will plastic waterer break?

[mendozer]

Here in seattle, it MAY get to like 20 something. Probably not most days. I have a 5 gallon water cooler jug. Will it break in the winter when or if water freezes?

I'm also going to be patching my wire panels with plastic sheeting and their "waste" will be contributing to warmth as will their own body heat.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Will it break in the winter when or if water freezes?

It might.

It's impossible to say yes or no since there are too many variables​

 

[BellevueOmlet]

What are your plans for your waterer in the winter. We have pretty mild winters in Seattle but it still freezes for a few weeks and leaving the waterer out with just end with frozen water if you do not heat it or use a different waterer.

 

[clairabean]

Depends, really. I am in BC, Canada. I have had water freeze in the plastic waterers plenty of times. One split when I dropped it frozen. All the others I carried in, defrosted, filled, and repeated the next day.

 

[mendozer]

what about people who do the nipple system in pvc? I have nipples on my waterer and can easily mount them to a 1.5" pvc pipe.

I wasn't planning on heating it, but I can probably rig up a quick heater

 

[Kevin565]

My waterer broke last week from freezing. However, I've had that one for 3 years.

 

[kcwazzu]

I'm likely to have the same problem. I'm thinking about digging out the aquarium heater and using that in a pvc bucket with nipples inside the coop.

Keith

 

[sambia62]

I have 2 5 gallon waters both poly what i am going to do is rotate them during freezing days

 

[aubreynoramarie]

I have had the same plastic waterer through two freezing winters now. I like to try to bring them in at night just because that way i can get the girls their water faster in the morning, but if i leave em out it really doesnt take much to just run some warm water over em and thaw em out. theyll be fine.

 

[mendozer]

hmm an aquarium heater sounds cool. I may have to leave it on all night though so it doesn't get frozen in the water and break (if that happens).

I'll try making a cheap heater out of a cookie tin and light bulb and have it turn on a couple hours before I wake up. Of course i can't test that until January, but I'll get started on it now.