Where will the water come from?

[Life is Good!]

We too have to turn off the exterior spigots - and I've not used one all summer as the barn and coop are too far from the house to run hoses (unless you count 300' of hose 'short'! And to have to move the hose daily so it doesn't kill the grass, move it to mow the yard 3x/wk - ugh, too much work!)

I purchased two of those gravity fed waterers (the plastic 3gal kind with the red base)...one is out with the chickens, the other is in the house drying in the laundry room sink. As part of my daily morning routine, I refill the waterer (that was in the sink from the day before) and schlep it outside when I let the chickens out every morning. I take out the 'old' one and dump the water in our compost bins (which are handily just seven steps away from the people door of the coop), then hang the new one for the day. I take the 'old' one back into the house with me to the laundry room (just off the backdoor), give it a quick scrub and leave it to dry in the other side of the double sink.

Yes, it's a pain to lug 1 1/2 gallons of water daily (I only fill it halfway). But dumping the yucky water in the compost means that I don't bring too much nasty stuff into the laundry room - it's mostly attached to the bottom of my 'chicken' shoes! Yes, we clean off the shoes prior to entering our home.

As for the water freezing in the winter - I did a quick youtube search for 'heated chicken water' and came up with some seriously cool (i.e. cheap!) ideas! Try that for inspiration...

 

[GhostRider65]

We run a garden hose out the basement window to fill our horses water and now chickens water, it works great as long as it stays running, even at -60 below, it isn't however fun to scrub out troughs and waters in that cold, I will be just taken them in the house and using the bath tub to clean em..........way to cold here to do it any other way. The horse tank gets scrubbed about 1tx a MONTH in winter, no alga growing in the cold.

 

[Al Gerhart]

What is a pop can heater?

 

[wyododge]

This will be hard to describe, and may take a bit so bear with me. I took a 130 gallon spray tank (55 gallon plastic drum would work too), then took a trip to the lumber yard where they regularly have broken 2" ridgid insulation panels for $5 each. I built a box of insulation around the spray tank. Inside the tank is a stock tank heater and a cheap submersible sump pump. A hose from the pump runs up to the ceiling and down to the 5 gallon nipple waterer which has a bird bath de-icer in it. The pump is controlled by a light switch.

The tank holds 130 gallons but really has about 100 gallons usable. Our water source is 200' away. Soooo we will fill the tank about every 50 days (or so) with a hose and the nipple bucket with the flip of a switch. And the r-13 insulation panels will save a bit of money keeping the water thawed. And at only fifteen bucks a shot, you could really insulate the tank!!!Ohhh and did I mention -30f winters. Just incase you are wondering why I was so motivated to NOT carry water everyday. Really helps keep the wife happy too!!