Winter Water System for 100 Chickens in -40 with Wind Chill

[2 Acres]

I found a website (maybe on here) where the person used a standard 40 watt bulb inside the canister, and it supposedly kept the water from freezing.

 

[Zanja]

How about a smaller livestock tank with an electric heater as suggested above, or a heated tub? Those electric tank heaters can heat up quite a few gallons. Check TSC. You would have to insulate the outside and cover part of the top leaving just enough of an opening for them to access the water. Over winter I have used a 16 gal heated tub for my horse. In below zero weather I put a piece of plywood over top and a bale of shavings on top overnight. It was uncovered during the day. He would have played with the cover otherwise

 

[R2elk]

Our family recently moved to an area of Wyoming that gets down to -20 in the winter, -40 with wind chill. It snows but not nearly as much as in much of the state. Right now we have 65 chickens, and plan to get enough chicks next spring for a total of about 100. Our property is lined with mature spruce trees and the covered feed/water area will be on the North side of the coop so that all may affect the temp and wind chill. We have a 250 gallon IBC tote we're planning to use for water storage inside the coop, with horizontal nipples, probably on PVC pipes or something similar, but from what I'm seeing there isn't a viable way to make that work throughout the winter.

When we lived in SE Idaho we used a large garbage can with nipple waterers and a fish tank heater and that worked for us, but temperatures are colder here. I haven't seen anyone suggest something like this in the BYC posts and articles I found on the topic. Do you think something like that would be sufficient to keep the water and nipples thawed? We're also looking at stock tank heaters instead of fish tank heaters.

This is the coldest climate we've ever lived in, and the most chickens we've ever had, so we appreciate any knowledge, experience, and suggestions you all can share!

You are welcome to join us on the Wyoming Unite!!!! thread.

I use the heated 5 gallon buckets like this.

and this Alternate method to prevent water freezing.

Wind chill does not affect non living things. Not to worry though, it can get to -40°F here without wind chill. Fortunately it doesn't do it every year.

 

[paintedChix]

When I was up in MT, I didn't have chickens.

For the horses & ponies, we used 1/2 metal barrels (like 55 gallon drums cut in half, but either manufactured or someone did a nice job rolling the top edge, no sharps) & 100 gallon Rubbermaid tanks. The 1/2 barrels had the round tank heaters that sat on the bottom & the Rubbermaid tank had a "probe" heater that screwed into the drainage hole. I imagine the storm of April 1997, water froze. I honestly don't remember if parents lost power then. 1,000s did...

We didn't make it out of MT, before storm hit. Spent 5 days in a Super 8 in Lewistown - struggled thru knee deep & then waist deep snow to keep ponies in 2 trailers & dog in her insulated & straw stuffed dog house, watered & fed. Windchill there was -70. Days later, in NC, temps hit 110.

I was going to suggest joining a state group, like R2elk suggested. Maybe you can find groups in your area on FB?

What about asking at your feed/ag stores how folks in the area handle water? Or the State University? Surely, you arent the only one with this size of chicken set up.

Looking forward to hearing what you do.

 

[saysfaa]

A 250 gallon tank would be expensive to circulate and, especially, to heat. And ugly to thaw out if you lost power and it did freeze. But why the 250 gallon tank?

My friends have a five gallon system with insulated pvc pipes to horizontal nipples for 30 or so chickens. A small submersible heater in the bottom of a vertical pipe both heats the water and circulates it up to a small tank and back down the other pipe. Their climate is about 10 degrees warmer but still far enough below freezing to show the system would work with some adjusting of the sizes of the components.