Water Hearters

[Chalmen]

I live just outside Ottawa, Ontario - in Canada. Our Winters can get -35 and colder some nights. Last year was our first Winter with the Coop and we have it very well insulated and vapor barrier...ceiling, floor, walls, and the main door. My girls did fine all Winter - without electricity or added heat. As for the water, I would bring in the waterer at night, and bring it back to the coop in the morning. They also eat the snow to keep hydrated... So, I'm not one to encourage electricity in the coop - ours did just fine. They are essentially walking "duvets"...and to top it all off...the egg production never slowed all Winter. Amazing!

 

[gale65]

Quote:
Gale-
I had to chuckle when I read your comment. I grew up the daughter of a Mechanic. My dad owned an auto repair shop with his brothers. Our cars were always the last to be repaired. My husband is an automotive designer by day, and he also owns a side business where he is a builder. I don't even want to admit to how long it has been taking him to complete our coop. It will be nice one day, because he is very good at carpentry, but the bottom line is.....some day.

It stands to reason that poor fireraven with the electrician husband, will be using extension cords for some time. Just like the shoe salesman who's kids always had holes in their shoes.

~Kelly~
✿My Country Chronicles Blog✿

You know, you are so right. My dh is a full time crop farmer and guess who has the worst garden in the entire county. Us. Nothing but weeds and half of it never even got planted. I refuse to pull weeds in there because he refuses to put anything between the rows to keep them down (I'd do it myself but I don't want to go climbing in the straw pile to get straw for it-chiggers and all that fun stuff). I don't know what I was thinking.

 

[Keltara]

Quote:
Gale-
I had to chuckle when I read your comment. I grew up the daughter of a Mechanic. My dad owned an auto repair shop with his brothers. Our cars were always the last to be repaired. My husband is an automotive designer by day, and he also owns a side business where he is a builder. I don't even want to admit to how long it has been taking him to complete our coop. It will be nice one day, because he is very good at carpentry, but the bottom line is.....some day.

It stands to reason that poor fireraven with the electrician husband, will be using extension cords for some time. Just like the shoe salesman who's kids always had holes in their shoes.

~Kelly~
✿My Country Chronicles Blog✿

You know, you are so right. My dh is a full time crop farmer and guess who has the worst garden in the entire county. Us. Nothing but weeds and half of it never even got planted. I refuse to pull weeds in there because he refuses to put anything between the rows to keep them down (I'd do it myself but I don't want to go climbing in the straw pile to get straw for it-chiggers and all that fun stuff). I don't know what I was thinking.

I hear your pain!! LOL

FYI...I just checked out your blog and signed up to be
a follower. I ❤LOVE❤ your header!! Did you create it yourself
using digital scrapbook elements? Please feel free to check out my new blog here

 

[zookeeper15133]

Tell your DH that if he won't run electric to the coop you want a DC to AC converter and a couple deep cycle batteries to run your heater from.

Neither are cheap!

 

[gale65]

Quote:
You know, you are so right. My dh is a full time crop farmer and guess who has the worst garden in the entire county. Us. Nothing but weeds and half of it never even got planted. I refuse to pull weeds in there because he refuses to put anything between the rows to keep them down (I'd do it myself but I don't want to go climbing in the straw pile to get straw for it-chiggers and all that fun stuff). I don't know what I was thinking.

I hear your pain!! LOL

FYI...I just checked out your blog and signed up to be
a follower. I ❤LOVE❤ your header!! Did you create it yourself
using digital scrapbook elements? Please feel free to check out my new blog here

Thanks. I did make it with scrapbook elements I bought at letteringdelights.com. I was just looking at your blog too. I just finished watching the video you posted today. Amazing.

eta: I'm following your blog now. You're a fabulous photographer!

 

[Keltara]

Quote:
I hear your pain!! LOL

FYI...I just checked out your blog and signed up to be
a follower. I ❤LOVE❤ your header!! Did you create it yourself
using digital scrapbook elements? Please feel free to check out my new blog here

Thanks. I did make it with scrapbook elements I bought at letteringdelights.com. I was just looking at your blog too. I just finished watching the video you posted today. Amazing.

eta: I'm following your blog now. You're a fabulous photographer!

Great that you're following me too!! My blog is so new and I love to get new friends following.
About the scrapbook elements. I LOVE them. I went to the site and found the funky chicken
graphics, but they are only the black chickens and a few other elements. Can you give me the
link for it? I would love to scrap my kiddos using that.

 

[gale65]

It was the funky chicken. I used photoshop elements to recolor them. I didn't want all black chickens in my header.

I have a craft blog too, and I make all the headers and graphics for it from scrapbooking elements and other digital files. http://www.stamps-and-stitches.com

And to keep this on topic, how risky are extension cords in this case? I am gunning for real electric to my coop but for this winter I think a heavy duty extension cord will be the best I can hope for. We're probably about 30 feet from an outlet.

 

[Keltara]

Quote:
30 feet from an outlet is not bad at all. You'll do fine with a couple of the bright orange extension cords for the winter.

I just signed up for your craft blog too! I will need to take some time to really give it a good look over. It looks like
a great place!!

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

If you are using metal fount waters-
Build a metal or masonary base to set something like this in then set the waterer on top of it. Did this a lot once upon a long time ago. The burners and kereosene tanks were very flat.

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Lamps_...__Mason_Jar_Lids_with_Wick_Inserts___10732xx#

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kerosene-Oi...238?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5eb03506

Provide adequate ventilation.

Any electrician worth the name knows that an electric water heater that is not suppled by AC current is totally impractical. Unless you can spend thousands on PV cells. Like the ones on the space station or satelites.

 

[Fireraven0613]

Quote:
Gale-
I had to chuckle when I read your comment. I grew up the daughter of a Mechanic. My dad owned an auto repair shop with his brothers. Our cars were always the last to be repaired. My husband is an automotive designer by day, and he also owns a side business where he is a builder. I don't even want to admit to how long it has been taking him to complete our coop. It will be nice one day, because he is very good at carpentry, but the bottom line is.....some day.

It stands to reason that poor fireraven with the electrician husband, will be using extension cords for some time. Just like the shoe salesman who's kids always had holes in their shoes.

~Kelly~
✿My Country Chronicles Blog✿

You hit the nail on the head with that one! I told him tonight that he needed to get something out there because I was NOT trudging through the snow every couple hours to get them more water come winter. We just redid the coop. Buttoned up all the holes, filled in all the cracks and insulated it well but I'm sure it's still going to get cold. Oh and I forgot to mention that my brother in laws quail in habit the same coop. They have they're own coop within the chicken coop, but I have to worry about them too!