Water Clean, Thaw, and Outside..?

[Archie01]

but of the 3 hens I have, one is about 3, the other two are about 26+ weeks, no eggs yet! I' m thinking it's to cold for egg laying.

 

[Archie01]

Any tips?

 

[wamtazlady]

Central Minnesota for me, so.. it gets cold!

I have 4 of those oasis type chicken watering cups I have used yet. After a little research I think I am going to build a simple 1x1x2 box with a side half cutout. Stick the heater in there with a 5 gal bucket and a couple of the oasis cups. That should keep it out of the elements plenty. I will show you what I mean tmr once done!

I have to warn you. Those cup type waterers freeze really fast. They will be frozen when horizontal nipples and even vertical nipples are still thawed. I would not recommend them for your cold winters.

 

[wamtazlady]

but of the 3 hens I have, one is about 3, the other two are about 26+ weeks, no eggs yet! I' m thinking it's to cold for egg laying.

Laying has to do with the number of daylight hours, not the weather. Your 2 young chickens may wait until February when the days are getting longer before they start to lay. The older hen would be just getting over molt. She will also likely to start laying again in February.

 

[Armstrt8]

Lights. Its about the lights as Wamtaz said. I have a single small light in my coop for about an hour in the morning and 3 hours at night and my 3 buffs currently laying are giving me 1-2 still a day.

 

[Kikiriki]

I have to warn you. Those cup type waterers freeze really fast. They will be frozen when horizontal nipples and even vertical nipples are still thawed. I would not recommend them for your cold winters.

Yes...we had 1 cold night and the cups froze solid.
I love them for warm weather, but they are useless below freezing temps.
I’m looking for heated waterer options right now...I am TERRIFIED of a causing a barn fire.

 

[wamtazlady]

@Kikiriki You might want to try the system blackdog043, and I use. Has gotten down into the -20s F and has never frozen. What you need is a water container. I use a plastic tote with lid, and blackdog042 uses a plastic barrel. We both use horizontal nipples and a 250 watt stock tank deicer that is rated for use in plastic. The deicer has a built in thermostat so it turns on at 35 degrees and off again at 40 or 45 which makes it pretty efficient and safe. Harder to start a fire when the heating element is under water. Some of the benefits are that the water stays thawed, the water stays clean, and with mine the 11 gallon tote holds enough water to last 12 chickens for a week so less filling. As for costs, my tote was about $7, the horizontal nipples about $10, and the stock tank deicer about $40. The stock tank deicer is a good deal as mine is now on its 5th year of use.

 

[NatJ]

Yes...we had 1 cold night and the cups froze solid.
I love them for warm weather, but they are useless below freezing temps.
I’m looking for heated waterer options right now...I am TERRIFIED of a causing a barn fire.

There's one really low-tech option: carry fresh water a few times a day.

I grew up in Alaska. We dumped and refilled every water container twice a day. In really cold weather, we'd sometimes do it a third time at midday. (This was for chickens and rabbits, no large livestock.)

It really helps if you have two waterers--one can be inside thawing while the other is outside freezing.

The water container does not need to hold a lot of water, if you're replacing it several times a day. (There's no need to carry out 5 gallons of water, and bring 4 3/4 gallons back in frozen--use a smaller container in that case.)

Rather than buy a new or special waterer, I've seen people mention using a bowl or bucket. My family's way to make an extra feeder or waterer fast was to cut a big hole in the side of a plastic 1-gallon milk jug. Sit it on the floor in the pen, or hang it by the milk jug's handle.

 

[Kikiriki]

@Kikiriki You might want to try the system blackdog043, and I use. Has gotten down into the -20s F and has never frozen. What you need is a water container. I use a plastic tote with lid, and blackdog042 uses a plastic barrel. We both use horizontal nipples and a 250 watt stock tank deicer that is rated for use in plastic. The deicer has a built in thermostat so it turns on at 35 degrees and off again at 40 or 45 which makes it pretty efficient and safe. Harder to start a fire when the heating element is under water. Some of the benefits are that the water stays thawed, the water stays clean, and with mine the 11 gallon tote holds enough water to last 12 chickens for a week so less filling. As for costs, my tote was about $7, the horizontal nipples about $10, and the stock tank deicer about $40. The stock tank deicer is a good deal as mine is now on its 5th year of use.

My chickens wouldn’t use the nipples...I had to switch to cups, but they already froze once. The deicers are overpowered at 1500w, so I’m looking for something that uses less than 60w.
Thanks for the idea, though!

 

[imnukensc]

You must be up in the mountains?
..and it must not stay below freezing for even 24 hours at a time?

Nope. Pretty much smack dab in the middle of SC. While we don't get the extended freezing weather you and others experience it's not uncommon for our lows to be in the teens and daily highs to be in the mid 30's for several days at a time. Plenty cold enough for water to freeze and remain frozen. I wish had some pictures of the backyard fountain to post from winters past. Even with a 650 gph pump it was frozen solid.