Keeping water from freezing

[speckledhen]

One of our sponsors, Randall Burkey, has a 3 gallon waterer with built-in heater! It's the coolest thing. You should check it out.

 

[CK Chickadilly]

Quote:
I just bought one from TSC. Does yurs work well?
I was wondering if I can have DH taake the heating unit off the bowl and put it on my regular waterer....

I just got one too, a fairly large blue heated bowl from TSC. Works great!

Not sure about taking the heater part off. Maybe get a heating plate to set a metal pan on?

 

[setter4]

Quote:
I just bought one from TSC. Does yurs work well?
I was wondering if I can have DH taake the heating unit off the bowl and put it on my regular waterer....

I just got one too, a fairly large blue heated bowl from TSC. Works great!

Not sure about taking the heater part off. Maybe get a heating plate to set a metal pan on?

Yep, mine is the big blue one too. I am going to try it "as is" first but I am afraid they will perch on the edge and poop in the bowl....

so if that doesn't work out then we will experiment. lol

 

[wyliefarms]

Hang something over the bucket so they cannot perch on it, but so they can still drink out of it.

 

[Tamidon]

Quote:
I've been using oe of these for the past month. Works great,but if not perfectly level spills water out,all the water

 

[Cheryl]

Quote:
Do we get a discount?!!!

 

[Barn Maid Ann]

Quote:
I've been using oe of these for the past month. Works great,but if not perfectly level spills water out,all the water

I use a 2 1/2 gal heated bucket. It is about a foot high. The standard chickens can drink out of it with no problem, if it is kept full. I used one all last winter for my chickens and guineas. It never froze once.
This year we have more chickens but no guineas. I ordered two more of the buckets and a heated dog bowl from Horse.com. They were around $20 each.

 

[Harley's girl]

I have 2 of the heated ones! I wish I had 5 more! Every night I bring in the other 5 that are not heated and take them back out in the morning. It is not fun, and it is really messy but it is better than trying to thaw them every morning.

 

[CedarLake]

I'm working on this problem since my coop is too far from the house to run electricity. The local water supply (so I don't have to take water there every day) is a container I buried in the ground. So far it's working: nighttime temps have been down to just above zero and the most I've had to deal with is a light skin of ice on the surface. So that works for refilling the waterers in the morning and I have to refill the inground container about once a week. Should work even better after I drop a bale of straw on top to hold in the ground heat.

My next mission is to keep the waterer itself from freezing. I've painted it black and made sure it's in the sun. The water container itself hasn't frozen so far, but the tray that they drink from generally does, or at least has chunks of ice. I'm thinking of either covering up most of it (to keep the heat of the sun-warmed water in), or building a small solar enclosure that the chickens will have to walk into in order to get fresh water.

Minnesota has the same amount of solar heating availability as Texas, according to a state website, there has to be a solution for this

 

[CindyS]

I use the water heater base for my chicken water, a chicken waterer fits right on top. I am trying something new with my call ducks. I bought an 18 gal black rubber tub, and a submergeble de icer safe for plastic containers. I put that in the bottom, and put a board over the top. I left a small space just large enough for them to get their heads in but not crawl in. I put heavy bricks on the board so they could not move the board. Then I gave them a little platform so they can reach the water. This setup is inside their shed. I have had this setup for a week and so far it is working great! Of course they still like a little pan outside for making a mess but this freezes over constanly. With their water pan inside they have fresh water 24/7. This setup is working for 52 call ducks. I am sure this would work for chickens also.