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?

 

[Dar]

you may want to get a smaller water dish and bring water out a couple times a day till the heated waterer comes.

or

when you close the chickens up for the night bring the frozen waterer in and sit it in the bath tub or on the heater vent to thaw over night and when you open the coop in the morning bring the water back out

 

[Organics North]

Mine love snow and when they have it they drink less of the open water when it is available..

Like anything with chickens they may be apprehensive with "new" things..
ON

 

[HorizonSon]

Please, please; keep in mind that eating snow will actually dehydrate you! It requires more energy/calories to metabolize snow than it gives you.

 

[jmagill]

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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[HeritageHens]

Quote:
True! It then takes more energy to stay warm which would not be a good thing when it's cold outside. I eat a bowl of frozen blueberries in nonfat, plain yogurt as a treat and I can tell the difference in my body temperature!

Quote:
I tried that during our cold spell in November but it didn't work.

I followed the directions to shake it up and then I put it under the base of the plastic water bowl. Apparently, the ones I got had to be in a confined space, like inside a glove, in order to heat. Ideas?

 

[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