How chickens drink water, and a question about what is best for quality and health.

[Blooie]

@aart, the heater is an Api Utility/Bucket/Birdbath De-icer. But my glowing praise from a couple of days ago is now OUT the window. We got down to -13 last night and when I went out this morning to check the girls the water bucket was frozen all the way through. Checked the plug - fine. Checked the breaker - fine. It was plugged directly into the grounded outlet without an extension cord, so that wasn't the issue. I'm not a happy camper right now, as I have to rethink the water for my chickens and since it's right now -2F, it isn't a good time to go out and try to engineer something. So we'll be going to town this morning and picking up a heated water bucket of some kind.....

It stinks because I really like the convenience and the cleanliness of using the horizontal nipples and closed bucket, but that does them no good if they can't access it.

 

[aart]

@aart, the heater is an Api Utility/Bucket/Birdbath De-icer. But my glowing praise from a couple of days ago is now OUT the window. We got down to -13 last night and when I went out this morning to check the girls the water bucket was frozen all the way through. Checked the plug - fine. Checked the breaker - fine. It was plugged directly into the grounded outlet without an extension cord, so that wasn't the issue. I'm not a happy camper right now, as I have to rethink the water for my chickens and since it's right now -2F, it isn't a good time to go out and try to engineer something. So we'll be going to town this morning and picking up a heated water bucket of some kind.....

It stinks because I really like the convenience and the cleanliness of using the horizontal nipples and closed bucket, but that does them no good if they can't access it.

That's why I chose to use an aquarium heater....seems too warm, but a bird bath heater is only meant to keep a pretty small amount of water open.

 

[Blooie]

That's why I chose to use an aquarium heater....seems too warm, but a bird bath heater is only meant to keep a pretty small amount of water open.

Just went to your detailed page and we're making a list right now of the stuff we need to pick up in Cody. But I'm still a little puzzled - does the warmth of the water keep the nipples from freezing? Mine were like stalgtites....a trail of ice leading from the brick that the waterer sits on up to the nipples and the nipples were encased in ice. It's gonna be a loooooong winter at Oleo Acres. We haven't even reached the time of year when it gets cold here.

 

[aart]

Quote: I'm not totally sure yet, just set it up and we've only had about 48 hours of between 29 and 33.

Interesting that you have stalactites, that indicates a pretty good leak....water does funny thing when it freezes.
Was it in use for a long time before the freeze...with no leaking?
Have you thawed it out yet.....is anything cracked?

I wonder if the pressure of the HN in the hole coupled with freezing temps cracked the bucket near the hole?

 

[Blooie]

I'm not totally sure yet, just set it up and we've only had about 48 hours of between 29 and 33.

Interesting that you have stalactites, that indicates a pretty good leak....water does funny thing when it freezes.
Was it in use for a long time before the freeze...with no leaking?
Have you thawed it out yet.....is anything cracked?

I wonder if the pressure of the HN in the hole coupled with freezing temps cracked the bucket near the hole?

The stalagtites are right at the underside of the nipples....the little cup that fills up when they drink retains just enough water to dribble and freeze, and then the next time they drink the water runs down the previous ice, and so it builds. There isn't a leak in the bucket, and none around the place where the nipples go into the bucket.....it's all coming directly from the cups. Frustrating. I'll need to run out and take a picture of what I mean.

 

[Blooie]

I'm sorry I didn't get back to you, aart. I almost decided not to, since when I went out to take the photos Ken was already out there melting the stalagtites with his hot air thingy and there wasn't much left. But then I figured that wasn't right - I said I was going to do something so I need to do it. Here are the photos I did take.


This is the only nipple that still had remnants of the icicles. You can see where he melted it at the nipple and the melt froze almost immediately. Imagine the ice forming in the little cup part, then being added to each time they drank so the overflow ended up forming a frozen waterfall down to the ground. That's what had happened with the front 3 nipples. The back two aren't accessible with the waterer sitting as it is and they had no ice....all the nipples are accessible normally but we moved it over to be closer to the electrical outlet, which meant the back two are too near the wall to to be used.

He's at it with that hot air thingy. You can see the ice puddle but the ice from the nipple cup that ran down and formed the puddle isn't there anymore. Then when he melted all of the ice he went back and hit the nipples directly and dried everything out, like he's doing here.

We bought the aquarium heater and stuff today. Wish us luck!

 

[aart]

Thanks for the pics, buckets looks intact.
Oooo hot air gun....never thought of that for thawing ice if needed, I have one of those and will keep it in mind.
They get really hot tho care must be taken not to ignite the bedding or melt the bucket.

I did have one HN that leaked at the valve, discovered it when testing.
Tested it more closely and yep it was not holding a seal, not sure why tho as I didn't see anything obviously wrong with the oring or the seat.

Good Luck!