No electric NEAR coop and waterers keep freezing...

[gsim]

There are electrically heated dog water bowls. Would require only a drop cord and would need to be in coop out of wind and off of ground. Might set it on two bricks side-by-side?

I took large pan of very warm sugar-water to the chooks this am and they really went after it, leaving the other two pans that I had just de-iced and filled up. They downed 3/4's of it in under an hour and ignored the other two with the cold water.

Not a bad hardship to do it twice a day. You are going to do more egg checks than that anyway in these temps, so you will be going to the coop anyway.

 

[sangel4you]

yeah and it's fine to go check it twice a day...that's not the issue. The problem with that really is that I work all three shifts and the times I come and go vary day by day. I don't always get home until 2 hours after sun-up, and if I'm working 1st shift, don't get home until it is nearly dark...10 hours between then and when I would stop in the morning. It's certainly long enough to freeze it. And as far as egg checks, luckily my girls all lay in about an hour time span after the sun comes up. Usually, unless it's a dayshift and I'm leaving early for some reason, they've all but finished laying by the time I've stopped. The eggs they lay after my morning stop are few and far between.
Cindy...This is SUCH a cold winter for PA already... please do let me know how it works! Maybe I will hold off on doing anything until I hear how yours works and just continue to do as frequent as possible changes with a bucket until then.
Does the tired and straw around the bucket really work?! And this may seem dumb, but if the water goes down low how do they reach it?
Thanks for all the great ideas so far!!! Where were all of you when I asked a few months back?! ;-)

 

[sangel4you]

Quote:
That would be great...but once again, I don't have ANY type of electric anywhere near the barn. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[jerseygirl1]

I've been bringing mine in at night, washing them out, refilling them and put them back in themorning. SO far, so good

 

[Guinea Goonie]

If you do not have any way to get electric to your coop, you are pretty much out of options except perhaps something solar.

I use a plastic waterer that does not screw on, it has "tabs" on the bottom. The bottom is large and does not narrow.

When the water is frozen I simply "untab" the thing and the ice falls out.

I then refill and retab and put it back into the coop. The next day, it is a simple matter of open, refill and close.

My feed store sells them every winter as they know they are in big demand then.

 

[PandoraTaylor]

another option is to fill 2-3 1 gal (Milk) jugs with extremely hot water and leave them in the coop near the waterer, that way it would help warm the coop and help keep the waterer from freezing.... don't know about 10 hours between checks, but worth a try.

 

[breezy]

Quote:
"Why sugar water" asks the noobie? How much sugar to how much water?

 

[Luvducks]

As someone said above, the rubber horse feeders work okay because it takes longer for the water to freeze in them as compared to plastic. I have several for my ducks so I can switch them out twice a day. They do not break when you let them thaw a little and dump the ice. The small ones are fairly inexpensive too. This is NOT fun no matter how you look at it. I usually do not mind winter but having outside animals that need water is difficult. Good luck.

 

[angels4]

I actually have my galvanized waterer on a snuggle safe inside with he girls at this very minute. With the bitter cold today I was out every 30 minutes breaking up ice. The snuggle safe came with a fur cover and I have set the waterer right on top (it is the perfect size). I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Narrowbackpride]

I think a deep cell or two, a 12vdc element, a battery maintain, and a solar panel. Prob. more $ than lectrical. I can draw a line diaragram and do the math I think. Or you could yard a gallon or two of hot water from tub a cople tims a day.