Maine

[IZZYBELLA]

Oops - looks like the photo of the metal heater didn't post. This is the one I used to use:

 

[enggass]

Sometimes I use a heated dog bowl, but so far this year I just give them fresh water twice a day in a rubber bowl. Frozen water is easy to remove - just flip it over on the ground and stomp on the bottom. I don't mind going out a couple times a day...

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Oops - looks like the photo of the metal heater didn't post. This is the one I used to use:

I use this for the chickens. The ducks have a heated dog bowl and the goats have a heated rubber bucket.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hows every one doing with the cold weather we had, my girls did good but think I need to close up a few eve vents there are 16 vents ( 8 front, 8 back) and loosing any heat the girls may be putting out. it is not drafty just a lot of heat loss. Been getting good egg production 4-6 most days (14 hens) got 9 eggs so far today, think the warm up and sun helped.

What do folk use to keep water thawed?

I had to buy a heated water bowl, my 60 watt bulb in a cinder block only worked to about 15 deg F, I hate the bowl, I was going through 1 gallon of water every 2 days with the old system (as long as it was not frozen) but with the bowl it is 2 gallons a day for they kick so much junk in to it.

I use a heated bowl. If you set a gallon milk jug full of water in the center of the bowl, and raise the bowl up to their chest height, they don't dirty it any where as fast.

 

[buckabucka]

I put my heated bowls on cinder blocks.
I feel bad for my hen that is molting. It was 18 below here Monday night. They survived 30 below last year, so I try not to worry.

 

[woods79]

I put my heated bowls on cinder blocks.
I feel bad for my hen that is molting. It was 18 below here Monday night. They survived 30 below last year, so I try not to worry.

I have the water up on blocks but you know hay the girls can get when one finds a stray sunflower seed in bedding the straw starts to fly. I hope your hen gets through her molting soon, bad time a year not to have a jacket on,

lazy gardener I will try the water jug in the bowl. I would not worry so much if it was not for the fact I am on town water and have always been stingy with water

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: I'm on well water, and have to be stingy with water b/c we only get 1.5G/min.

 

[MainerChick]

Guineas... Wow.

I started last spring with fifteen. I'm down to six in the coop and one somewhere on the property, hiding in the trees starving itself to death. These are birds I'm shocked have survived the evolutionary process long enough to become domesticated. I have had up to three of these fluff-brains outside the coop recently, roosting in trees, on the garage, on a chimney, anywhere except inside the warm, sheltered embrace of the choop and its endless supply of bedding and food. These birds aren't even smart enough to follow the rest of the flock in. In fact if you go outside and try to chase them into safety, they'll flee further from it. I've actually poked one in the tush with a long branch to get it out of a tree, and watched it get stuck in a snowbank because it didn't understand how to get out or how to aim for a solid surface. Only because of its epic level of FAIL was I able to approach it and scoop it out of the snow to return it to safety. After that, I stopped free ranging for a while. Everyone can stay tucked into the barn until some of their brain cells thaw out.

So, I've just spent an hour outside trying to track down the one last escapee. Every time I stick my head out of the barn it stops calling. Sooner or later I'll either step outside and find it, or something hungrier than I am will do it first.

Guineas... Seriously, what was I thinking?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Is it time to start up the Central Maine Guincident Command Centre again?

Things have been fairly mild around here, so I stood the command centre down.

 

[lazy gardener]

Huh????