How to fix my mistake....?

[coop-er]

To keep fresh water in my coop, I have 2 waterers- the typical plastic, 3 gallon, red and white. In the morning I pull out the cold/frozen one and replace it with the fresh one from the garage. This morning while doing this before work and in the dark, I inadverdently placed the waterer at a slight angle and when I checked on them this evening the water had leaked into the coop. I realize water/moisture in the coop is bad, so I scooped out the wet pine shavings and replaced with dry. but....what else should/could I do? The weather here will be in the single digits for the next few days. The coop is ventilated and actually quite comfortable otherwise. Any thoughts?

 

[loveourbirds]

if the chickens are still damp you might put in a heat lamp until they dry - red is best.

 

[Coop de Cuse]

It sounds like you fixed the problem by replacing the wet with dry. They should be fine

 

[handyman42]

Unless the chickens themselves are wet everything should be fine. They'll peck around at the remaining moisture in the coop and may even keep themselves entertained for a while. I'd say you did splendidly.

 

[coop-er]

Thank you-I don't have electric out there so I can't do anything else to get it dry. Just hoping for the best, this is my first winter with them and I am still learning.

 

[3forfree]

Electricity helps. I've read on here that chicken people will run 100 feet of extension cord from the house to the coop just so the birds have water or light.I have a metal cookie tin with a 40 watt light bulb in it under the water supply for my birds and have never had it freeze. This week has been below 0 and it hasn't frozen.

 

[4 the Birds]

I would imagine that unheated water will freeze after 2 or 3 hours in single digit weather. If you change once per day then your birds are without water for most of the day. If you can manage a cord to the coop then a heated water dispenser will save you a lot of work and supply your birds with water full time. My coop flooring is basically boards similar to the boards layed on a deck so that spilled water can drain between the boards. . On top of that is deep bedding. This works great when the occasional 3 gallon waterer spills. ~~ I unplug my waterers and refill them outside the coop to reduce spillage.