Will my chickens eat snow if their water freezes? Will they be safe?

[wenlo]

I work all day and have ordered a heated waterer, but will they be ok in the meantime?

 

[celticfarmer]

Quote:
It will not dehydrate you. It is moisture, you just need more volume of it then you would need of water.

^^^This^^^

Eating snow will bring down your body temp but it will not dehydrate you.

 

[CindyR]

My chickens have been eating snow for years and are healthy. I live in Alberta, Canada where we just had some very cold weather, temps around -30 C. The chickens are doing fine just like all the wild birds, foxes, coyotes, deer, moose, rodents and numerous other wild animals who eat snow.

 

[jmagill]

Quote:
It will not dehydrate you. It is moisture, you just need more volume of it then you would need of water.

 

[Kittymomma]

Yes, they'll eat it but they won't be able to get enough of it to stay hydrated. Go outside and fill a cup up with snow (don't pack it so it becomes ice, just fill the cup up) then take it inside and let it melt--the water that you get will only be a fraction of the cup. That little experiment makes it pretty easy to see how hard it is to stay hydrated by just eating snow.

I've used those stick on heat pads that people buy for their shoulders/backs etc. to keep the waterer from freezing so you could try that. It would get spendy in the long-term, but if you buy the generic ones it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Dar]

because my oil heater is not doing the trick for keeping the water... well water instead of ice I have wrapped my heating pad, the one you would use for your back. I have wrapped that around my plastic waterer and used an exterior grade extension cord to power it

 

[Doormantnt]

Could throw together the old light bulb in the cookie tin heater together in the meantime.

I'm on my second winter with mine, and water chills, but never freezes.

TNT

 

[skippyscage]

mine eat snow when perfectly fine non-frozen water is available.

chickens have choices too

 

[4 hens in yard]

I use a coffee cup warmer that is used on your desk to keep your coffee warm. I sit it on a cement block and then sit my metal water dish on top. Hasn't froze yet at -20 C! Works great

 

[ChicFil- A]

I work all day and have ordered a heated waterer, but will they be ok in the meantime?

Eating snow and ice in the winter months is how the wild birds all around us stay hydrated. It's instinctual for chickens to eat snow when there's no source of open water. Mine sometimes choose to peck at snow even when there is water available.