DIY Thread - Let's see your "Inventions".

[Leahs Mom]

Just heard from another girl today that two of her birds accidentally stepped in an open bucket waterer.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I prefer the ounce.

Edited to add:
The girl I'm referring to keeps hers up on blocks and is very careful with her birds. She also has a pretty large chicken house so things aren't crowded. Unfortunately accidents do happen.

Additionally, the restricted openings keep wattles from hanging in the water (as noted above).

So easy to keep the openings restricted and not expensive.

 

[Beekissed]

That ounce can be as simple as placing the waterer up on blocks.

 

[perchie.girl]

x2 Bee

I keep quiet in these discussions though ... I dont have environment issues with the cold. Water here stays liquid for the most part.... At worst there will be a half inch of ice but that melts once the sun hits it.

deb

 

[Beekissed]

It always amazes me how frail chickens have become in the past 40 yrs. I've never had one with frost bitten feet or wattles from open watering~never even heard of such a thing until I read on BYC, so it ain't that common out here in the hills~ but maybe the new strains and lines of birds have become more susceptible to such things.

 

[aart]

aaaaand some folks don't deal with ongoing frigid temps either, so it can't come into their realm of possibilities.....
.....so then must not be true.

 

[RonP]

You would think that if, they did stick their head in water, they would shake it off before any damage had a chance to occur.

I know I would...

But then again, I have never experienced temperatures much below 0F...

 

[Beekissed]

They do shake their wattles to clear them of liquid. Usually frostbite of wattles and combs are a result of too high of humidity in the roosting area of a coop, not moisture picked up in the daytime and easily cleared with a shake of the head or a swipe on the ground.

 

[COChix]

If you'll notice, the rooster in the pic above also has frostbite on his comb and, unless he dipped his whole head, I'm thinking that wasn't caused by the water source.  More likely this is caused by a coop that doesn't have good ventilation for night time roosting.  Same with the wattles being frosted. 

I've always used open water bowls for chickens for winter and never once have I had a bird with frozen feet or wattles~using one right now.  A person just has to use good common sense and elevate the container up to chest height on the bird and provide a little ledge for younger birds if necessary.  If they don't have to lean down to drink, they do just fine.  If you have chickens stepping in water when it's elevated up to the appropriate height, then you need to provide more room in your coop. 

For the record, feet don't freeze "in an instant" and any kind of dry bedding is sufficient for drying of the feet enough to avoid this.  Chickens have been drinking out of open water in the winter since the beginning of time, folks.  They also go out, walk around in the snow, come back in with their totally wet feet and legs and no frozen limbs result from it.  No need to make things more difficult than they already are or get folks frantic about open waterers.  . 

I would like to add the water bowl was raised off the ground, I have raised it even more now. Even the larger waterer drinking tray was too deep for my guys and I have since placed baby chick waterer the tiny size in the run, I have several stations for them to utiltize, that sits on sand on top of a heated water bowl. I got that idea from Leahsmom, thanks!

To address the frostbite in the comb, yep it was too cold on the roosts the night it got down to -15 that was in Colorado. Not sure how cold it gets where you live? My guess is they drank before roosting that night that coupled with the fact that I had left the side venting open on the coop by accident rather than closing it and leaving the top vents all the way open. Normally had been remembering to do that but I forgot that night.

Lastly, I was merely trying to provide some educational pictures and insight into the issue as Ron had asked for feedback.

 

[RonP]

I personally dropped the idea of an open bowl because of the original post.

I will never regret it, and am thankful for having the thought put in my head.

As said, just an ounce...

Stay warm!

Currently 29F here...

 

[PoultryBird12]

I personally dropped the idea of an open bowl because of the original post.

I will never regret it, and am thankful for having the thought put in my head.

As said, just an ounce...

Stay warm!

Currently 29F here...

You're complaining about 29 degree weather!! That's warm! It's 3 degrees up here!! I wish I had your weather! Tonight it's going to get down to -10 degrees!!! Brrrr. I hope my ducks and chickens don't freeze!!