stopping water from freezing

[redstars]

Sounds like you might want to think about only keeping birds in the warmer months and
either cull them or find more suitable arrangements.
Do you have anyone that can keep them for you for the winter?
They should be checked on at least once a day.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

we don't get as cold as you but definately to freezing and if you left a bucket of water out it would freeze solid . . . so this is what I did last winter with excellent results.
1st - I put the waterer IN THE COOP with the birds their body heat and rate of respiration keeps it much warmer in there than outside.
2nd - I got a small used tire (like off of a hyundai) with the innertube still in it and inflated and put that in the coop then put the water bucket down inside it. This provided excellent insulation and the water never even got a skim of ice on it. The chickens love standing on the tire to drink out of the bucket.
Again we don't get as cold as you . . . although it feels like it today lol, but this should buy you some time between switching out buckets and then like someone said just take out a bucket of hot water each time when out go out, and swap with the cold one. Hope this helps!

 

[Momo]

I get the feeling some folks really don't get how cold it is in Ontario. I'm sorry to have to say this but if you live in Ontario and don't check your chickens for days at a time in the winter, your chickens will really suffer for it and you will not have any chickens left come spring. Eating snow can keep them alive but not comfortably, and not over the long term.

I'm in Canada too and although my winters are milder than yours, I have to bring fresh water to my flock two or three times a day (depending on the temperature). I don't mean to sound harsh, but if you can't move them to winter quarters where you or someone else can tend to them, I must advise culling / selling them or giving them away in the fall - it would be kinder. Maybe for now you can only keep chickens, realistically, during the milder part of the year.

 

[fiftyfifty]

I think your options are:

1. Bring them close enough to the house to run an extension cord for a heated bowl. Extension cords are not without their dangers, but I risk it anyway. Here in Minnesota I need the heated bowl from November until early April.

2. Rehome.
Plenty of people around here are 3 season poultry owners. They get rid of their chickens by the end of October before it freezes for long stretches and get new ones in April when it starts to warm up a bit.

There is no water insulating scheme that would work where I am. Just putting it inside the coop won't work either as the inside of my coop is below freezing for multiple days on end (freezes the turds solid within minutes, so no odor!). Placing the bucket in the sun doesn't work here as even with the sun the temp may stay below 0 deg F for days on end.

 

[rocknrod428]

Take a four to six inch tile and post hole digger or auger to make a hole to below frost level. Put the water bucket over the hole and let the ambient temperature of the earth do the work.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Not without a floating cover on it, like on stock drinkers. (Not up here, anyhow). I have no idea whether chickens could learn to use a floating cover, that they have to push down to get to the water.


Pat

 

[redstars]

Quote:
In Canada that's gonna be some hole!
I would think they get at least 5-6 feet of frost in any given winter.
I know around Southeast mass we get average 3-4 feet of frost. And we do not get half the winter Canada gets.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Remember that there is a difference between what building code "says" is frost depth, and what REAL frost depth generally is. Where I am (roughly an hour N of Toronto) code sez you have to bury things 4' deep to be beyond frost, but realistically under most conditions frost does not go more than 2' into the ground. This is unquestionably the case in your Massachusetts location too.

I don't know where in Ontario the o.p. is, but most of the population lives in areas where the real frost depth isn't much deeper than that. (There are maps available online, I'm just too lazy to google 'em back up and I've never bookmarked them). So a hole is not entirely unfeasible. It just probably won't WORK for chickens, based on my experience with livestock fonts.

Pat

 

[Chicksdigit]

Well I know this isn't much help, but I wish it would freeze pretty soon and get rid of some of these flies and mosquitoes.

 

[onecent]

im sorry, but just thinking that you dont go check on your birds...for days.. is bad enough, but in a harsh winter such as in Canada going ...for days with no water, that is cruel, you need to come up with a plan so they have water to drink, if not...........re-home them, also, even if it isn't freezing, you still need to check on them, anything can happen, I've had waterers tip over, so i hung them, and sometimes they get knocked off balance and leak all the water out, not to mention you might get a predator, domestic animals depend on us, we have to be responsible enough to take care of them.