Keeping water for chickens from freezing.

[hippywife]

This looks like an innovative approach. I like that over a store bought solution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a05MZp7W4A

Anyone else got any really clever ideas? :hi:

[cali]

1. I'm low tech. I just bring hot water out to the barn

:hi:

[hippywife]

5. I'm low tech, too, but

we just have a small henhouse built out in our garden.

We had freezing rain with 40 mi/hr winds yesterday. I thought I was going to lose my fingers to frost-bite last night by the time I got them all fed ( fresh veggie scraps from the kitchen where I work to suppliment their feed)and broke the ice out of their waterers to give them some more water. I had gloves on and unfortunately they got wet. The way my thumb felt I would have let someone cut it off! It was almost dark when I got home from work so I had to hurry and plow ahead with getting it all done so I really couldn't worry about my fingers too much at the time.

I think this guy's idea is pretty low-tech in a neat kinda way.

:hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Necessity is the mother of invention. He is a very clever guy. Well spoken.

[hippywife]

6. Hear! Hear!

I really liked the vid and so did my other half. I'm going to stop and the store and pick up a couple of flower pots and some extra bungies tonight on the way home.

:hi:

[panader0]

3. I used to keep a lightbulb in the henhouse when I had chickens

[hippywife]

7. Just a light bulb?

I don't want it on all the time because I don't want to stress them into laying longer than they would naturally.

Did having the light bulb alone keep it warm enough? How many watts, and what size was the henhouse approximately?

Thanx! :hi:

[Grinchie]

12. Light bulbs are the old standard for well pumps and animal pens

A 100 watt incandescent bullb gives off enough heat to keep the tempurature of a small coop or well house from getting so cold as to freeze the pipes.

You're not worried about the hens laying eggs, since it takes about a week for them to respond to the light or dark.

We did it all the time to have enough water for the fowl, but we did it in the well house and gave them water daily by hand.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Yes, that's right. Country people have been using light bulbs

as small heaters for decades. I remember using one when I was a id to keep a piston water pump from freezing in a subterranean pumphouse/root cellar. It kept things from freezing when it got to -50 F in northern Wisconsin.

[MineralMan]

4. That would work very well..

One thing you might want to consider is using an appliance bulb, like the ones in refrigerators. They have a much longer life than the typical bulb. They're just 20 or 40 watts, but that would work just as well.

The use of the flower pot is brilliant. It would also keep that area of the enclosure a bit warmer, as well.

Of course, I'm not sure how well it would work in the -15 degrees we'll have here tonight, but I'll bet it would keep the water liquid.

[hippywife]

8. Good thinking on the appliance bulb.

We were going to knock the wattage down to 40 from his 60 anyway, I think. We rarely get lower than the 17 degrees we hit last night, but hoo-doggies! That was sure cold enough with that raging wind.

That song about Okalhoma "where the wind comes sweeping down the plains" is flat wrong...it doesn't sweep, it blasts down the plains when it gets to going. I can only imagine the misery during the dust bowl with winds as high as these sometimes. :scared:

Thanx for your input! :hi:

[MineralMan]

9. Cluck, Cluck!

I wish I could keep chickens, but it's illegal in this city, and I have some neighbors who whine about everything.

Somewhere, though, not far from my house, someone has a rooster. I love hearing him insist that the sun come up.

[LWolf]

10. Well, I have a couple of

store-bought heaters, but they aren't very effective.

First of all, they quit working when the temps get into single digits, like now.

Second, the wiring that runs to the coop needs maintenance; it goes dead in cold weather. That means it's dead when I need it, for a winter timed-light to keep them laying, or a water heater.

So I take hot water out. ;)

[Grinchie]

13. If your electricity doesn't work in cold weather...

You better allocate some time to track that problem down. Could be as simple as frost heave pushing a broken wire and breaking the connection.

get yourself a simple multimeter and do some sleuthing after you turn off the panel and ensure the power is off. Don't trust that the power is off just by flicking a light switch, since it sounds like your system was thrown together without proper care. If it's really old, just abandon it and use a cheap extension cord until you can rewire properly.

[SlicerDicer-]

11. Just remember if all else fails, use fire!

[dhpgetsit]

14. I'm reminded of my grandmother.

She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and she used the light bulb in a clay pot technique as well. It works beautifully. Hens like warm and dark places to lay eggs in.