frozen water & no electic

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
DITTO! I love those black Fortex rubber bowls! Snap them out like ice cubes!

Same here! I take a pitcher of warm water out in the mornings and it stays liquid for much longer since I bought one of those black rubber bowls. Before I was using just a plain, plastic bowl and the water would freeze up pretty quickly.

 

[azygous]

This has been a fiercely cold winter and I was having trouble with the waterers freezing in the coop by morning, even though the coop is insulated. Friends donated a bunch of gallon plastic milk jugs and I filled them with hot tap water after sunset. These I placed near the waterers. It's worked beautifully. The heat sink keeps the waterers just above freezing. The kids have normal temp water to drink, and the warm milk jugs are perfectly safe and can't burn them.

Granted, it's a bit of a chore making five trips out to the coop to get them all placed, but I only need to do it when the temp threatens to dive into the single digits. I guess I could load them all up in the wheel barrow and just make one trip. Just now thought of that. Can't seem to come up with more than one stunning idea at once.

By the way, was your grandma from Missouri? Had a husband once (born in Missouri) who insisted hot water froze quicker than cold, so I said lets experiment. We put hot water in his ice cube tray and cold in mine. The hot water lost the race. Mine froze way quicker than his. We got divorced centuries ago.

 

[slightlyscrambled]

For my geese I have been using one of those little lunch box coolers, its big and deep enough for them to stick their head in but they cant try to swim in it, beings it insulated I dont have much trouble with it freezing up to much but still havent figured out what to do for the chickens. I still have to change out water/ice 2-3 times a day

 

[hinkjc]

For those using hot water in the morning. Don't the birds try to drink it right away and burn their mouths? I know when my birds have an occasional frozen waterer, as soon as water hits the ground they are all over it. That would worry me using hot water.

 

[jetto]

Til I walk to the barn and start watering its cooled off some and I check to see how hot it is before putting the waterer in with them. So far its been fine to go in right away.

I like the idea of using the hot water in the milk jugs around the waterers too. May try that and see how it works for us. Cold and sleeting/snowing here in north-central Ohio this morning. Might be a good day for testing that! Our barn isn't insulated but not drafty either but we have had some frozen water on the real cold days.
Kristi