Water freezing

[joeyc]

Farm inivators 100 watt heater

 

[Cluckies]

duplicate...

 

[Cluckies]

Quote:

 

[joeyc]

So what do you suggest? I paid like $60.00 for this thing hoping it would work for me? I only have 7 hens now and only plan to ever have at the most 10. I am planing to keep them in the hen house thats insulated for most of the winter cause I think the run will be a bit cold.I did wrap the run with 6 mill plastic so the wind and rain will stay out.

 

[Cluckies]

So what do you suggest? I paid like $60.00 for this thing hoping it would work for me? I only have 7 hens now and only plan to ever have at the most 10. I am planing to keep them in the hen house thats insulated for most of the winter cause I think the run will be a bit cold.I did wrap the run with 6 mill plastic so the wind and rain will stay out.

Is it this one?

It may be fine for you since it is in the coop and as it freezes they will pick a hole and keep pecking in that same hole so that may keep it open. If you are home during the day you can go out and check on it. you can wait and see what happens.

It says on the waterer that it works to 0 degrees F so that is -18C. Since they only need water during the day, my guess is it is usually above zero during the day? I would bring it in to warm up at night if need be, (if you see it freezing at night), otherwise you may be fine.


Have you read through the thread? there are many great ideas on here, home made cookie tin heaters, heated dog bowls with pails in them, etc. also there are several other threads as well on this, two being here:
Horizontal nipple waterer
Frozen nipples finally working

I'm sure there are many more. Last year it was my first year so I used 2 waterers in case one froze.
I used a 2 gallon pail with a aquarium heater (then switched to a bird bath deicer) with a circulating submersible pond pump with horizontal nipples like above and a heated dog bowl, which I raised up off the ground and put a 1 gallon jug filled with sand in the middle to create a mote so they didn't dip their waddles in and get frost bit.
If you are able to be home in the morning or before they go to bed, no worries, you can just use a black rubber dish, flip it over, stomp out the ice and refill, the chickens will drink their fill, they only need water once or twice a day I guess.

 

[joeyc]

Ya I like that aquarium heater one idea I could modify that water to work with that too

 

[Cluckies]

There are also people who use a heated dog dish, one of those plastic ones with the higher sides and put a ice cream bucket in it, I guess that works well.

 

[Wood Dude]

I'm using a cat litter box that's about 5 gallon with a 250 watt poultry heater(he ultimate bucket heater from K& H Farm Essentials. the heater turns on at 35 degrees and off at 45 degrees. I used 5 horizontal oriented watering tips. I set in up on a concrete block to make it easier for the girls to drink. They like it and its clean. The tips came from Barry C and are easy to install. Check the Barry C site for instructions or make a call. I used liquid tape to project the electrical connection from Home Depot.

 

[joeyc]

all great ideas main thing is to have water there and second is clean as there will be some days that the water won't be checked till later in the day but will be checked or fresh in the am. Will try this heated waterer i wish i had asked on here first before i bought it and see what happens then will have a plan b ready

 

[imagery]

This is the "Hen Hydrator" I picked up from Big R. Works great.



This is what I did to winterize it. Sorry for the bad picture. I didn't want to take my glove off in the blizzard, so this is a shot take using my nose on my iPhone.



I bought 12' of electrical heat tape from Home Depot and wrapped it around the hydrator about 5 times. I secured the heat tape using foil duct tape (stiff aluminum foil stuff that is really sticky). I then wrapped the whole hydrator in foil backed fiberglass insulation which is about 2" thick. I covered all the exposed fiberglass with the same foil tape so the chickens wouldn't peck at it.

Despite being covered in snow, 22F outside, and blowing at about 30 mph, the water is not frozen and comes out the nipples at the bottom just fine. This is the first easy going test. If it works when it gets to be 0F outside, I'll declare victory.