FROZEN water and NO electricity!

[SteveH]

You'll be pleasantly surprized by how much thawing will occur in a black water container placed where the sun can hit it . You can use the black feed tubs sold at farm stores or paint a metal container flat black .

 

[ivan3]

We use a 4gal. black rubber hog bowl for the turks. Have it up on a milk crate (some heat loss there), keep a section of plywood over the top of all but about 5" of one edge (just enough so they can dip their beaks). Dumped (rubber bowl not plastic - can flip the ice filled thing over and kick the ice free without cracking the bowl) and filled in the morning it will stay `drinkable' slush or thin layer of ice forms around dusk that turks poke through when the temp. is around 10°F and it is cloudy. Have tarps over W/NW fencing so don't have to worry about the wind cooling it.

Use a smaller two gallon for chooks, in run, (sits down in straw), rock on plywood so they can't perch and poop, pretty clear for around four hours. I'd guess using the largest capacity container in the coop possible, and keeping it almost completely covered (4"-5" open for drinking), would surely help (place brick or other heavy object on cover so it can't be moved by chooks).

Our turks hardly ever eat snow, the chooks do (when water is available). I think they get set in their ways early on (our chooks think a whole, fresh, tomato is a threat and won't leave the coop if there is snow on the ground unless there is straw over it. Other flocks of chooks destroy whole tomatoes and plow through the snow without giving it a second thought.

 

[chookchick]

Quote:
This is what I was doing before I got a heated dog water bowl

I would use either a "snuggle safe", or a 12 by 12 paver (heated up by the fireplace insert) and put it directly under the pan of the waterer. I felt that gave me at least a couple more hours before the water in the pan froze over, and if it wasn't too cold, sometimes would make the difference in the coop between frozen over or not. But still, a PITA.

 

[Uzuri]

Try foods with moisture content, too. Mine have been quite happy to get old zucchinis lately. They stay unfrozen longer than the water does, and can be brought back in to thaw.

 

[Hennyhandler]

I have wrapped the waterer in this insulation like stuff and have tape wrapped all around it to stop the chickens from pecking it. The tape is the same color as the waterer used to be and they don't seem to notice a difference. No problems there which I'm sooo glad. I was worried about that. It does real good too. No more frozen water!!!

At least for awhile.

 

[Akane]

If you go look on some alternative energy and self sufficiency forums as well as a few threads on here you can find plans for solar heating. You can also buy solar dishes. I don't think any work below 20F though and most probably won't work too much below 30. Not effective here so I haven't done it. You can keep things thawed a little longer by using a black container in the sun and piling anything insulating around it. I bury the water bucket down in the shavings. Some farmers will pile manure around their stock tanks so that the composting manure heats the water. We've done it in an emergency when the stable has lost power in the middle of winter. The manure pile does not freeze so can be shoveled from plus the fresh manure from stalls and you have some heat. That does only works for big waterer that water from the top and big piles. Small compost piles just freeze.

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:

 

[Scott]

I finally broke down this week and order the supplies for generating solar power to my chicken house. I'd been wanting to get solar power to the chicken house for some time now because it is off grid. We've had below freezing temps here for the past week or so and I'm tired of fighting with frozen water. So I'm going to rig up a solar panel to keep a 12v battery charged and then from that run a 15w heat cable (used in reptile cages). The heat cable will be wrapped around the metal waterer and the chain from which it hangs. The idea is that it will generate enough heat to prevent the water from ever freezing. We shall see...