Water Freezing - no electricity to coop- any ideas?

[luvmychicken]

well i have read all that replied to the question. but no one even thought about the pocket hand warmers, not the battery powered one. they are chemical filled and last about 12 hours. I am not saying to put them in the water, but under the container. i have used them when i worked out side in the cold and placed them inside my clothes. and with it under my coat i stayed warm for hours. why not try one under a ceramic tile which may work even better... just a thought

 

[12321]

My roosters do fine with water once a day at 5:30 in the am when I leave for work. They get a large dog bowl of warm water with a warm rock in it and drink most of it before it freezes. When I get home, I'll bring out more warm water to melt out whatever they didn't drink. They don't bother getting off the roost for another drink before bedtime so they can't be that thirsty and the lights don't go out for another 1.5 hours. Yes, I have hydro, but the roosters are on the cold side of the coop and don't get the cookie tin water heater because I don't trust them with electricity.

I warm up the rock in a bowl of hot tap water while I'm getting ready for work. Warm water with a warm rock takes longer to freeze than cold water at my place. I haven't tried the ping pong balls, but I know they use them in the large plating tanks at work to prevent evaporation - if you use enough of them, might make a difference......I'll have to try that. I just got one of the rubber bowls yesterday, so I'm looking forward to not have to melt out any ice.

 

[Yukonchick]

Just take 4 bricks and form a square with the hole in the centre then lay in some tin foil and set a treble light down with a 40 watt light bulb. Place your waterer on top and the water wont' freeze

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Water a couple or three times a day is more water than most chickens need during weather as cold as you say it is in NJ. But if you are concerned over your frozen water cups, try soaking part or all of your chickens' mash and grain rations with boiling water until it absorbs as much liquid water as it can absorb but don't feed it sloppy. Just don't forget to let it cool down to body or room temperature before you give it to them.

 

[melina90]

Here in Norway the water will freeze despites electrical heating in the coldest periods (-30 to -40c). I use to mix in some glucose to it wich keeps it free from ice for a little longer (it works just like salt, lowering the freezing point). When this isnt enough I make sure they have free access to snow to keep them hydrated and they seem to be doing just fine eating snow instead of drinking water.

 

[aaronisloan]

LOL nice typo

 

[chooniecat]

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

Now, I don't know about the OP but I'm not sure I want to run extension cords all the way from Walmart to my coop! That's over 35 miles!

Sorry...that just hit me funny....

This WAS good. Its how I thought of it too.

 

[mtheisen]

I don't have power in wired my coop either so I just have an extention cord (a big heavy duty outdoor cord) running from my garage to the coop. **I should note that the outlet is a GFI with it's own breaker. In the coop I have a thermostatic heater that the waterer sits on. I'm in SE Idaho and it gets as cold as 20 below zero easily here in the winter and sometimes even colder. It works just great and I'm on my 5th year with my chickies!
Also, Chickens have a body temp. of 110, if I'm remembering right, so they do just fine in the winter. Of course, anything colder than zero I put a heat lamp (preferrably a red, 250w) out there too... also powered by the same extention cord fitted with a splitter especially designed for the heavy duty extention cord to avoid a fire hazard.

 

[Into chicks]

Warm water freezes quicker then cold water.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Warm water freezes quicker then cold water.

I've heard this often, but it isn't actually true. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/422/which-freezes-faster-hot-water-or-cold-water

Oh, and I take fresh water down to the coop 3x a day in winter. Ick. I just use one of those 7-gallon waterers that you fill and flip over and hang. I have two so that I can thaw one in the house while the other is in the hen house. If temps get so cold that 3x isn't enough (-20 or so), I hang a red heat-lamp over the waterer.