Getting ready for winter! What do you guys do?

[tedabug]

Lots of sand and bark chips, plastic around outside of run and coop, heated water dish, small heater and small cinder blocks to tip toe over

 

[chickfamilyonsleepyhollow]

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Thanks for the pix ... I'm concerned that the water will spill and get the coop floor all wet ... do you have that problem?

 

[patandchickens]

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I am not Lynne and have not used a dogbowl *in* another bowl (well, I have, but only to serve as bottom heat for a metal waterer, which btw works fine)... but I can say that when I am using a heated dogbowl just normally, and it's up on a platform of some sort and located in a corner of the pen and reasonably well wedged in there, I do not believe I have *ever* had one be spilled. Of course if you have especially rambunctious chickens that might be different

but it should not be difficult to rig things so it cannot be shifted around, and the way they are built they are inherently pretty hard to tip over.

The main drawbacks IMO are that they hold relatively little water (must be refilled daily for a 6-hen pen, at least the size I have) and because they have lots of open water surface they catch a lot of yutz that's kicked up and (as Lynne says) hens sometimes want to perch on them or even stomp right through. Of course, for my uses, and for many other peoples', those are acceptable drawbacks or can be worked around. (I do have "real" heated waterers too, but the dogbowls I have are lower wattage to run, and cheaper to buy a bunch of which matters to me because only one pair of pens in my setup can 'share' a waterer.

Pat