Water Freezing - no electricity to coop- any ideas?

[acemario]

Place a ceramic tile (like one you'd buy from a hardware/flooring store) under your water dispenser. If it is in the sun, even better. The tile retains the heat much better than anything else. Our water freezes much slower since we've switched to this easy/no-electricity technique.

 

[jasmer]

Wow, lots of great ideas for using the sun to keep water from freezing. Perhaps you can combine a few of them--place a black-colored water receptacle on some ceramic tiles in the sun.

 

[themadchicken]

wow thank you everyone for so many good ideas... I can't run electricity to the coop because my husband won't let me. He says it's a fire hazard... I disagree but he wins (mostly because i'll put it out and he'll take it in) I think we're good I was worried because someone told me that they needed warm water in the winter to keep them warm.. I guess it was an old wives tale. I'll just stick with the watering 3 times a day... Spring is almost here so I'll just have to deal for a couple more weeks. I just didn't want anything to happen to them because they weren't getting enough water..
Thanks again... you guys are always so helpful.
Michele``

You can buy electrical wire buy the foot, just add the ends. I have around 300' stretched out to my COOP"S. For the last month or so it has been buried under snow. The only hazard it causes to me is tripping on the cord when I'm shoveling snow to make new paths in the snow for my flock to get around. I use a heavy wire cause i run about 800 watts to the coops. Im going to add 1 more 125 heat lamp for a hen with chicks that I'm moving outside into the chick coop. once at the coop it goes into a power strip that is in a plastic container. From there the smaller cords leave the container to their lamps. I even keep the thermal cubes in the container. There is no fire hazard.

 

[rowboat]

Hate to bust up an old wives tale but cold water actually freezes much faster than hot water. Don't take my word for it. Try it in your freezer or just fill up the chickens water with hot and see the difference

 

[johnskoi]

You can buy a dog dish that plugs in at Walmart. They work great.

....... walmart's too far -- you'd need a really long extension cord.....

...

seriously, with electricity and my coops, i've placed smoke detectors in every one of 'em... (now to change the batteries)

 

[mistydbowen]

I have the same problem. My husband won't let me run a cord out to the coop. I'm in Maine, and we've had some cold days this winter, and the chickens are just fine. I run water out twice a day. I try to go out around 3 in the afternoon so I get to them before they roost.

The only thing that makes me feel bad is the ducks can't take a bath. They're feathers are getting a little grundgy.

 

[Boonie Adjacent]

I bring tap-hot water out to my birds daily (no electricity in the coop). Since this is my first year wintering chickens, I had the same concern. But if the chickens are behaving normally and still laying eggs, I've judged the situation as "all good."

And my birds are behaving normally and laying eggs. All good.

 

[jdeoliveira74]

Having lived with solar a # of years, it's rare to generate enough power to create heat. If she's lucky, an inverted metal pan with a 25-40W bulb, with a galvanized waterer set on it, may work. She's in Rockaway, NJ; I used to live in Boonton, a few lifetimes ago. I seem to remember winter days as being pretty sunny, moreso than here in N. Idaho, so it may be possible!
Those kits are now on sale for $139 . . .

if you hooked it to some marine batteries or glass mat batteries you could run and inverter and getplenty of energy to run a aquarium tank heater or a light bulb.
jon

 

[phewing]

I've used Snugglesafe Heat Pads for Pets. No electricity required. Just microwave the thing for 6 minutes or so for up to 8 hours of warmth. My barn cats love them and my chickens appreciate them too. (Never leave them with a chewer). Check out the assortment at:
http://www.bing.com/shopping/search...fe+microwavable+pet+bed+warmer&FORM=HURE#x0y0
or search on SnuggleSafe Heat Pads for pets. Pricy but worth it (as I'm snuggled in my warm bed!)

 

[littlebirchfarm]

We live in the Hilltowns of Western Massachusetts and it recently was 8-10 below with a wind chill of -20. We have a plug-in heater for the waterer (we use a 5 gallon galvanized waterer) and even with the heater the water froze - so solid that we couldn't open the waterer and had to bring it inside to thaw with hot water. Most of the time the heater works, we've had it for going on 3 years and it keeps the water thawed unless the temp drops below zero. We don't have electricity in our coop so we run an outside extension cord with a power strip. We have 32 birds so someone is always taking a drink and keeping the water moving so it generally doesn't freeze over until they go to roost. We did plug in a heat lamp one night when it got down to ten below but for the most part we don't like to use them - we feel that the chickens are pretty cold-hardy and using a lamp would not allow them to deal with the cold on their own, especially if there were a power outage which happens quite often where we live. Good luck!