Hard #'s on your waterer

[Chickenaddict]

I use a 1 1/2 gallon heated dog bowl I got at wally world, last year it was -40 with the windchills and still kept the water in liquid form. Best $20 I ever spent! NOw if I can figure out how to keep the darn duck out of it.....

 

[jimk]

I was pretty nervous about the energy efficiency of my cookie-tin heat, after all making light isn't really the best way to make heat, but as i posted in the other thread, in my small coop with a 1 gallon plastic heater and just a 10 watt light bulb I wasn't icing over until we got down into the single digits, and even that wasn't completely solid. And at 10 watts i don't have a lot of room to complain about wasted electricity. If we get another sustained cold snap like this, or I had to be out of town for a few days I'd probably bump it up to a 20 watt candelabra bulb just to play it safe.

 

[wood&feathers]

Great answers. I am definitely going to dig up a cookie tin from the basement and make a heated base. I only have a small hutch with two bays, kind of like nest boxes but taller, with sloping roof. There really isn't room to put the water in the hutch. I am relying on the strength of the run for predator defense. I need to build a proper coop, but when the first rooster came home 6 weeks ago he was supposed to go in the freezer with his brothers

I thoroughly cleaned a white plastic bucket that used to contain wire lube - really soapy stuff. Ran it through the dishwasher when I was sure it wouldn't suds anymore. Drilled a 3/8" hole about 1/2" from the bottom, then plugged it with a scrap of neoprene rubber. Fill the bucket, then snap the lid down tight. Set bucket into the dog dish, unplug the bung. The inner bucket leaves maybe 1.5" of free water around the edge. I propped the whole thing up on bricks in a sheltered corner to prolong the life of the heated bowl.

I need a real coop, but my hands don't work real well in these temps. Plus DH is unhappy about the time it took me (time not making house building progress) to build the run. (4 hours!) But considering I also need to scrounge the wood, it will have to wait.