How do get electric to the coop

[Cara]

You can buy a solar chicken waterer that also keeps the water cool in the summer. It somehow stores heat collected during the day and keeps the water from freezing at night. It's only $35:

https://stores.myregisteredsite.com/user1249836/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TC

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I'm glad you said this.. I agree..

last summer I had to dig my 220V line to the garage and replace the cable.. that is no picnic..

It was a very heavy cable.. this was the second time that it burned through underground..

we replaced it with a direct bury cable that the power company uses to bury electricity to houses.
I buried it inside of a 4" conduit for extra measure.. I do not ever want to re-do that job again..

If you have an extra space in your breaker box, I would suggest running a seperate circuit all the way.. Use as heavy a cable as you can afford.. someday you might want to run , who knows, a heater?
extra lights? an incubator or two or three ??

If you can wire a lamp, you can add a circuit..

everybody knows a relative or friend who knows how..

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Gee, you could build that for about ten bucks. Less if you have the bits already lying around.

Find a larger container to put your water bucket/pan into, unleash a can o' spray foam into it, QUICKLY before the foam sets put your water bucket/pan in a plastic bag and set it into the foam-filled larger container. Make sure insulation remains under it as well as around it. Once the foam is dry, remove the excess off the top so it's flat and flush. You now have a contoured insulator for your bucket/pan (the bag was just so the bucket/pan didn't get permanently glued in there, you know?).

To make the "solar top", ha ha, get some scraps of plexiglas and attach them to a square wood frame so they leave a drinking hole in the middle and sit snugly onto the insulation. (I'd do it square, with a square hole - it'll work just as well and be much easier to build at home).

Its solar-osity is minimal. Mostly it is just insulated. Not that that's a bad thing mind you. But EASY to make at home.

Pat

 

[Cara]

LOL you might be able to build it at home. You haven't seen some of my projects

 

[Wifezilla]

Exactly what I was thinking pat. The "Just fill with warm water" step pretty much gives it away...LOL

I think it is very doable for the handy people.

(I could do it, but I would end up having to replace my clothes and spend the next week getting spray foam out of my hair, so it might be cheaper to just buy it in my case. My stuff usually works, but I know how to make a mess!

)

 

[Cara]

I wonder if a tire with a large feed pan in the middle might work also. We had a crazed rattlesnake living under our house a couple of years ago, and the snake trapper recommended leaving a tire outside as they collect so much warmth during the day and snakes like to curl up inside them

It didn't quite work out that way as my husband stepped on the snake, but that's another story.

 

[fasbendera]

We have a electrician friend and we dug the trench and he laid the PCV pipe and wire to the coop. Before that we had an extension cord running to the coop. Actually it still is because he hasn't done the final hook up after we had the interior finished. The extension cord has worked great for lighting, heat, and ventilation.