bath heater can work til really low temps.

If you don't get some better suggestions on this forum, repost on a general feeding/watering forum to get more views on your question.
 
Even with frost free hydrants, your hose would still freeze. And with anything holding water in the hose, the frost free hydrant won't drain properly. Short of water moving constantly or having a heater, it's going to freeze. We just disconnect our hoses from the frost free hydrants when not in use so we can just fill up water jugs when needed. There is insulation available for hoses and pipes but even that is only going to protect so much. The electric heaters that wrap around hoses and pipes aren't long enough to reach all the way to where you need them and I don't think the control end of them are supposed to be exposed to the weather... I could be wrong on that though. They may actually make some that can be outside and get rained on.

If you find a solution, let us all know.
 
sunflour said:
Unless your weather is a lot warmer than ours in middle ga, I think you are gonna have a problem. And cannot figure how you can protect that arrangement. Last year folks got shocked at a 5 degree low and 11 degree high one day. Those with large flocks and farm animals were carrying water all day.

Even if the hose were below the frost line the above ground faucet and water bucket will be at risk.

Don't know how large your flock is but a cinder block light heater or a bird bath heater can work til really low temps.

If you don't get some better suggestions on this forum, repost on a general feeding/watering forum to get more views on your question.
Click to expand...


RoboDuck said:
Even with frost free hydrants, your hose would still freeze. And with anything holding water in the hose, the frost free hydrant won't drain properly. Short of water moving constantly or having a heater, it's going to freeze. We just disconnect our hoses from the frost free hydrants when not in use so we can just fill up water jugs when needed. There is insulation available for hoses and pipes but even that is only going to protect so much. The electric heaters that wrap around hoses and pipes aren't long enough to reach all the way to where you need them and I don't think the control end of them are supposed to be exposed to the weather... I could be wrong on that though. They may actually make some that can be outside and get rained on.

If you find a solution, let us all know.
Click to expand...

So what i have done at this point is purchase foam pipe insulation from lowes. Now i am going to order a pipe heater and put inside of the foam insulation at the faucet so the faucet does not freeze and just have it plugged in all the time. I will then put a Y valve on the hose before it goes into the bucket and have another hose running into a large feeder pan and leave it dripping. that way if the bucket freezes there will be a pan of frozen water that will thaw during the day for the birds.
 
So I am not terribly Impressed with the salmon faverolles breed. I had one a few weeks ago that started showing chills and the next day it died. It looked fine and acted fine then all of a sudden it was gone. Now we just ha our first big cold snap and this new one is the only chick out of 10 that is even remotely acting cold. The brahma I have that is the same age is up and running like the older birds but lord the little salmon is just so I'll prepared for the cold. Even sitting under the heat lamp wasn't helping. Long story short the salmon is now in the kitchen and I brought the brahma in for company.
700
 
CliffB said:
So I am not terribly Impressed with the salmon faverolles breed. I had one a few weeks ago that started showing chills and the next day it died. It looked fine and acted fine then all of a sudden it was gone. Now we just ha our first big cold snap and this new one is the only chick out of 10 that is even remotely acting cold. The brahma I have that is the same age is up and running like the older birds but lord the little salmon is just so I'll prepared for the cold. Even sitting under the heat lamp wasn't helping. Long story short the salmon is now in the kitchen and I brought the brahma in for company.
700
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Those chicks are way too young to be without. Heat lamp! They have no adult feathers to keep them warm! Chicks should have 95 degrees the first week and subtract 5 degrees each week until they are either fully feathered or the outside temp is equal to that weeks calculation!
 
I definitely agree! I don't see any feathers, just fluff. I have raised chicks in outdoor brooders during winter here in these mountains but THEY HAD A HEAT SOURCE. Even once feathered (sometimes as early as 4/5 weeks) the chicks get adjusted to outdoor temps by turning off the heat for longer and longer intervals until they are weaned completely. Cold rearing by keeping temps as low as possible without death has been proven NOT to make 'tougher' birds. It is detrimental.
 

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