Waterer question

[lizrndiver]

While it was still warm, I had a galvanized waterer and one of the plastic heated waters. Both were kept outside the coop and did fine. Now that it is getting below freezing here, I have to move the plastic waterer inside the coop and plugged it in. I have a small coop 4' x4'. I have the waterer up on some blocks, but i can't seem to keep the water clean. It gets filled with shavings everyday. Right now it is still warm enough to dump it and clean it everyday, but I am worried about when it is 2 degrees outside. The waterer is not easy to fill since it fills from the bottom and if I am dumping it everyday, I will end up with a ton of ice around the coop. The height of the lip also makes it so that even if I fill it just a little bit, water sloshes out onto the coop floor every time I unplug it. I would love some suggestions. I am afraid to buy a heated base for the galvanized waterer because it will be around all the shavings. Wouldn't that be a fire hazzard?

Thanks for any advice,

Liz

 

[redstars]

Check this out. It might work for you it's from another thread. http://www.rosecombs.ca/heatedwaterer.html
you can use your galvanized water er on top of this.
That's what I'm going to do.looks pretty easy to make.
I wouldn't think it would be too much of a fire hazzard with the tin cover on the bottom like that.

 

[lizrndiver]

Thanks!!! That looks great. Any ideas on how to keep the shavings out? Should I just keep raising it up?

Liz

 

[Ridgerunner]

The higher you raise it, the cleaner it will be. Your coop may be too small for this, but I saw a post on here where someone elevated the waterer quite high and made it so they had to walk up a plank to get to it and stand on the plank to drink. It was high enough up that they could not get shavings in it.

 

[sbates]

I had the same problems that you list.. In fact I think use the exact same waterer as you.. A plastic heated one with a rubber plug on the bottom??? Anyway, I moved the entire rig OUTSIDE of the coop. and it was absolutely fine in terms of freezing. It sometimes hits 2o below and it doesn't freeze. Try it!

 

[the simple life]

I raise mine up on blocks but I also don't put any shavings around the radius of the waterer when I clean the coop.
I know they can still kick some shavings over that way but not as much and I haven't had a problem with it.

 

[ijon1]

I bought a tin hog feeder pan. It looks to be same size of the heater that they sell. I put in a cord with hard light bulb fixture. I am going to experiment with light bulb size. I also covered the bottom with metal.