Just wanted to share this since tis the time of year that people start thinking about heating their waterers.
DH & I decided to use those auto battery heater pads last year, like this only not quite as big: Heater
We placed one under each 3 gallon metal waterer. Each waterer sits on concrete blocks, so the heaters were between the bottom of the waterer and the block. We had a separate switch to turn them on and off automatically based on the air temp in the coop.
One did fine, but one smoked after a couple months of use. Full-on smoldering and melting of the surrounding plastic pad.
No bad things happened to my coop or chickens, since there weren't any shavings close enough to catch fire. It was just really smelly.
But it could definitely have caught fire, so please be careful if you consider using these. Maybe make sure only one side is enclosed instead of making a sandwich of it like we did.
They were kind of pricey, too.
Hope this helps someone.
I think we'll try heated dog dishes this year....
DH & I decided to use those auto battery heater pads last year, like this only not quite as big: Heater
We placed one under each 3 gallon metal waterer. Each waterer sits on concrete blocks, so the heaters were between the bottom of the waterer and the block. We had a separate switch to turn them on and off automatically based on the air temp in the coop.
One did fine, but one smoked after a couple months of use. Full-on smoldering and melting of the surrounding plastic pad.
No bad things happened to my coop or chickens, since there weren't any shavings close enough to catch fire. It was just really smelly.
But it could definitely have caught fire, so please be careful if you consider using these. Maybe make sure only one side is enclosed instead of making a sandwich of it like we did.
They were kind of pricey, too.
Hope this helps someone.
I think we'll try heated dog dishes this year....
