Heated water dish (or other methods) reviews wanted!

[Impatient]

When I was in MA I used the heated dog bowls, similar to this. It's been almost a decade so I don't remember the brand, but lasted for the life of the chickens, 8 yrs:

Farm Innovators Model P-60S 1-1/2-Gallon Round Heated Pet Bowl, Speckletone Gray, 60-Watt https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G1C8BQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_PKeWzbW1RHD54

 

[hlhutchinson]

Has anyone used a heated dog bowl? I've noticed at Murdoch's they are considerably cheaper. I'm wondering about potential drawbacks to this...

This is our first year with chickens but we have a heated dog bowl for our dog works great we have it out in the summer just not plugged in the chickens drink from it when they are free ranging. At first I was afraid of them pooping in it but I have not had that problem. I would think this would work for chickens depending on your bedding if you have it on shavings I think they would kick stuff into it.

 

[PirateGirl]

This is our first year with chickens but we have a heated dog bowl for our dog works great we have it out in the summer just not plugged in the chickens drink from it when they are free ranging. At first I was afraid of them pooping in it but I have not had that problem. I would think this would work for chickens depending on your bedding if you have it on shavings I think they would kick stuff into it.

So this brings about another winter question from a newbie. Do you put bedding down in your run or just the coop in the winter? Currently I use pine shavings in the coop (which I conveniently get for free from a friend with a sawmill), and nothing in the run, it's just dirt and rocks and mulch and whatever manages to grow and not get immediately eaten by the chickens (so just dirt and rocks). I was thinking of letting the run go au natural this winter, but I'm honestly not sure how gross that will get since the ground will be frozen and the droppings won't decompose as quickly and get scratched into compost. Are things gonna get a bit stinky/unsanitary if I just let them go in the run this winter?

 

[SueT]

I second the heated dog bowl idea, it works just fine for my chickens. This will be my 3rd winter using it. It doesn't get stuff kicked into it as I have it on a raised surface, and since it's wider at bottom, it doesn't get tipped over. As for your run question, how big an area, and for how many chickens?

 

[PirateGirl]

I have 5 hens and about 50 square feet of fenced run and 20 square feet in the coop.

 

[PirateGirl]

and of course there are always plans for expansion but probably not until next summer

 

[SueT]

I have 5 hens and about 50 square feet of fenced run and 20 square feet in the coop.

Well if and when it gets stinky, you can fill the run w shavings...since you get them for free, make a deep litter...

 

[biophiliac]

Yes. I do, and they work wonderfully well even during awful cold snaps. (I get mostly rain in Oregon where I live, but each winter we usually get 2 or 3 weeks of horrible cold, below freezing, sub freezing weather).

I bought 2 cheaply off of Amazon (one for the first winter, then bought another the second winter because I liked the first so much. They have lasted years.)

I got these.
https://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovat...id=1505772245&sr=8-1&keywords=heated+dog+bowl

I used that same one too, with the same good results. 1 bowl for my five.

 

[PetesChicks]

I'm not sure what brand it is, but I have the heater dog bowl also. The lady we bought our first coop (small, but built solid) from gave it to us with the coop. She also gave us the pan she used in it, it's a Bunt pan made of some kind of oven safe plastic. It fits right in the bowl and is easy to take out to clean if it gets poop or shavings in it. The silly girls will stand on it, but it has never tipped over.

 

[Laurel Meadows]

We also use the large heated dog bowls for our LF breeds and home made cookie tin heaters for the bantams (we have small tins for chicks and larger tins to set the gallon waterers on with a 40 watt appliance bulb in each.) Since we have 8 coops and a free range group too its been a big help to run everything on Thermocubes. I highly recommend these no matter what heat source you're using! They save wear on the bowls' heating elements and make the bulbs in the tins last longer. Any help on the electric bill is a good thing too!