Winter and watering :)

[dangelofamily]

Hi all!!!

This is only my 2nd time posting please bare with me

I would like to know if anybody can help my family and I in regards to the wintertime and watering.

I currently have a water-er that I bought at Agway, that is the customary poultry waterer. It has a lid and it lets out water as needed, like a suction type thing.

I live in Connecticut and I was not sure when winter comes, how to stop the thing from freezing? My RIR's drink alot of water

My father does home remodeling and by the pictures below you will see how the coop is laid out. It is not breezy and does not let in too much , if any wind.


Any ideas?

our flock :

!

 

[rcentner]

Somewhere on here are posts about making heaters homeade. out of a pan and a light bulb. They sell heaters for the galvenized metal waterer's at TSC and places like that, but they are pretty pricey. Last winter I used heated dog water bowls, but that can lead to frostbitten wattles. I didn't have any, but I won't be using that this year. I also had the metal waterers and just changed them twice daily. Those things don't stay unfrozen very long in 10 degree temps.
seems funny to be talking about this while I am sweating to death doing nothing.

 

[dangelofamily]

OH ok...hmmm yeah...I hear that its very hot here too

 

[FarmerJamie]

Hopefully someone will give you better advice than mine on what to use, at our place we just rotate containers a couple times a day, use a water temp that is a little warmer than tap, and try to gauge the amount of water put out to be about what the flock will drink in one sitting. Even after all that, I've seen them chow down on snow.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Did I just mention snow, in July....

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Hi and

to BYC! I live in CT too and this past winter was our first with chickens. It was a coooold one. You can use a heated waterer base or a heated dog bowl or keep your coop heated to just above freezing so that the waterers in the coop don't freeze. We used a 250 watt, red bulb in our coop this winter to try to keep the water liquid on the coldest days but when it got down around zero outside, they got iced over anyway. Probably the best advice would be to keep replenishing their supply several times a day if at all possible.

I love the door on your coop, it lets in a lot of great light! Just one other thing that I noticed, which is completely unsolicited, but I couldn't help noticing that there doesn't appear to be any ventillation in your coop. There's a fantastic page on ventilation that you may or may not wish to check out: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION
It's even more important in winter to have good ventilation than in the summer.

Here's hoping Connecticut is spared another really cold winter this year!

 

[buckabucka]

It will be cold here in Maine, too! I plan to ask my husband to build one of these:

Robin

 

[dangelofamily]

Quote:
Hey!!!
Thanks for the reply. It is great to hear from someone who lives here too..if you dont mind, where do you live? I am in Cheshire

and for the ventilation part, my father put the vents at the top and at the back, you can't see them because they are high up and we didn't snap a pic of them

thank you so much for the info!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Hey!!!
Thanks for the reply. It is great to hear from someone who lives here too..if you dont mind, where do you live? I am in Cheshire

and for the ventilation part, my father put the vents at the top and at the back, you can't see them because they are high up and we didn't snap a pic of them

thank you so much for the info!

I'm in Suffield. Nice to know you're just down the road in Cheshire! Good news on the ventilation. How nice to have a dad who's in the building business AND is willing to hook you up with a coop!!

 

[flowerchild59]

Don't know what I will do for the winter, I assume have a defroster thingey in there. I am in the process of building our coop so looking at lots of things to build now or later.
Nice looking coop by the way.