How do you water your chickens in the winter?!

[newchickmom]

To keep my waterer from freezing, I have a homemade warmer that it sits on.
It is made from a cookie tin and a 25 watt bulb in a lamp cord.

 

[PoultryPedia]

In my large chickens' coop, we have a heated dog water bowl that I put on a platform 3 feet up so sawdust doesn't get kicked into it.
In the banty coop, I keep a round metal bowl on a slightly elevated stand (made by attaching the round metal frame from the top of a lampshade to some pieces of wood) with a "stool" for the chickens to stand on next to it while they drink. Sometimes I run a heat lamp in that coop (You can plug it into a timer so it only runs part of the day).
A really good idea a friend taught me was to put a dish of snow in the coop for the chickens to nibble on as well, between replenishments of fresh water. It helps keep them hydrated more consistently and for some reason they just LOVE nibbling on snow anyways, even when water is available.
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LATER NOTE: I have since heard conflicting info that said snow will make them more dehydrated. That doesn't seem logical to me, however. I'm thinking as long as they regularly do get actual water, and have sufficient feed to keep their bodies warm, that snow would be a hydrating substance for them to much on.

Will the real answer please step forward?

 

[rSpriggs]

Quote:
I'll have to give that a try, here in Spirit Lake . . .
I always refrained from that, as I heard it can contribute to dehydration!

 

[riderbecky]

Quote:
-45

lalalalalalala, I'm not listening, lalalalalalalala Well at least with those kinds of temps we won't be having to shovel 12 feet of snow this year.

 

[Solsken Farm]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

oooh... we typically never get above 0F in Jan/Feb, and hit -30, sometimes -40F as a low... I'm thinking 25w might not be enough. I usually put a 250w heatlamp right over the waterer.

This is what our temps are too, Tori. What do you do? I am thinking of going the heated base route.

Very ingenious with the cookie tins, Jody.

Nice holiday decorating for the coop too.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I usually have a 250w heat lamp focused on the waterer. I have a 3 gallon galvanized waterer in the main coop. Worked ok last year except on the very extreme days.
In the new coop we have cup-waterers connected by a 5 gallon bucket with PVC pipe. We took heat-cables and laid it along the line and covered it with the grey foam pipe insulation. We wrapped the cable around the bucket, spiraling upwards. So... we'll see how that works this year.

I was worried about the heated base, for fear the dust from the coop would be a fire-hazard...

 

[vickiemontana]

Oh my, so many choices. I'm doing the "run with the new water" every day. It's -30 and yes your hands get cold and frosty. The girls like to go outside it if around 0 or upwards. They do nibble snow, but i'm sure they don't get much. Last two days I was physicaly unable to carry the frozen galvanized back in to the house so I just took a gallon milk jug and filled a small plastic feeder a couple times that day. It freezes up just as fast tho. I like you idea Jody but how do you keep the water from zapping the elec?

It's been so basted cold all the feed stores are out of warmers. I could order from walmart. Hope they have some and they are not expensive. Tdhanks for all the help.

Thanks to you to lori.

 

[kristenm1975]

Before I leave for work in the morning around 5am, I go out with steaming hot mash and several quarts of fresh-boiled water which I dump into the bowl of their 30-gal galvanized waterer. It overfills the bowl of course, but it melts most of the ice that's in there and also makes a small pool around the base. I just hope like heck that holds them for the time being.

Cold like we're having is rare around here, so I don't want to shell out money that would otherwise go towards keeping the people warm and fed. Priorities.

 

[LynneP]

If you have a small flock and can find one, this heated dog bowl is a godsend. It holds 1.5 gal and has a cord protected with wire. We ran the cord through a beam to an outlet, secured it with electrical crampons and when it's warm enough I leave it unplugged. To clean it you tip out into a catch bucket, wipe down and refill.

I'll plug it in tonight because it's going to be very cold and we've just received our 5th snowstorm, which should end tonight. After a storm it's good to know the water will be liquid because after morning chores we'll be shoveling out and using the snowblower. It's been so difficult for those of you in Washington state and other parts like the Canadian west coast, I know you're not used to coping with these extremes and that it's twice as difficult to manage.



I tried to get one of these at our hardware store and co-op but they were sold out, so I found it at a pet store.

I also have a heated base that holds a 3 gal poultry waterer. I found it tricky in the coop because of spillage during changeover and moved it to the main floor of our barn for the feral cats. Works great for them, it's perfectly level and there's a drain and outlet near them.

 

[chickenporkarosa]

I too, use the dog dish heated bowl. It works great. It holds 1 gal. and I clean and fill it every 2-3 days.