horse water troughs / drowning

[Seashorse714]

I was wary that my free range chickens might perch & fall into the 100 gal. rubbermaid water trough, but after raising day-old chicks to pullets & cockerels all now 1 1/2 year old hens & a roo, plus 2 broody clutches at 6 months old, I've never seen a single one on the edge of the trough, let alone in the water. I have long quit worrying about it. Tonight, closing up the coop for the night I counted & re-counted and realized one was missing. After looking high and low and well after dark I found her in the water trough, dead. An hour earlier she was amongst the flock when I fed evening treats. She was, of course, my favorite. I won't quit free ranging my chickens, so what is the next best thing to chicken-proof a horse trough? And why the favorite? Ok, ignore the last question, I'm all sorts of teary right now.

I just found my hen dead In The water trough today. I am so heartbroken. I tried to watch the ring camera to see when and ho it happened but it cuts out after she is on it. Now I have 2 roosters.

 

[wild chick]

I just found my hen dead In The water trough today. I am so heartbroken. I tried to watch the ring camera to see when and ho it happened but it cuts out after she is on it. Now I have 2 roosters.

My last update on this was the thought of the young rooster really being aggressively chasing the youngsters, in lay or not and how they would flee/fly/run from him. After another few years of looking back and learning I'm pretty sure this was the only reason that young hen flew to the top of the water tank, probably lost her balance and fell in.

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I never changed anything about the tank, even though there are a lot of good suggestions here, but it never happened again and that has been 4 - 5 years now.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

I was wary that my free range chickens might perch & fall into the 100 gal. rubbermaid water trough, but after raising day-old chicks to pullets & cockerels all now 1 1/2 year old hens & a roo, plus 2 broody clutches at 6 months old, I've never seen a single one on the edge of the trough, let alone in the water. I have long quit worrying about it. Tonight, closing up the coop for the night I counted & re-counted and realized one was missing. After looking high and low and well after dark I found her in the water trough, dead. An hour earlier she was amongst the flock when I fed evening treats. She was, of course, my favorite. I won't quit free ranging my chickens, so what is the next best thing to chicken-proof a horse trough? And why the favorite? Ok, ignore the last question, I'm all sorts of teary right now.

I have multiple troughs and there are several easy fixes

There are more but basically make escape ramps https://www.rainmakerwildlife.com/escape-ramps/

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-...o-wildlife-from-livestock-infrastructure.html

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I found a hen in the cattle's water tank a few weeks ago, still trying to swim. Thank goodness I found her in time. This is the second time in 9 years I've found a chicken in the tank. The first didn't make it.