How do you prevent water from freezing

[Carolyn252]

For two winters now, I've been using the simple cookie tin heater that I made, using an ordinary coffee mug warmer inside it. It took about ten minutes to make and
works wonderfully well.

Take the cookie tin and pierce the side of it with an awl or something and then enlarge the hole until it's big enough to accept the plug from the mug warmer.

Use a smidgeon of any sort of tape over the sharp edges of the hole that you've made, so the sharp edge can't dig into the wire.

Put the mug warmer inside the cookie tin, and thread the warmer's plug through the tin's hole from the inside of the tin. Pull the wire so there's no excess still
inside the tin.

Put the cover on the cookie tin.

Using tape again, cover the hole where the wire is coming out of the tin.

The mug warmer looks like this:

You can buy them for under $10 at amazon and other online sites.

Then I just dug a hole in the ground inside the chicken's run. Just deep enough to take the cookie tin, so that the top of the tin's cover is level with the surrounding earth.

Then I took the plug and lifted it straight up into the air until it met the end of the extension cord that I have hanging down from the wire mesh ceiling of the run.

Then I set the enameled water bowl (I use an old enamel bundt pan) right on top of the cookie tin.

All done.

 

[ShenValleyChick]

These are all great ideas.. but what if there is no source of electricity near the coop??

 

[Carolyn252]

I can give you NO personal experience for this, nor can I find the posting where I read about this a few years ago. I have tried so hard, surfing the web, trying to find that posting again, but have not been successful. But I know that I did read this old-timer's personal experience with non-electric water heater for chickens.

He said that his grandfather's farm, homesteading generations ago, simply dug a hole in the ground and set a big fat, seven day candle deep down in the hole and set a grate over it and put the water bowl on top of the grate.
He said the candles were homemade and lasted a week. One teeny tiny flame was enough to keep the water from freezing. He said it never was a fire hazard because there was no straw or wood shavings or anything. Just dirt.

 

[averytds]

Quote:
Just a guess, so check with those more electrically minded, but I would think getting things that work with DC vs AC would be the way to look if you want to use a battery.

Like the post above that used the mug warmer in the cookie tin. They have usb mug warmers that run on DC. I'm not sure a battery will be able to keep up though.