Winter water?

[Teppler]

I use a Home Depot type bucket and wrap a 6' pipe trace tape around it and duct tape so it stays on but doesn't allow heat to build up but keeps water from freezing.

 

[RonP]

Click the link below for my frozen egg solution.

Heat the nesting boxes to stop eggs from freezing.

 

[bruceha2000]

Thank you bruceha2000 I did not know that about aquarium heaters
I wonder if those temperature controlled Easy Heat Inc. 10802 Plug Kit For Pipe Heating Cable-HEATING CABLE PLUG KIT (not necessarily this one) I've seen different ones too, but I wonder if that would work? Turns on at 32 degrees turns off at 40..

I'll have to check that out. Thank you

Frozen eggs.. Are the eggs still good if they are frozen?

From what I can find, the plug kit is specific to the freeze free cable and isn't something you could plug another type of heating device into.

Re frozen eggs: it depends on HOW frozen they are. I got one last winter that showed a Y (conveniently monogramed by Yue, the hen that laid it

) shaped crack maybe 1/32" wide and probably half the "length" of the egg. It closed up when the egg warmed to the point you probably wouldn't see it if you didn't know it was there. But the yolk was sort of like a "just barely hard boiled" yolk so the egg wasn't usable other than cooking for the chickens. Other eggs like the one I got last week were perfectly fine and I've gotten others in between. You just need to crack it into a bowl and see what it looks like before you use it. I've not had one that wasn't good if it wasn't cracked even though it felt pretty darned cold when collected.

Click the link below for my frozen egg solution.

Heat the nesting boxes to stop eggs from freezing.

Nice writeup Ron. Love the idea of the night light plugged into the Thermocube. I wonder if the "20F above ambient" could keep your system useful below 10F if the nest boxes were closed except for a hole just large enough for the hen to enter so it would hold some heat inside. Or with "nest box curtains" which some people say their hens prefer for privacy. Can't say mine would like them since all but two ONLY use the open boxes, not the community box with a single access hole.

Another thought which depends on how many hens a person has: minimize the number of nest boxes. If they have a limited selection, their "favorite" box will potentially have another egg in it already or one laid later in the day. My hens are often hanging in the box for an hour waiting for their egg to pass so they will rewarm any egg already in the nest.

 

[RonP]

Nice writeup Ron. Love the idea of the night light plugged into the Thermocube. I wonder if the "20F above ambient" could keep your system useful below 10F if the nest boxes were closed except for a hole just large enough for the hen to enter so it would hold some heat inside. Or with "nest box curtains" which some people say their hens prefer for privacy. Can't say mine would like them since all but two ONLY use the open boxes, not the community box with a single access hole.

As my daytime lows are often below freezing, but rarely in the teens, additional insulation doesn't seem warranted.

I would agree though, it certainly could help.

To date, I have no data on daytime high temperatures in the single digits. I have also had 0 frozen eggs.

I would have had dozens without the additional heat. Last cold season we had weeks of daytime highs well below freezing

.

 

[bruceha2000]

Same here.
There were only 16 days from the January through March 6th where the night time low was over 10F and they were mostly WELL below 10F: below 0F 31 times, 10 of those below -10F. From Jan 6th through March 5th it only went above freezing 8 times.

Since it was 10F or below for day time highs only 6 times, your system would have worked a lot days through the period ... as long as the girls waited to lay until the temps rose

 

[Forested]

I keep 20 ducks on pasture and have no electricity available -- and waterfowl want a lot of water for bathing! For the first few years I carted water out to them bucket by bucket. This winter though I buried a couple 275 tanks in a big, slow compost pile. The water comes out at 60 to 70 degrees F no matter what the outside air temps. I love it!

Here's a video showing the setup:

 

[wamtazlady]

That was amazing, Forested. I'm getting ducks and geese for the first time this spring and you've given me something to think about.

 

[CountryChic95]

For years I had used a regular 3 gal waterer set on top of a "light bulb tin"(not sure if that's really what it's called) and it would work good except for the real cold(-10*/-20*) temps. After much reading on various chicken pages of waterers, I decided on the 5 gal bucket with horizontal nipples wrapped in heat tape. I went with a 6' length of heat tape, so it wraps around my bucket 2&1/2 times. I am happy to say that in these recent FRIGID temps we have had here(WNY), the water is completely thawed!!! Happy chickens, Happier me!!!

 

[Mogli]

i use a plug in Heated Dog water bowl keeps there water from Freezing & works good, Tractor Supply Co has,m for $20 when i bought mine a few years ago

 

[coop410silkies]

I use these, too. I get the largest size and put a 5 gallon bucket in it; then I mount some horizontal nipples in the bucket so that they clear the the top of the dog bowl. I can get about 4 gallons of clean water this way, and although most the water is frozen in the coldest subzero weather, enough at the bottom and sides of the bucket remains thawed to keep the nipples functioning with available water. I have set the bucket on a support in the bowl so that it sits I off the bottom, and this works well. I have to use bowls with 60 watt elements, and I have to ensure there's water in the dog bowl surrounding the bucket. Using the heated dog bowls this way allows my chickens to have CLEAN water between refills and saves me a lot of time and work cleaning the water bowl.