Chickens Water freezing

[starlite7077]

I heard food base glycerin keeps water from freezing. I just heard 12.8 ounces to a gallon

What would glycerin do?

 

[starlite7077]

I live in Pennsylvania and it is 8* today.
I have to keep my water from freezing and my favorite way is to use a bucket with a lid and a heater. I drilled four holes in the bottom of a lidded bucket and using teflon tape, I screwed in four chicken nipples. Make sure to use teflon tape so there is no leak (a slow drip will freeze). Then, I drop a submersible water de-icer into my bucket. I drill a hole in the bucket lid that is big enough to get the plug through, fill with water, and the de-icer keeps the water from freezing and the lid keeps it clean. Of course, you need electricity for this. I saw someone else use a brick, place a light bulb in the bottom of the brick (i think they used sand for substrate so nothing could set on fire with bulb touching it) and then they set a regular chicken waterer on top so that the heat from the bubl could keep it from freezing. I prefer chicken nipples for sanitary reasons. They love to peck at shiny objects so they learn quickly, even as day old chicks.

 

[I Love Layers]

There is nothing that you can safely add to water to keep it from freezing. You have 2 choices: either provide an electric heater for your water (I use a heated dog bowl) or make multiple trips/day to see to it that your birds have water to drink. A rubber feed dish/water bowl is helpful because you can abuse it severely to knock the block of ice out of it, where a regular plastic bowl will crack at the least provocation when it's filled with ice water.

Exactly. Up here in ND without a fully insulated coop it would be a trip out every hour to change water so I use a heater under my waterer. However for my birds in conditioning cages I use small rubber dishes that I can use my hands to pull the sides farther apart and the ice falls right out normally

 

[eatbeef14]

I use a heated water dish, it works great.