Water in the winter

WindingRoad

Crowing
Nov 21, 2018
1,765
3,046
283
Maine
I use the base heaters. You can put Arizona Ice Tea gallon jugs on them outside. The jugs don't melt. And water stays unfrozen below zero here in Maine.

Also, for egg eaters I can't use mustard and hot sauce because my egg eaters LIKE it. OMG. But they will peck to no avail CERAMIC eggs and then they won't eat their eggs. LOL They also usually won't lay in a nest box with a ceramic egg in there. I did have to mark the CE's with a sharpie because I tried to "collect" them. Chicken farmer didn't even know the difference. LOL VBG. So I just put a circle all around them. They did lay some eggs on the floor of the coop so watch where you step.

I got both White and Brown CE's because the leghorns were still eating. Now they don't

KEY: CE= Cermaric Egg. VBG = Very Big Grin
 
I'm in California and winters are pretty mild here. When it does freeze I just use my boot to break the ice over the water pots in the morning. I got some ceramic eggs too, but the hens just push them out of the nesting boxes onto the floor, so I took them out! I have 18 nest boxes but the girls all use about 3 of them only. I have found as many as 9 eggs in one box! When the box gets full an egg will roll out onto the floor. It's the first thing I look for before walking into the coop to gather eggs now! My hens are not egg eaters.
coop 1 nesting boxes.jpg
 
I'm in California and winters are pretty mild here. When it does freeze I just use my boot to break the ice over the water pots in the morning. I got some ceramic eggs too, but the hens just push them out of the nesting boxes onto the floor, so I took them out! I have 18 nest boxes but the girls all use about 3 of them only. I have found as many as 9 eggs in one box! When the box gets full an egg will roll out onto the floor. It's the first thing I look for before walking into the coop to gather eggs now! My hens are not egg eaters. View attachment 2024775
I think they are eating broken ones because the won't leave bedding in the boxes and the eggs break when they hit the plywood floor. I have oyster free choice, And they are eating it. Might be the cold some times. Come spring have some old carpet I'm gonna put down double thickness. When I first got this last batch the were laying off the roost and those eggs obviously broke and I think that's where they got the habit. I still get one maybe once a week. The most eggs I ever had was last fall when only I had 4 birds. 17 The young fellow chicken sitter wasn't collecting them just feeding and watering birds. Those birds did, t eat any that I could tell.
 
I think they are eating broken ones because the won't leave bedding in the boxes and the eggs break when they hit the plywood floor. I have oyster free choice, And they are eating it. Might be the cold some times. Come spring have some old carpet I'm gonna put down double thickness. When I first got this last batch the were laying off the roost and those eggs obviously broke and I think that's where they got the habit. I still get one maybe once a week. The most eggs I ever had was last fall when only I had 4 birds. 17 The young fellow chicken sitter wasn't collecting them just feeding and watering birds. Those birds did, t eat any that I could tell.
I have quite a thick layer of straw on the floor of my coop, so when an egg falls from the nesting box on the bottom row it does not break. Lucky me! :)
 

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