Winter water consumption

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I will say that snow does not provide much moisture. If you pack a saucepan full of snow and heat it, you may be very surprised at how little water it yields. Your chickens must be finding a water source somewhere, but my guess is it isn't snow, unless you have unusually wet, heavy snow. I am more familiar with Colorado's snow, which is very dry.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Consider its been so long, I feel like they must be getting enough water from their environment(either snow, rain, or melt) to not need the water in their waterer. I feel like dehydration going this long would kill them, or at the very least cause some sort of change in demeanor...

I agree. Mine drink a lot less in winter, like 50% less. They get a lot of their water from rain, snow, puddles... they'll even lick the fence for morning dew. Anything is preferable to a clean waterer.

If your chickens are active and acting normal, they're getting enough water from the environment.

 

[PsychoChickenLady]

I think I must have camels, not chickens!!

This is our second time having chickens (9 four years ago, 10 new ones since July 2020). The first time I paid very little attention to the chickens, they were my son's responsibility.

This time they are MY emotional support pets and I am spoiling them rotten!

Our nine chickens last time managed to survive three years on just snow throughout the winter ~ for each of the three winters that we had them, (which lends me to believe that yours are probably just fine).

I'm Canadian (and unequivocally suck at math) so I'm not exactly sure how much 4 gallons is, (but I think my husband said that our hanging water bucket was 5 gallons) so if your nine birds are drinking almost that much ONE DAY, my girls have to be camels and not chickens at all!!

Between the ten of them, they don't even drunk one full 9x13 baking pan in one day. (Even in the summer they didn't drink the whole five gallons, not even in a week, but they had access to water in their run, not just from the 5 gallon bucket in the coop).

We have had virtually NO snow this year. But below freezing temps meant I needed a solution, but fast!

Putting a 2L bottle of salt water in the five gallon bucket did NOT work, at all, and even if it had, the metal nipples froze anyway.

Just this past weekend, just in time for -21°, I asked my husband to make a cinder block heater, and it works WAY better than expected!!

And even though it was minus-minus cold that first morning, we even had to lesson the wattage of the bulbs from 100 to 60!

I'm so thrilled this worked!! Now I don't have to worry.

(Well, I didn't, until I read your post. Now I think my chickens must be dehydrated too! Like yours, they seem to be normal, happy, active birds ~ well, except for the few -20°C days like we had last week, then they aren't happy)!

I'm attaching a pic of the cinder block heater, and here's a link to my post on IG if you're interested in seeing "in-progress" pics.

I hope your girls make out ok!

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

 

[Stephanie8806]

Mini update:

When I went up to let my chickens out of their coop, I took a bowl of water with me. An automatic chicken door is on my “list”, but I currently go and close their access door every night, and open it every morning at first light. Their food and water are both outside the coop. Today, they all clamored out single file, like always, and I set down the water bowl.

Initially, they swarmed it, I think expecting a treat. Upon realizing it was water, they all quickly dispersed showing no interest at all. One chicken took two sips, and then they were over it. Interesting, as this time of year they are in their roosts not drinking water for a solid 14 hours! I think it’s disconcerting because of how much people stress how much water chickens “should” go through, as well as the stark contrast to their summer consumption.

Moral of the story, I think I may have camel chickens as well. Go figure! I guess we trust them to regulate their feed, free choice grit, calcium, and so many other things that they intake, seems like water can be added to that list.

 

[Stephanie8806]

I think I must have camels, not chickens!!

This is our second time having chickens (9 four years ago, 10 new ones since July 2020). The first time I paid very little attention to the chickens, they were my son's responsibility.

This time they are MY emotional support pets and I am spoiling them rotten!

Our nine chickens last time managed to survive three years on just snow throughout the winter ~ for each of the three winters that we had them, (which lends me to believe that yours are probably just fine).

I'm Canadian (and unequivocally suck at math) so I'm not exactly sure how much 4 gallons is, (but I think my husband said that our hanging water bucket was 5 gallons) so if your nine birds are drinking almost that much ONE DAY, my girls have to be camels and not chickens at all!!

Between the ten of them, they don't even drunk one full 9x13 baking pan in one day. (Even in the summer they didn't drink the whole five gallons, not even in a week, but they had access to water in their run, not just from the 5 gallon bucket in the coop).

We have had virtually NO snow this year. But below freezing temps meant I needed a solution, but fast!

Putting a 2L bottle of salt water in the five gallon bucket did NOT work, at all, and even if it had, the metal nipples froze anyway.

Just this past weekend, just in time for -21°, I asked my husband to make a cinder block heater, and it works WAY better than expected!!

And even though it was minus-minus cold that first morning, we even had to lesson the wattage of the bulbs from 100 to 60!

I'm so thrilled this worked!! Now I don't have to worry.

(Well, I didn't, until I read your post. Now I think my chickens must be dehydrated too! Like yours, they seem to be normal, happy, active birds ~ well, except for the few -20°C days like we had last week, then they aren't happy)!

I'm attaching a pic of the cinder block heater, and here's a link to my post on IG if you're interested in seeing "in-progress" pics.

I hope your girls make out ok!

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

View attachment 2456859View attachment 2456859

Thanks for your share! Sorry for the confusion in metrics... a gallon is a tiny bit more than two liters, I think. So this summer, our(then) 12 chickens were going through almost two liters a day. This winter, it’s taken now 9 of them three weeks to get through about 8 liters.

 

[Stephanie8806]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I will say that snow does not provide much moisture. If you pack a saucepan full of snow and heat it, you may be very surprised at how little water it yields. Your chickens must be finding a water source somewhere, but my guess is it isn't snow, unless you have unusually wet, heavy snow. I am more familiar with Colorado's snow, which is very dry.

I’m in North Central/Eastern Washington state. The snow out here is quite dry as well. The coast/“west side” gets the heavy snow

 

[aart]

My birds seem to drink about the same summer and winter.
I measure pretty accurately each day when topping off the jug with HN's.
They will drink less if it's been raining and sometimes with fresh snow.
They do love to nosh on the snow banks...leading to mildly frostbitten wattles.

 

[Stephanie8806]

My birds seem to drink about the same summer and winter.
I measure pretty accurately each day when topping off the jug with HN's.
They will drink less if it's been raining and sometimes with fresh snow.
They do love to nosh on the snow banks...leading to mildly frostbitten wattles.

I think they’ve really just been eating a ton of snow... it’s the only thing I can think of!

No sign of frostbite to the wattles yet, it’s why in the winter I only choose to provide water from our horizontal nipple set up. I’m reluctant to put a bowl out because I don’t want them dipping their wattles in.

They seem to be doing just fine even though the water level isn’t moving much. Great energy, and we even got 6 eggs yesterday from 9 chickens with no supplemental light! So they must be okay.