Water & Upstate NY

[N8than]

Good afternoon all!
I have received such great information here in the past, so i have another situation id like some advice on. I live in upstate ny (30 min north of Albany) and we get some good winters with snow and below zero temps. I do not have heat in my coop, never have. My coop is 16’x8’ with a wall height of 6’ at eaves and 8’ at peak. We have 32 laying hens. I built a pvc waterer that holds two 5 gal water jugs and i use the water nipples from heritage acres. We get a lot of dribbles from this many hens and it makes a bit of a mess in the coop. The first concern is water in winter. I have a small 3 gal heated waterer i got at Tractor supply, though 32 hens go through it quick. Does anyone have any insight on other ideas to have bulk water and it not freezing? I am a contractor so i know my way around a hardware store though havent seen much there that would help this. I use sand as my floor covering and at first it was great. Though the drips from the waterer make quite the mess. Ive put in a floor drain though it gets mudded up. Should i move the water outside? Food too? I have more questions, though this is our first round haha. Thank you

 

[Debbie292d]

Good afternoon all!
I have received such great information here in the past, so i have another situation id like some advice on. I live in upstate ny (30 min north of Albany) and we get some good winters with snow and below zero temps. I do not have heat in my coop, never have. My coop is 16’x8’ with a wall height of 6’ at eaves and 8’ at peak. We have 32 laying hens. I built a pvc waterer that holds two 5 gal water jugs and i use the water nipples from heritage acres. We get a lot of dribbles from this many hens and it makes a bit of a mess in the coop. The first concern is water in winter. I have a small 3 gal heated waterer i got at Tractor supply, though 32 hens go through it quick. Does anyone have any insight on other ideas to have bulk water and it not freezing? I am a contractor so i know my way around a hardware store though havent seen much there that would help this. I use sand as my floor covering and at first it was great. Though the drips from the waterer make quite the mess. Ive put in a floor drain though it gets mudded up. Should i move the water outside? Food too? I have more questions, though this is our first round haha. Thank you

I'll explain what we do first: We heat our coop to 45F and have a 5-gallon nipple water bucket. We spread about 4" of horse bedding pellets on the floor. They absorb moisture and dry out the poop, and are virtually maintenance-free. The pellets turn to sawdust when wet, and we don't see that issue so not sure what's up with yours. Maybe try different nipples? We've gotten two different kinds on Amazon and both work fine.

As for heating water, here's a very interesting thread you might want to read. I noticed later on are all the suggestions for heating his huge water tank.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...er-to-prevent-freezing-in-the-winter.1596486/

 

[N8than]

I'll explain what we do first: We heat our coop to 45F and have a 5-gallon nipple water bucket. We spread about 4" of horse bedding pellets on the floor. They absorb moisture and dry out the poop, and are virtually maintenance-free. The pellets turn to sawdust when wet, and we don't see that issue so not sure what's up with yours. Maybe try different nipples? We've gotten two different kinds on Amazon and both work fine.

As for heating water, here's a very interesting thread you might want to read. I noticed later on are all the suggestions for heating his huge water tank.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...er-to-prevent-freezing-in-the-winter.1596486/

Thank you so much! I switched from wood shavings (my brother does wood working so they were free) to the sand as i heard a lot of great things about it. It was supposed to dry out nicely, though no such luck. I love it in the nesting boxes. I think the most different cause to my issues is that i have 32 hens. Its not full on farm status, though it seems more than the average backyarder. Thank you!