Winder Deep Freeze - Frozen Water - Can they survive 24 hours with no water?

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Chickens can survive 24 hours without water but their laying will suffer.

 

[rod5591]

They all survived just fine. They don't seem too happy with the temperature, though. The high today was 27 F and the wind was blowing hard. They mostly seemed to hunker down in one place, although they became active whenever I went in the chicken yard to feed them or water them.

 

[rjohns39]

The biggest issue I've found with frozen water is they won't eat, if they don't have water. And with the temps we've seen the last couple of days, we want them to go to sleep with a full crop. BTW baton down the hatches we're in for some high winds the next couple days, and hopefully warm winds or at least warm air comes with them. My turkey waterer froze up over night last night, I soaked the hose in warm water and filled the bucket with warm water after dumping the ice and water started flowing again. I use a bell for them. Today, most of my birds refused to leave their houses. They came out this morning for fresh water and ran right back into the houses and hopped up on the perches.

ETA: BTW, sugar can lower the freezing temp of water, but not enough for the temps we've had the last couple days and would take a lot.

 

[RoosterML]

It's too late to take them water if they are already roosting. Give them some early in the morning tomorrow, they should be alright.

Let me just say chickens do get up at night and party and yes they will get up to drink also. I posted it here on BYC when I caught them doing so on my game cam at all hours of the night.

 

[RoosterML]

@rod5591 no way to get a heated waterer plugged in?

 

[tnvarmint]

Let me just say chickens do get up at night and party and yes they will get up to drink also. I posted it here on BYC when I caught them doing so on my game cam at all hours of the night.

I can second this. I am often up at all hours of the night (currently posting this at 4:30 AM) and my rooster likes to talk all night long. I wonder sometimes if that guy ever sleeps

 

[Northern Flights]

Fellow chicken-cam voyeur here. My hens get up to all sorts of things at night and back when I kept a waterer and feeder in the coop, they did indeed graze and guzzle in the wee hours sometimes... I made a judgment call as we slipped into proper winter and put all their vittles in a nearby greenhouse they like to jettison their passengers in, first thing every day. Works great. Keeps humidity in the coop down and there's a whole lot less rootin around going on in there. Much less work for me, spreading the litter out even again all the time. My hen-cam runs on a phone app through my router, so I can dial them up wherever I am. Most folks think I'm nuts. They're right.

 

[fur-mum]

@rod5591 no way to get a heated waterer plugged in?

I agree. A small fishtank water heater costs less than $20 new and work very well.

 

[rod5591]

@rod5591 no way to get a heated waterer plugged in?

I don't think so. My yard is wet and muddy a lot of the time, I would be hesitant to use a power cord because of all the moisture. During the last cold spell i went out about 4 times during the day to break the ice and let them drink. They seem to do fine and their egg laying has not suffered much.