Keeping water from freezing in -degree weather

[Kris64]

Ha!! Guess I'll skip the battery idea. I'm in NC and this will be my first winter here, so we'll see how cold it gets in the mountains. A friend in WI told me he tosses a hot rock into the water and that helps. I'm thinking of wrapping a bucket of water in insulation (like for a water heater) filling with warm water and a hot rock. Figure that'll do the trick. When I try this next year, we'll find out

 

[LindaB220]

Ha!! Guess I'll skip the battery idea. I'm in NC and this will be my first winter here, so we'll see how cold it gets in the mountains. A friend in WI told me he tosses a hot rock into the water and that helps. I'm thinking of wrapping a bucket of water in insulation (like for a water heater) filling with warm water and a hot rock. Figure that'll do the trick. When I try this next year, we'll find out

Let us know how that works for you. Good luck

 

[neetabeamie]

So,i tried the five Galen bucket with the metal nipples at the bottom it up by a aquarium heater. It hasn't worked out so well :-( the aquarium here works fine and keep the water warm but the nipples get frozen so the chickens can get any water out of the bucket :-( :-(. We are purchasing a water dispenser that is heated on the bottom and hopefully that solves the problem.

 

[Kris64]

Keep us posted. I'm interested to hear what happens. A friend of mine uses the nipples in the warmer months and turns to a heated water dish on the ground in the cooler months.

 

[NTBugtraq]

So I can finally report success at keeping my water from freezing. My water starts at a hose bib in the outside wall of my house, which turns to CPVC, and runs 10' to a Miller King Size automatic Font. I use a 20' long eaves heater wire, the kind that normally goes on the edge of your roof, wrapped around the pipe. At the end, under the bowl, I have that wire coiled tightly and glued to the bottom of the font. Miller would not advise that, but it has not melted the plastic font. The wire starts at the bib itself right at the wall tight against the vinyl siding, again, no melting. This is then all covered in that foam pipe wrap, and that is then covered with a piece of aluminum to stop the chickens from pecking at the foam.

I've discovered the system frozen because my GFI breaker blew, and then 2 hours later in sub-zero weather its defrosted and free flowing again. My only problem with this font is that the chickens often fill it with the wood chips from the floor, so I am doing a reno and moving the chips away and putting a patio stone under the font instead. As far as cost, I have been running that wire, plus 2 x 250 IR lights constantly for a month, and my added electricity is ~$12. Tomorrow I am picking up some Farm Innovations Thermocubes. These are thermostatically controlled outlets that come on at 35F and go off at 45F. Won't make much different in winter, but they will save money now and in the spring.

FWIW, I wouldn't use CPVC again, its rigidity can be problematic, and the joints can't just be unscrewed, I'd go with some form of flexible hosing, like hot water pex. I had a hen decide that the heat from the coil under the bowl was just what she wanted, so she bowled out a spot beside the bowl to roost...;-]

Cheers,
Russ

 

[NTBugtraq]

I've removed this post, and I apologize if I offended anyone with it. Nobody asked me to do this, I just felt bad re-reading it.

Cheers,
Russ

 

[Mrs. K]

I have been having very good luck with a black rubber bucket and the nipples. I place the rubber bucket on the south side of the coop, where it gets sun on it and it will keep the water from freezing until below 18 above. If it gets colder than that, it will freeze up, but it freezes up at the top. the vertical nipples did freeze on me, had better luck with the horizontal nipples. If it is very cold at night be low 10 above, then I just empty the bucket at dark, and fill it with warm water in the morning.

It is not perfect, but it doesn't use electricity, and it keeps water clean and available to the chickens much more often than a rubber bowl that I was using.

MRs K

 

[NTBugtraq]

So I can finally report success at keeping my water from freezing. My water starts at a hose bib in the outside wall of my house, which turns to CPVC, and runs 10' to a Miller King Size automatic Font. I use a 20' long eaves heater wire, the kind that normally goes on the edge of your roof, wrapped around the pipe. At the end, under the bowl, I have that wire coiled tightly and glued to the bottom of the font. Miller would not advise that, but it has not melted the plastic font. The wire starts at the bib itself right at the wall tight against the vinyl siding, again, no melting. This is then all covered in that foam pipe wrap, and that is then covered with a piece of aluminum to stop the chickens from pecking at the foam.

I've discovered the system frozen because my GFI breaker blew, and then 2 hours later in sub-zero weather its defrosted and free flowing again. My only problem with this font is that the chickens often fill it with the wood chips from the floor, so I am doing a reno and moving the chips away and putting a patio stone under the font instead. As far as cost, I have been running that wire, plus 2 x 250 IR lights constantly for a month, and my added electricity is ~$12. Tomorrow I am picking up some Farm Innovations Thermocubes. These are thermostatically controlled outlets that come on at 35F and go off at 45F. Won't make much different in winter, but they will save money now and in the spring.

FWIW, I wouldn't use CPVC again, its rigidity can be problematic, and the joints can't just be unscrewed, I'd go with some form of flexible hosing, like hot water pex. I had a hen decide that the heat from the coil under the bowl was just what she wanted, so she bowled out a spot beside the bowl to roost...;-]

Update: While this setup worked for a while, it failed because the wound up part of the heating wire under the bowl melted the wire's casing, and then shorted out. I re-did the system using PEX instead of CPVC, wrapped a new heating wire around the pex down into the bowl, just leaving some 6" of the heating wire in the water. This then was all covered with foam pipe insulation, and aluminum was used to cover the foam (to stop the hens from pecking at it). This worked until the temperature got down to ~14F, at which point the heating wire in the water was insufficient to keep the brass fitting from freezing. So I placed a PAR 175 heat lamp above the font, and this finally solved the problem down to the temperatures I have seen so far (0F). The lamp must be directly above the font (i.e. pointing straight down at the font) for it to work. I'm not sure how high above the font you can place the lamp, mine is currently ~24" above (and the manufacturer says 18" is the minimum height).

I'm happy to report that despite all of the problems I have had keeping my hens watered, I got my first 2 eggs this morning with the hens at 17.5 weeks old. One was more like a balloon than an egg with a shell (so was already burst), but the other was just fine.



Woot!

Cheers,
Russ

 

[rosinsk1772]

(smile) Forget the drilling and installing.
Turn the cookie tin upside down; lay light on the ground underneath it; throw away the lid.
Worked all last winter for me. there-you-go.

I tried using a cookie tin but it didn't seem to work. Are there some cookie tins where the metal is to thick to heat?