Drinking water question

Hello all,

I'm writing from England where we don't normally have long periods of freezing weather (a few weeks ago it was still 11 degrees C. ), and currently we (as in myself and many others on one of our forums) are struggling to ensure that there's always water for our chickens - it freezes into solid blocks even during the day. We've tried a product called "No Ice" which is added to water and made especially for birds, but the product itself froze solid. We're trying glycerine as well but without any success.

What do you do in Canada to prevent drinking water from freezing over? Few of us have an electrical connection to our coops or runs, so it's not an option to use heat pads or anything like that.

Please help!

PS: wish we had snow instead!

If you have no power then a super well insulated coop with enough birds will help keep above zero temps in the coop. Or just offer them fresh water in the morning and evening. They can do fine with just those two drinking sessions a day.

Piet

I have heated dog dishes in my 2 chicken arcs and and a pan heater for an aluminum waterer in my large layer pen but my four other pens are on the plastic ice cream pail system.

I double bucket the pails to gain a bit of insulation then tuck them into a corner with a bit of shavings around the bottom. I fill the buckets with warm water twice a day and they do just fine even on our - 35 C days. I always empty the buckets after they roost for the night so I don't have to deal with the "ice-cube" in the morning. I'm not sure I'd want to add any product to the drinking water to prevent freezing but that's just me.

I also have wrapped a layer of foam insulation and then lots of duct tape around an ice cream bucket and then slipped a smaller pail inside of it with the water, fill with water in the AM and it kept the water open a little bit longer...and then put a new pail inside in the afternoon....I would always dump it out at night too.

I don't do anything, We just go out twice a day and add new water.

Me too. Water twice a day in rubber tubs. The chickens soon learn to drink when they have the chance. They also eat snow, some would rather eat snow than drink water!

heda gobbler wrote:Me too. Water twice a day in rubber tubs. The chickens soon learn to drink when they have the chance. They also eat snow, some would rather eat snow than drink water!

Yes, in the winter i am not sure if my ducks touch water, i think most of the ducks just eat snow!

I also just give water twice a day My coop has absolutely no accesssible power to it

I give them warm water once a day plus they have snow. I'm also using heat lamps over the water.

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Every morning I carry out a bucket of water, and carry in the frozen bucket. Once a day. They learn to drink while it's there.

If you have hundreds of birds, this is going to be a BIG task!

Thankyou so much, all, it's a relief to hear we're not making our chickens suffer by leaving them with frozen water for a few hours! Books and websites put so much emphasis on water availability, makes us paranoid

Tara, I haven't heard of a black heat lamp, so I've posted your question back on our forum, I'll get back to you tomorrow.

-40C... no, indeed, I can't fathom that! As a child, in Belgium, I remember it being -20C one winter, which was really exceptional and headline news. England is much milder. You must think we're all wimps!

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Hi Tara,

Result! That mysterious black heat lamp seems to be a heat lamp that doesn't give off any light, and is used at night to teach chicks the differene between day and night. These are the answers of those who knew about black heat lamps (many of us didn't ):



A black light is basically one that doesn't give out light but heat, ie what we call a ceramic heater. Looks like a pot light bulb. I think they sleep better with a black light, but the red one is useful for tiny chicks cos they feed more regularly. And it's good for all small things cos you can see what's going on without disturbing them with lights or torches.

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I use a ceramic no light jobbie for chicks. Got fed up of the red bulbs blowing and leaving the chicks with no heat. Mine have light during the day and darkness at night they seem to go straight to sleep as soon as the light is off and start to feed immediately it is on again.

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We started with red lights because that's what we were told to get. We now only use them in emergencies, when we have no black or white bulbs. After a week of continuous white light (red will do as well) we put the chicks onto a day and night regime, just as they would have with a mother hen in Maytime. An 80W ceramic (or dull emitter or black light) at night increasing from 6 -10 hours over a week and a 180W high efficiency white light set much higher for daytime. They grow stronger under that system we think; 46 hatched and no losses. They cram their little crops full expecting night at any time until they settle into it. Probably reduces overcrowding issues as well.
The set height of the lights increases gradually to reduce their temperature as normal, until they go outside at 6 weeks. They are then on natural day and night, a system which they are used to.
Red lights are for commercial applications where feather pecking due to overcramped conditions is commonplace and the red light supposedly hides the blood to stop the pecked individuals being devoured!


So they do exist, these black heat lamps. I suppose it's easier to suspend light-less lamps from the ceiling than to install radiators.
Woke up yesterday to 20cm of dry "snowball snow" - fantastic! Happens only once every few years since mostly our snow turns into wet slush within ours. There are lifesize snowmen everywhere, now, many of them made by retired men in touch with their inner child!

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I'm like most of the rest, I take down fresh water morning and night. I move the water bucket into the coop - that's the only difference. Between their heat (they don't leave teh coop either when it's like that) and my trouble light it keeps it from freezing solid.
Heard about your weather...yikes!