Cleaning feeders and waterers (indoors vs. outdoors)

[Iluveggers]

Honestly, I usually just wipe down the waterer with old rags to get the gunk off if I don’t want to rinse w the hose. I refill the waterer in the garage. I keep 2 old gallon milk jugs in there to refill the waterer, and just bring the plastic jug in to fill it once I use it. Avoids bringing the waterer in the sink if I do it that way. My garage is insulated so i can keep water there without feeezing. If it wasn’t, I would keep a few jugs filled in the house & bring them out to pour if it was freezing.

 

[saysfaa]

..., my boyfriend goes bananas if anything from the coop comes inside. ...
What do you guys (especially those who live in cold weather) do? Is there any evidence that I can throw at him to support washing the bowls indoors?

My dh doesn't want chickens at all. He graciously tolerates a LOT more mess than he wants; even doing the chicken chores when I'm gone. I am grateful he is supportive when he so much doesn't want to have them. I try to be supportive of how he wants to live. If I were you, I would find a way to wash them outside.

One thing is it should need cleaning less often as microbes grow much less quickly in colder temperatures. You may be able to let the cleaning go through the coldest spells and pick the warmest days to wash the bowls. Even in climates like yours and mine, this can solve the problem very late into the fall and from very early in the spring. Even in the coldest parts of winter, this helps.

It is possible to safely wash bowls outside in below freezing weather. It isn't that much different than some of the things I did for four to six hours twice a day when milking cows and related chores in the upper midwest (just to say this isn't just theoretical even though my dh tolerates washing in the kitchen sink)

Wearing latex or neoprene gloves makes that safer and more comfortable. Having lots of towels handy, helps, Take some really, really hot water to add to the bucket as the water cools. Scrub out as much as you can with stiff brushes or scrapers before using water. Doing it out of the wind is key. Wear a good hat and boots while you do it; keeping the rest of you good and warm will help your hands tolerate it. A waterproof apron helps, especially as you learn how to do it both quickly and without splashing (it can be hard to do both for some people). Setting up a place to do it can help (like a bench at a comfortable height - lower than counter tops, so water runs down off your fingers rather than down off your elbows.) Having a surface to catch splashes that you can shake or beat ice off of (like a small piece of heavy tarp) or switch out (like a box of kitty litter, maybe).

Pick your location carefully. Any water splashed or thrown out will be there for the rest of the winter so make sure it is out of the way. And won't run where you don't want it when it melts in the spring, even if it melts quickly.

If there is some above freezing place your boyfriend is okay with setting the bowls to thaw, even if it doesn't have a sink, can help... you can brush and wipe them mostly clean after they thaw, leaving much less wet part to do outside. This might not apply to you. I soak their food at least once every couple of days, so it would help in my set up.

 

[K0k0shka]

You don't need a sink or running water to wash your waterers and feeders. For the feeders, if you feed dry feed, they don't need washing at all. Unless the chickens can poop in the feed, in which case you have a design problem and need to solve that first. As for the waterers, you can wash them on the spot without getting wet at all. I've never brought my waterers to a sink to wash, and I've never used anything other than water to wash them. What I do is I bring a bucket of clean water with me when I go out to refill, and a retired baby bottle brush. I scrub the waterer lightly with the brush while it still has some water in it, so before I dump it. That takes care of any buildup on the walls. Then I dump it and refill with fresh water. The end! This works great and I've never had algae or other problems, and I don't need to bring anything dirty into the house. In the winter, I use a heated dog bowl, which is an open bowl and extremely easy to occasionally scrub with the long-handled bottle brush. I only scrub occasionally though, if I start to see buildup, not every day. Maybe once every week or two, probably less in cold weather when things grow more slowly. I also have my waterer(s) elevated on a cinder block so the chickens don't kick crap into them - this extends the time between washings, too.

Do you have a basement with running water, or some other source of water other than the hose or your kitchen? If yes, you can use that for chicken-related needs. I happen to have a utility sink in my basement, and the basement opens onto the back yard, so I use the basement sink for all chicken stuff, and the basement itself to store feed and other supplies, safe from temperature swings or predators. So none of my chicken supplies or equipment ever comes into the house where we live, it stays in the basement. Not everybody has that setup though. But if you do a quick scrub of the waterers on the spot, and bring your own water, you won't need to take anything inside to the kitchen. I agree with your boyfriend, I would not bring chicken things into the house kitchen to wash.

 

[Folly's place]

Here we just rinse and refill the waterers two or three times weekly, at the coop. We have a frost free hydrant out there, one of four we've added to the farm, so there's fresh unfrozen water all year. Love them!
In summer we add a black rubber dish outside, and more than the two waterers we keep on heaters over the winter. Plugging them in today!
The feeders just don't get grubby, only dry feed goes into them.
'Manage with least effort' is my thing!
Mary

 

[Missyschix13]

HAHA your boyfriend would freak the f out if he ever came to our house.
https://www.amazon.com/Heated-Antifreeze-Drinking-Hose，Rv-Accessories/dp/B0B7X6VM2S/ref=psdc_10806173011_t1_B01ABONB0A

Lol probably mine too.....but I do most of the cleaning outside. But I have kids....they bring my girls inside to hang out more often than I like to talk about.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

My water to the coop will be turned off when I have my sprinkler system winterized. Freeze in the 10 day forecast so I need to get them trained (young pullets) in the nipple waterer. I bought this huge one last year and didn't use it because the heated dog bowls worked great. this year I will have both.

 

[Missyschix13]

This is our first winter with the chickens. I have a plan to continue to use the water outside for cleaning and waterer filling. I just gave everything a good hose down yesterday. The first one since we got them. The coop will get hosed out next weekend in preparation for winter. Tarp will go up then too. I'm going to see how it goes. In pa, the temps can drop a little bit it's usually short lived. I have a huge 12 gallon waterer so moving it to fill it isn't an option. I'm going to hold out to see how it does over the winter to avoid buying a heater but this will be trial and error this winter. I've been reading up but really it's case by case. We'll see what works and what doesn't. Fingers crossed my plan works.

 

[WIchickMama]

I actually don't wash my waterers (no algae issue as I have a very opaque waterer that sits in the shade, and moderate climate). In spring thru fall I rinse them with a hose and call it a day. In the winter, I don't even rinse them, I just dump out the used water and refill with fresh.

To refill in winter I use a 1 gallon iced tea jug (milk jug works too) and fill that in the "chicken sink" indoors, then carry it out and fill the waterer that way.

this is what I do as well--pretty much to a 'T'

 

[K0k0shka]

The coop will get hosed out next weekend in preparation for winter.

You don't need to hose out the coop, in fact it's best if you don't wet-clean it at all. It's not necessary, it shortens the lifespan of the wood, and it can introduce problems like mold, especially now that it's cold and it will take it much longer to dry completely. Scrape, shovel and sweep what you can, that's enough. It's not a human house and it doesn't need to be sanitized and spotless.

 

[Missyschix13]

You don't need to hose out the coop, in fact it's best if you don't wet-clean it at all. It's not necessary, it shortens the lifespan of the wood, and it can introduce problems like mold, especially now that it's cold and it will take it much longer to dry completely. Scrape, shovel and sweep what you can, that's enough. It's not a human house and it doesn't need to be sanitized and spotless.

Good to know.....that checks one thing off my list! The coop is brand new and gets swept out and bedding changed at least once a week, so I'm golden there. Thanks for saving me from my own torture!