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Thanks for the reply. Actually I have this same one and do use it occasionally.. the problem is that with 25 chickens.. it empties fast.. plus it gets absolutely filthy as they stand in it and whatnot. I was looking for something a little larger and covered... and that can take a little abuse as sometimes the goats get into this thing and knock it over. I don't know.. just interested to hear the strategies out there on this.
I picked up one of the 1 1/2 gallon plastic heated pet bowls from Fleet Farm similar/same as the one posted previously, been using it outside in the run for about 4 weeks now.
Zero freeze up, Works perfectly.
Have had temps down to -10F (minus 24 windchill) and I can see steam rising from the bowl.
I have it sitting on top of a couple concrete blocks, this helps keep it from getting a lot of junk inside (but then I don't have goats;-) and my birds seem to have no interest in perching on the rim. Easy clean up, just dump it and wipe it out.
Inside I have the Heated metal base, with a 1 gallon plastic waterer sitting inside a 10" pyrex pie plate to keep the plastic from melting. This set up works well for me, but then I only have ten hens to deal with.
I tried using my 3 gallon plastic fount on the metal base with a ceramic tile in between but it only worked down to 20F degrees as the heating element does not extend all the way to the outer edges of the base so while it keeps the water in the fount from freezing it doesn't where the water comes out for drinking.
If I had more birds I guess I would use the 3 gallon metal fount on top of the metal heater inside for sure. After all that's the way they designed it.
