Liquid water in winter?

[briteday]

We get below zero at night about 1/2 of the winter. And this year we had several days where the highs did not get to 30*. I have a 5 gallon bucket with nipples in the bottom. To keep it liquid in the winter I put an aquarium heater on the bottom of the bucket (it MUST always be covered with water or could start a fire, otherwise use a bird bath heater) and I never had any problems all winter. I normally have a garden hose connected to the bucket in nice weather. In the winter I just take out a gallon of water with me to keep the bucket full whenever I go to the coop 3-5 times each day.

 

[Ohhhdear]

I'm going to try the nipple waterers. I have 12 hens, so maybe 2 of them, or 3 nipples in a hanging bucket. I've heard that adding a little molasses to the water keeps it from freezing so quickly and adds nutritition, so I might try that too.
Since my girls have free run of the 1/3 acre fenced backyard I may make a big straw bale barricade and put a plant hanger in it to hang the water bucket from. Michigan winters get nasty cold, humid, and very snowy.

Any special place y'all like to get your nipple waterers from? Any brands that work well, and why?

 

[speedy2020]

I am consider using the nipple with submersible aquarium heater during winter month. Does anyone has experience with this method?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Thank you emys for that excellent post and info!!!

I love this thread so far (haven't read everyone's)!

 

[buildingmyark]

I have not had to deal with this situation yet, and this idea may be totally crazy.....but we have a 5 gallon bucket that is filled with water. There is pvc pipe attached with nipple waterers. My ideas is to switch the 5 gallon bucket out with an insulated cooler/thermos for the winter. It may not work. Not sure yet. I figured that it would help keep the water in a liquid state without using some sort of heater. As for the pvc pipe, perhaps it could be insulated with that foam that fits right over it. I don't know... Just wanted to throw out an idea! If anyone has done this, please let me know how it worked out!

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
I've had plenty of experience with aquarium heaters to know this is a dumb idea--the water level will fall below the heating element causing it to overheat and break which will not only drop pieces of glass in the water but short circuit and electrically charge the water container. Unless you're interested in electrocuting your birds or yourself, stick to heaters meant for chicken or bird waterers!!

Adding to the advice being given: I give liquid water to my birds inside a nonheated but insulated coop all winter. The temperatures inside often falls below zero and even using galvanized chicken waterer heaters under my double-walled waterers, I have had ice form in them. That being said, in 25 years of keeping birds I have never had problems with frozen combs or feet. While I have not kept large combed birds, i.e. leghorns, I have kept sexlink varieties and EE's. Most of the former have fairly good sized combs. If and when the birds get out in the snow, they will peck at it but I hardly think they use it as a liquid source. They also like to peck at snow that comes in on my boots when I enter the coop as well but given that they have water, I doubt this is for liquid just for fun.

 

[jeb251]

well, I don't know if I would call it a dumb idea, here is what you can do, use a 55 gallon drum on its sided with the bottom of the barrel higher than your supply line , put your supply line high enough that the water level will not go down past the heater, you can get heaters that are submersible and sit on the bottom. Build an insulated box around your drum and plug your aquarium heater into a thermo cube that is inside the insulated box reading the temp there instead of outside, this will keep the heater from running all the time. As for the supply line use heat tape and insulation.

that will be $300 please

 

[silkie33]

I use a heated dog dish. It can be 10 below for the high some days, 30 below at night. I have tried other heated waters and I like the dishes the best.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Just hope the waterline doesn't freeze when the weather is too cold for you to go outside to check the water level. Aquarium heater thermostats are just too unreliable, period.

That $300 for the advice or the system you outlined to replace a $50 chicken waterer heater?

 

[jeb251]

well you buy your heated waterers or change water every three hours, I'll stick with my method, and the waterline is protected with heat tape, it has worked for four years now and I haven't had to touch it, seems pretty reliable to me. And the $300 was a joke, but it would be well worth it for the labor saved