Starting to think about this winter.

[beepbeepinajeep]

How do you handle watering your flock during the winter? Mostly we use galvanized waterers, but we do have a couple mason jar/plastic lid waterers & plastic gallon sized waterers. Will I need to change out the water more than once a day? We live in the middle of NC, so we don't have too many frigid days.... but we do have some. Thanks for the help!

 

[gritsar]

I know the winters in the piedmont. They are roughly equal to what we get here.
Last winter I used my regular three gallon waterer inside the coop. Twice when I went in I found a thin sheet of ice on top, but both times the chickens had pecked thru it to the water. My coop is insulated.
I dumped the water out of my outside waterers after the chickens had gone to bed and refilled in the morning.

 

[beepbeepinajeep]

That sounds like good news Thanks! Ours is not insulated, but maybe it wont be as bad a problem as I am imagining.

 

[madmantrapper]

Here in MD we use a hot plate looking thing for the pigeons in the winter. It does not theat the water to any degree, just keeps it from freezing. I'm figureing on using the same for the chickens.

 

[Chicken Ninja]

Don't know if you've seen this , but this guy seems to have the right idea when it comes to keeping the water un-frozen in the winter.

Basically he just put a 60 Watt bulb underneath a plant pot, in his coop, next to the waterer. It kept the water liquified, and he says it was 23 degrees outside at the time.

I was thinking about doing something similar, but we'll have to see this upcoming winter (Being my first winter with chickens

) how things work out.

 

[ninny]

Where i live you have to have a heater in the waterer. We have two waterers and go out 4 times a day and switch them cause they do freeze. One goes out full of hot water and the frozen one comes in to be emptyed. Not fun but no other way at the moment.

 

[sparkles2307]

We have to either put a heater in the waterer, set it on a heated base, or use a plug-in bucket (I use those for the goats) and even then the water still freezes. We haul hot water from the house each evening in 5 gal pails to thaw the ice enough to let water flow thru again. Our insulation is square bales of straw stacked along the walls and a heat lamp.

 

[gritsar]

Most of y'all live where the winters are much harsher than we have in Arkansas and I daresay NC. My hometown is Asheville, NC and I know our winters are similiar, although more dreary here.