watering the chickens in the winter without useing a heated waterer

[Camelot Farms]

Quote:
I have a 60watt black light bulb w/reflector hanging over my chicks' black rubber water dish. Black lights put out twice the amount of heat for the same amount of wattage, so costs less on my light bill. Plus the black light doesn't keep the chicks up.
I have two regular water buckets out on the fenceline that I just bust out as needed. The electrically controlled waterers are mainly so the birds can get a drink before I let them out of the coop in the morning - for MY convenience.

Last year I did like vstoltzfus does and just rotated the coop buckets and/or busted the big ones out, but at the time I was either unemployed or working night shift so it was no big deal for me to be awake at 7am when I got off work.

Awesome! I will be heading to get some black-light bulbs today! Thanks for the tip!

 

[HensHaven]

This may sound dumb but...where would you buy black lights?

 

[FireTigeris]

Quote:
you know those tomato stands/cages, they look like cones made out of fencing? That's what you put over the water and lamp, the ducks cant get in/on and everyone can drink through the holes, if you wrap the entire thing up except the bottom set of holes then no one root over it either...

Google "tomato cages" to see what I mean.

 

[Amethyste]

We don't have electricity running to the coop. So, at night...a few hours after they roost I take the water inside for the night, and bring it out again in the am. I also check it a few times a day, and add some warm water as needed to keep it from freezing.

Sadly I am not working at this time so its not an issue for me to do this with the water.

 

[Uzuri]

For those of you putting warmed water in your waters, be aware under some circumstances, hot water will freeze MORE quickly than cold: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html

It's not known exactly why this happens (and it's more common when you do something dumb like throw hot water on a windshield than put out a large pan of hot water), but it happens. There's also evidently a difference between hot, warm, and cold... I'm thinking warm and cold behave as expected, but hot freezes faster, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, just a little weird science for you.

 

[chookchick]

You can get a good assortment of heat lamps in the reptile section of a pet store. They have ceramic heat bulbs, black lights, red lights, etc...

Duh--why didn't I look for a heated dog bowl when I was there! Still looking for the perfect system....The black light works well until it gets down to 15 degrees.

 

[Sasquatch]

I bought a 4 dollar metal oil pan. I placed a drop lamp with a 60 watt bulb under it. I then place my waterer on it. Idoes pretty well to -10 F. After that I lug alternating water fonts out to the coop so they get about 8 hours of access before the next one freezes. My coop is an old green house so I am thinking about painting the fonts black so they will absorb more solar energy.

 

[Luvs chickens]

I have heat in my coup so there is always water inside. my outside bucket gets brought inside at night and I bring out fresh water in the morning. FYI warm water freezes faster than cold.

 

[Danceswithchicks]

Quote:
I do the same thing!

 

[mandelyn]

I use a stainless dog bowl because I found it in the dirt at the coop building site. LOL

The coop is so toasty it hasn't frozen yet, it did get a fine layer of ice, and the chickens tapped a hole in it themselves.

When it got REALLY cold, I just put it under their light. My coop has a low ceiling, which holds the heat really well, in addition to being insulated. The metal bowl under the light not only kept it from freezing, but made it even a little warmer than the air temp.

Their outside water though... frozen solid. Pretty funny when they try to drink out of it anyways. Silly dumb things, I love them!