Water is freezing in the coop

[09northernchick]

Our coop is insulated and was staying quite warm until this week. It has been really cold here and the water is freezing in the container. What kind of ideas have you smart people come up with to solve this problem? Friends of ours take their water in every night. I doubt the girls drink once they roost for the night but I would have to be getting out to the coop much earlier than I'd like to put it back in. I have heard of people using heated dog dishes and may look into that. I do not want to use a heat lamp.

What has been working for you?

 

[trilyn]

At the moment, I am using a five gallon bucket with three of the poultry nipples on the bottom and a deicer from TSC inside of the bucket. I have it hanging on the coop wall using a hook that is normally used for horse buckets. It keeps the bucket flat against the wall. It rocks! No more frozen water and no messes in the coop from spilled waterers. The whole set up ran for under 40.00 and the best part is, in the spring, just take out the deicer and in the summer it is so large I can put a milk jug filled with water (frozen, of course) in there and it will keep the water and the chooks nice and cool! Love this thing.

If you've never seen the poultry nipples before, check out my page.

 

[PDXRN]

try a seedling warming matt. It's only rated to raise the temp 10-20 above ambient. I have been using one during a long cold spell in my uninsultaed coop for the last week and it has worked great.

 

[Tecalli]

I just bought a heated dog bowl for the coop. I like it because it automatically turns on and off as needed, depending on the temperature. Its very safe and cheap to operate.

 

[gwennym]

Last year I used a heated poultry waterer base, but this year, so far, I'm using the heated dog dish. Works great and doesn't really get any dirtier than a regular waterer. It's a MUCH cheaper solution than the $45 heated poultry waterer base. There are also some great ideas on here (BYC) on making a heated base yourself.

Gwen

 

[LynneP]

My heated dog dish has ice on it this morning. Not sure if the bowl failed or it was simply too brutal. I like the idea of adding the seedling warming mat...
Update- the bowl is fine, had ice around the upper rim but the base is toasty. We had two days of brutal cold. Dog dishes are 60 watts, usually, so only the base is warm, at 50F.

 

[jrleader99]

I placed a brooder lamp in the coop and it kept the temp warm enough to keep the waterers from freezing. Not sure if that was the best electrically but it worked. I also saw someone had an outlet strip that turned on at 34 degrees and off at 45.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I also saw someone had an outlet strip that turned on at 34 degrees and off at 45.

That's called a "Thermocube"

http://www.thermocube.com/​

 

[gsim]

I do not keep water in my coop. I have feed only. There are three water pans outside and if it is freezing out I take a 1 gallon bucket of very warm water with me for my morning coop chores. Works fine and no wet litter in coop PLUS they tend to want to go out in AM when I open their two pop doors. I close them 30 sec later and that keeps them from being underfoot while I clean poop-planks and put feed into troughs inside of the coop. Simple and effective for 24 chooks.

 

[patandchickens]

My coop is large, heavily insulated, and gets some useful solar gain on sunny days, so it does not get nearly as cold in there as you might expect from my location. But, that said, I run one of those heated waterers for one pen, a heated dogbowl for the other, and will have to figure something out for the turkey pen this year.

Haven't done set up any of that it yet, though, as the only time it's dipped to freezing in the coop so far this season has been on cold windy days with the popdoors open (unfortunately I have popdoors on both sides of the bldg, which means that when everyone is allowed out to their runs I get a pretty stiff crossbreeze - woulda been different if it were a building I built expressly for chickens, but as it is, it's just something I'm stuck with).

Pat