Winter water?

[minihorse927]

I had thought about using pipe insulation at one point and was told that the chickens would eat it. I don't know if that's true but you might want to watch out for that.

I wrapped it with a fabric type insulation made by 3M. So far no one has been able to get a hold of it. If it gets super cold I was going to put the foam type over it to help also which they might eat as I've watched the ducks devour a 4 foot long piece of Styrofoam in less than 2 hrs. it is mainly the bottom half of the pipes leading to the drink cups that were freezing up. I hope this solution works but so far its been tested to 12°

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I wrapped it with a fabric type insulation made by 3M. So far no one has been able to get a hold of it. If it gets super cold I was going to put the foam type over it to help also which they might eat as I've watched the ducks devour a 4 foot long piece of Styrofoam in less than 2 hrs. it is mainly the bottom half of the pipes leading to the drink cups that were freezing up. I hope this solution works but so far its been tested to 12°

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I had someone tell me that they set a styrofoam cooler down for a few minutes and when they came back there was very little left because their ducks had found it. It didn't take long!

 

[minihorse927]

I had someone tell me that they set a styrofoam cooler down for a few minutes and when they came back there was very little left because their ducks had found it. It didn't take long!

it doesn't! I don't know what it is but Styrofoam and chickens/ducks doesn't mix. They will destroy it and eat every last piece they find. Never seems to harm them either. Odd

 

[zweibucherwurm]

I have a 5 gallon bucket with 3 nipples as my watering system, but this is my first winter. I had a small (10 watt) aquarium heater in there which didn't keep the water from freezing. On your recommendations, I bought a 50 watt heater, but the instructions/safety warnings say for indoor use only and keep from freezing. Last night it got down to 15 degrees and the water froze. Any idea why it would be for indoor use only? Do I need to find one that is ok for outside and freezing Temps? I'd really like to continue to use my nipple bucket, but I've got to keep it from freezing...thawing the nipples every morning is getting old.
Kari

 

[minihorse927]

I have a 5 gallon bucket with 3 nipples as my watering system, but this is my first winter. I had a small (10 watt) aquarium heater in there which didn't keep the water from freezing. On your recommendations, I bought a 50 watt heater, but the instructions/safety warnings say for indoor use only and keep from freezing. Last night it got down to 15 degrees and the water froze. Any idea why it would be for indoor use only? Do I need to find one that is ok for outside and freezing Temps? I'd really like to continue to use my nipple bucket, but I've got to keep it from freezing...thawing the nipples every morning is getting old.
Kari

I use this exact heater in my 5 gallon bucket with 4 nipples on the bottom. Never had it to freee even at -25 for 3 days straight.

 

[wamtazlady]

I have a 5 gallon bucket with 3 nipples as my watering system, but this is my first winter. I had a small (10 watt) aquarium heater in there which didn't keep the water from freezing. On your recommendations, I bought a 50 watt heater, but the instructions/safety warnings say for indoor use tonly and keep from freezing. Last night it got down to 15 degrees and the water froze. Any idea why it would be for indoor use only? Do I need to find one that is ok for outside and freezing Temps? I'd really like to continue to use my nipple bucket, but I've got to keep it from freezing...thawing the nipples every morning is getting old.
Kari

Get a stock tank deicer that is rated safe to use in plastic. Mine is 500 watts but it has a thermostat. It comes on when the water approaches freezing and turns off when it raises the temperature to 40 or 45 degrees. My stock tank deicer, used in a 10 gallon tote kept my water thawed to the coldest we had last winter, -12 F. The nipples are the horizontal ones as they are less likely to freeze compared to the vertical nipples.

 

[bruceha2000]

I have a 5 gallon bucket with 3 nipples as my watering system, but this is my first winter. I had a small (10 watt) aquarium heater in there which didn't keep the water from freezing. On your recommendations, I bought a 50 watt heater, but the instructions/safety warnings say for indoor use only and keep from freezing. Last night it got down to 15 degrees and the water froze. Any idea why it would be for indoor use only? Do I need to find one that is ok for outside and freezing Temps? I'd really like to continue to use my nipple bucket, but I've got to keep it from freezing...thawing the nipples every morning is getting old.
Kari

Is the water source insulated in any fashion?? Yes chickens will destroy insulation, you would need to encase it twice. Once in insulation and once in something to protect the insulation. Even a cardboard box will work. One BYC member @vehve created a "bucket in a bucket" with spray foam (IIRC) between them.

 

[wamtazlady]

I thought about insulating the tote I use for water, but it stayed thawed all last winter without the insulation. I'd hate to insulate it now and have those girls get into it and start to eat it. For the moment I'll just leave it without insulation unless it's a lot colder this year than last year and it starts to freeze.

Oh yes, wanted to add that we woke up this morning to a white world. We got everything we needed to do to winterize this place done yesterday. Now we can relax and enjoy the beauty.

 

[zweibucherwurm]

Well, my aquarium heater kept it from freezing last night. Yay! It was 11 degrees, but I made an insulated blanket (thinsulate curtain fabric) for the bucket, emptied the cold water, and filled it with warm. I think the heater couldn't heat that much cold water, but starting from warmer helped.