winter watering

[gale65]

Before you order that I would look at the reviews at amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovato...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

 

[ccrow]

I don't have power to my coop, so I just schlep water to them twice a day. I give them warm water, so it lasts awhile... I might get a livestock dish to put in the yard but just swapping warm water for frozen worked fine last winter.

 

[FiFiFeather]

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I agree with the shlepping water. We have only 4 hens now, so I'll probably go for the rubber bowl. This has been recommended highly to me however:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/no_freeze_heater_base.html

I used to look after a rabbitry of over 80 rabbits & I was thawing bowls for hours before school & after school.

It was a pain in the butt but I was paid. My wages have gone down. Now I am paid in eggs

 

[ryan820]

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Brilliant! I have a reef aquarium and have several heaters on hand...thanks for the stroke of genius!

Edited to say...for those who do not use water nipples, I highly recommend it. Watering my birds was so irritating before I got a small there gallon bucket and put these nipples on the bottom. And with a low power aquarium heater idea, my frozen water issues are a thing of the past! You can get aquarium heaters for cold water aquariums, too...meaning it won't try to heat the water to gold fish standards and something more reasonable like at or above freezing. I personally have a reef aquarium but even at the lowest setting the water heater won't use much juice to run. Also, I plan on putting it on a timer with the light. The light will come on a o'dark thirty and so will the heater...just long enough to keep the bucket above freezing and then shut off nice the sun is up and the ladies are out of the coop.

Such a simple solution...outstanding! Thanks mons02035!

 

[Dutch552]

You're welcome! I figured that the smaller heaters are made to be submerged and they provide enough wattage to keep the 5gal bucket from freezing above 20 degrees ambient temperature. You just have to be sure to suspend it away from the edge of the plastic a little bit with some spacers or suction cups and keep it near the bottom so the element won't be exposed to the air and explode/crack. We used this method for our dog bowls for a long time before the heated buckets became more popular.

 

[ll]

I read there are new submersible aquarium heaters that will not crack when exposed to air

good luck!

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