What is the best heated chicken waterer?

[purpletree23]

Very frigid here in New Hampshire. I'm looking for a heated chicken waterer but all of the reviews I've read for the various brands have been horrible. Does anyone have a heated waterer that they love/like and would recommend?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

the best so far i have found is the one i made my self. you can also buy. its the cookie tin heater and there are instructions on how to make it . google the chicken chick. i think thats who it is. i will go make sure. but its a metal water base with a light bulb and you sit whatever water container on it you want. the big plastic one is hard to fill and the rubber stopper sometimes leaks. the metal one i bought last spring is rusting already. the one gallon that you fill then flip over has been my favorite so far. not to heavy and not hard to flip, no leaks to worry about.

 

[purpletree23]

Thanks for the suggestion Granny Hatchet. When I searched further on BYC I came across a suggestion to use a heated dog bowl. The person said not to fill the dog bowl with water but to use a plastic ice cream container to hold the water and put the container in the bowl. This way the water can be replaced by lifting out the ice cream container and throwing out the water and refilling it. Makes sense to me. If the dog bowl was filled with water it would be difficult to clean because you just can't empty the water in the coop like you could on the ground for a dog.

Plus it gives me a reason to go buy some ice cream.

I think they sell sherbert in the plastic containers at our grocery store. I'll check on Saturday. Getting walloped with snow and high winds and right now the temp is 1 degree and falling. I hate to think what the wind chill is. The storm should end tomorrow afternoon.

How is that mice problem? Still using the 'bucket of death'? Last month when it was warmer I used it near our wood pile. Caught more mice than I care to think about. Threw them over the back hill to go back into the food chain because they didn't have poison in them. Now that's what I call recycling!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

haha, i forgot to go look for the chicken chick. it really is a nice waterer. sorry. ahhh, the bucket of death. no, i gave up on it a got another cat. lol the water was freezing faster then i could fill it. i found a stray kitten that was starving and brought it home and threw it in the coop. i went to look for eggs later that day and he had stacked up 3-4 mice already in the box.lol he has got all the mice out and the ones that ran was caught by my other cat . i just let him out and he is working on my other coop now. they work as a team. i cant see an ice cream bucket fitting in a dog dish. i have seen them both and it just dont sound right .

 

[Granny Hatchet]

there are some posts on here under cookie tin water heater. i think i have that womans name wrong. at least check it out before you buy.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i have a post on here about the cat titled here, kitty, kitty !

 

[purpletree23]

What could be better than a rescued kitten and a pile of dead mice? So glad you took the little kitten in and that he loves to catch mice.

The post regarding the dog bowl said to get the largest bowl you could find. I think that's why the plastic container fits inside.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

you know, i buy big gallons of ice cream from wal-mart and they are square so i was thinking wrong last night. i know of the bucket you speak of and was thinking a coffee can would be a little thicker. my folgers anyway is and it seems like the right size for those bowls. and they have a handle on them. some place like wal-mart that would sell both things and you could try before you buy.

 

[jetdog]

5 gallon bucket with nipples and this stock tank heater has worked great it never freezes, been very cold down the road in Massachusetts. This heater will keep 30 gallons of water thawed so 5 is no problem, got it at tractor supply.

 

[KimmysChickens]

How do you close the lid on the bucket with the wire sticking out. Doesn't that let in the air, dirt, etc? Do you have a picture of it in use? Thank you.