What would you do, water freezing?

[Folly's place]

Are there solar heaters? Anyone? I've got electricity, so it's not for me. Mary

 

[jlurch]

Has anyone used a solar water pump circulate the water to keep it from freezing? That might not keep the nipples from freezing, which the current problem.

 

[RonP]

Has anyone used a solar water pump circulate the water to keep it from freezing? That might not keep the nipples from freezing, which the current problem.

Circulating or moving water may not freeze in temperatures below 32F but the water will still be very cold... This added kinetic energy has the same effect as heating the water, but as you can guess, no heat is added to the system.

Do you really want your flock drinking "super-cooled" water?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Those of us that use the rubber livestock bowls don't mind letting the birds drink super cold water. They don't seem to mind either as I've gone out to pull off layer of ice to find it's been pecked so much it was a screen. Most Americans drink beer well under 40F. Water freezes at 32F.

The only problem I have with water in winter, besides keeping thawed or replaced several times a day, is the cock birds large wattles freeze. Either from them letting it dunk into a livestock bowl while drinking or hitting the metal rim of a water fountain they become self dubbed. Water, freezing temp and wattles don't mix well. I'm thinking of going the route of nipple system with submersed heater for this one reason.

 

[MeepBeep]

Are there solar heaters?  Anyone?  I've got electricity, so it's not for me.  Mary

You would have to invest huge amounts of money to get a solar powered system that would keep the water liquid during the winter months... You can certainly do it but it won't be cheap...

Look at this chart of available solar hours... http://www.solardirect.com/pv/systems/gts/gts-sizing-sun-hours.html

If you glance over it you will see that for most of the US the available solar hours during the winter is only about 2-5 hours depending on location, that means you will need to collect 24 hours worth of electricity in as little as 2 hours time... Passive solar heating systems like bladders just won't cut it due to the long night hours...

Lets take a small bird bath heater at say 100W and assume a 50% duty cycle, or 50W per hour on average... That would mean you need to collect at very minimum 1200W in 2-5 hours of sun light... Or basically you will need a 600W solar collector... This assumes no loss, in the real world we have loses so that has to be factored in and then you come to realization that you will need basically a 1000W solar system to keep a moderate water dish liquid during the winter months... In the end you will likely find yourself dropping thousands to build a sufficient solar powered heater...

Or course you could go cheaper and simply extend the time before it turns liquid, but again quite costly...

Circulating water is hit and miss, yeah it lowers the freezing point put only marginally unless it's really moving fast, a little pond pump isn't going to lower the temp much, and as soon as you get into bigger pumps you run into the same energy requirements as heating...

 

[RonP]

Those of us that use the rubber livestock bowls don't mind letting the birds drink super cold water. They don't seem to mind either as I've gone out to pull off layer of ice to find it's been pecked so much it was a screen. Most Americans drink beer well under 40F. Water freezes at 32F.

The only problem I have with water in winter, besides keeping thawed or replaced several times a day, is the cock birds large wattles freeze. Either from them letting it dunk into a livestock bowl while drinking or hitting the metal rim of a water fountain they become self dubbed. Water, freezing temp and wattles don't mix well. I'm thinking of going the route of nipple system with submersed heater for this one reason.

"Super-cooled" is not the same as super cold.

Super-cooled, is water that remains liquid below 32F ambient temps, due to the added kinetic energy derived by movement.

 

[MeepBeep]

Super-cooled" is not the same as super cold.

Super-cooled, is water that remains liquid below 32F ambient temps, due to the added kinetic energy derived by movement.

Yep, water can remain liquid down to about -45°F (-43°C) if there is enough kinetic energy, but that is A LOT of kinetic energy to get to that extreme...

In reality as I said above a small pump in the water bowl is only going to marginally lower the freezing point, in the end likely not enough to really bother with, a heater is a much better choice if you are going to run electric...

 

[lazy gardener]

Can't wait for spring. I'd love to hear feed back from folks who've used buckets with horizontal nipples, and a heater in the bucket. What have you used for a heater, and to what temps was it effective. I'm sure that the water would freeze in the little nipple trough first, but wondering if heat dissipation through the bucket would help to keep the water from freezing. Also, much concern with leaking with horiz. nipples? I've heard they are less prone to leaking than vertical ones.

 

[eleaserek]

I have a three gallon bucket with two horizontal nipples. I have a small (I think it's for one gallon) fish tank heater with suction cups placed right I between the nipples. It was doing perfect until it got down to 5F last night (I'm in MT.) The center of the bucket was still thawed, but the top and edges had about 1/2" ice. The nipples themselves were also frozen... So broke the ice and only filled it half full, hoping the tiny heater would keep a smaller amount of water thawed better.
The high today was 16F and it's been fine all day. The low tonight is 3F, so we will see in the morning!

 

[Caleb999]

My coop is about 150' from my house, I just carry warm water out to my coop twice a day. It takes long enough to freeze, and on the really cold days, I just make three trips. I will say that 500' is a long way to walk while carrying water.