Ended Official BYC DIY Contest #1 - Show us Your Project and Win!

[Regin]

@RuzichFamily Yes, wide roosts. when you rebuild it turn the 2x4s on the wide side. It was a great idea to make it so you can latch it up out of the way for cleaning!

 

[dhnaves]

HOwdy,


Not completed with all details, but hopefully this will help you:
http://davenaves.com/blog/interests-projects/chickens/chicken-coop/automatic-chicken-coop-heater/

 

[Amberjem]

wow

 

[Amberjem]

tote, hardware cloth and staples, cutt lid staple hardware cloth

 

[Dizzydog]

Ok. Here is my solution to keeping water from freezing in the chicken coop. The weather man is predicting that a blast of winter is headed our way so I got out my home made water heater and took some pictures as I was putting it together. I am all ready for winter now. See it here.

 

[RonP]

Last year was a very cold winter season.

I lost dozens of eggs due to freezing temperatures and frozen, cracked eggs.

Here is my project (solution) for your considerations. Please let me know your opinions.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/heated-nesting-boxes-help-stop-frozen-eggs

Thanks!

 

[trsturself]

Last year was a very cold winter season.

I lost dozens of eggs due to freezing temperatures and frozen, cracked eggs.

Here is my project (solution) for your considerations. Please let me know your opinions.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/heated-nesting-boxes-help-stop-frozen-eggs

Thanks!

That's a great idea! We are already at 5deg here. It didn't get above freezing today and not supposed to tomorrow. If I have trouble with frozen/cracked eggs I'll definitely add this to my project list.
Last winter we had over a week of sub-zero temps and while I had plenty of frozen eggs, none had cracked. Maybe because we were able to collect them more than twice a day then. This winter it will be hit or miss if we can collect them more than twice.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[aart]

New heated nipple waterer up and running today.

 

[yellowchicks]

Insulated Water Feeder:

For those who has no electricity in the coop to heat up the water in the winter, here is a DIY water feeder idea. The materials and construction are pretty straight forward as shown in the photos. This is basically a 2 gal. bucket inside a 5 gal bucket surround by insulation. I just happen to have most of the materials at home except for the spray foam and the horizontal nipples. You should be able to take the same idea and adapt with what you have on hand.

Material List:

• 5 gal. bucket with lid
• 2 gal bucket with lid
• Horizontal Poultry Nipples
• 1" thick insulation board
• Spray foam insulation for big gap filler
• Lexel synthetic rubber caulk
• 3/8" polyethylene tubing
• 2" PVC pipe section (6" long),
• 2" PVC Cap
• 2" PVC adapter

1. Cut two layers of 1" rigid insulation board to shape to line the bottom of the 5 gal bucket.
2. Remove the small bucket handle, put the smaller bucket inside the larger one.
3. Shim the sides using vertical strips of rigid foam board then fill the gap with spray insulation foam designed for big gaps.



4. While the spray foam is curing overnight, cut two more layers of rigid insulation foam, shape to fit the bucket caps as the top insulation cover.
5. Drill a 2" hole though both bucket caps and the top foam layers.



6. Sleeve through and assemble the PVC parts through the hole in the caps to be used as a water filling port.




7. Drill two (or how many you need) 11/32" holes about 1" above the bottom of the inner bucket. Insert a 3" segment of the 11/32" rigid polyethylene tubing, then seal the seams with specialty silicon. Note that it is very difficult to bond to the polyethylene buckets and tube, so you may need to trial and error other types of caulking material.
8. Trim off the excess tubing, insert the horizontal chicken nipples to the outside end of the tubing.



9. Wait for the caulk to fully cure before adding water to the bucket. It may take up to 2 weeks for curing depending on the temperature.

To prevent the chickens from roosting on top of the bucket, put a cone on top. If black color buckets are available, use the darker colors ones to absorb more heat.

For a faster result, just use an insulated water cooler.

Update:
It has been 2 weeks since this insulated bucket been placed in the run. Overnight temperature has been in the 20's, the water did not freeze. Chickens are getting water out of it because I saw an ice mounds beneath the nipples on top of the crate where this bucket is placed. I filled it up from the top spout once a week.

 

[aart]

New heated nipple waterer up and running today.

And 6 days later the heater died and I'm back to hauling water mulitple times daily along with clearing 8-10 inches of wet snow.