Winter water supply

[CoFarmer]

Question, is it safe and effective to add a little molasses to the water to keep in from freezing? We’re in SW Colorado at 7000 feet with six chickens, it can get very cold at night.

 

[azygous]

It may work to an extent, but there is a risk of triggering diarrhea in your chickens. There is also the salt in a soda bottle of water trick where you toss it into the chicken waterer to float on the surface to prevent freezing.

I'm at 7500' and I use insulated Igloo tanks with water heater blankets wrapped around them and a small heating pad placed over the horizontal nipples to prevent them from freezing.

 

[saysfaa]

I looked into it quite a bit last year. I was digging into the math of how much salt or sugar or calcium chloride would need to be added to make a significant difference in the freezing point when I realized it didn't matter.

What would happen to the chickens' throats if they drank water that was well below freezing?

And if it isn't well below freezing then insulation and a black tub placed in sunshine will keep it above freezing.

Side note - it takes a LOT of salt or sugar to make much difference. And salt makes more difference than sugar. That much salt would kill the chickens. Sugar might not harm them as fast but it also isn't good for them. It takes 1 part sugar to 1 part water to lower the freeze point to 26F (-3C).

It is the sugar in the molasses that changes the freezing point when molasses is added to water.