frozen water!

[BellevueOmlet]

Winter Bucket with Cups

 

[fatbassetvineyards]

Does anyone do solar? I was just thinking that might work if there is no electricity near the coop.

 

[happycountryhens]

Quote:
You must live where it is sunny. We live mostly under cloud cover. When we do see the sun, we all run screaming back into our houses until we figure out what that thing is that is blinding us outside.

Ok, just kidding, solar has come a long way in the last 10 years and I hear it doesn't have to be sunny in order for it to work. I am told it can work off the light waves that come through the clouds.

Good idea....hmmmmmm

 

[NovaAman]

I am using a heated dog dish, filled with sand, then the water sits on top of that. I do like the snuggie idea though... I think that might be a good idea for a second waterer... hmmm.

 

[chicmom]

I use those black rubbery buckets.....I keep one up at the house, and one down at the coop. That way, I just take a fresh one down, and then I take the frozen one, step on the side of it and the ice plops out....And I carry that one back to the house.......That way I dont' have to go down back and down again.......

I do this in the morning, and after work......It's good because then I get to see my flock 2 times a day.....

 

[geoff40]

I am just like chicmom, above.

I don't try to prevent water from freezing. Instead I have summer water buckets and winter water buckets. The summer size are 5 gallon buckets, the winter ones are 1 gallon size. They all have lids and carry handles, they all have poultry nipples on the bottoms (3 on each). In the winter time, a bucket of room temp water gets brought to the coop, and hung, the one already out there (long enough to freeze) gets brought in to the house for thawing/refilling for the next trip to the coop. Generally they get a bucket in the morning, and if it needs doing, another one mid afternoon, an hour or so before they will roost for the night.

 

[clairabean]

It really depends on your level of freezing. We get a few weeks of -20*C (about -4*F). It will freeze any nipple or cup in a minute. It will ice over any bucket withen three minutes. Those black pans are great for chunking out ice in fall and spring, when it only gets just past 0*C (32*F), but not in the dead of winter.

For us it is either pack out fresh, warm water a few times a day or use a heating system. I run an extension cord out to my coop in winter, as we have no power out there. For years I packed out fresh water three times day. This year I have a fancy heated waterer.

 

[wyododge]

We use a bird bath deicer. Works great. You can see our set up on our page.

 

[Chick_Lit123]

I live in MA, which is always cold. Rather than heat the water, I buy two water bottles and exchange them everyday. This insures that they get fresh water daily. Cheaper and safer than buying or making a heater, I think...

 

[Chemguy]

I've taken to simply bringing new water out each day as needed. I bought a rubberized watering pan at TSC and this makes it a breeze to remove frozen water and avoids the 'cracking' problem I've seen with cold plastic. I keep a couple of old milk jugs inside the house, then top off or replace water in the dish each time I go out. I'm headed out to the coop at least twice a day anyhow, so this doesn't amount to much extra work.