Waterers icing over - please help

[Cazook]

as winter draws in a lot of the time now the outside is below the the freezing point of water. i have a small immersion heating element for inside the water bottles but the little pipe that leads to the drinking nipple of the waterer still seems to freeze and prevent the chickens from accessing the water, so i'm having to run it under hot water to melt the icicles a couple of times a day. i don't want to put the waterers inside the coop because they tend to make the inside very damp and cold, but maybe even that is preferable to them not having access to water!

does anyone know a more elegant solution for this problem?

 

[cmom]

I don't but my brother lives in northern Michigan. They keep their waterer inside their coop. It appears as if you have electric in your coop. There are heater bases that you can put waterers on that keep it from freezing.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chicken+...chicken+waterers,aps,177&ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_3_16

 

[Izzychicky]

I live in New York, so it gets pretty cold in the winter here, so our waterers are inside the coop. We have one in the run and another in the actual inside of the coop. We use an extension cord and connect it to heating tape that wraps around the waterers. It works most cold days but we have had the occasional frozen waterer.

 

[wamtazlady]

My waterer is kept outside in the run. It gets cold here in Montana. My water has never froze and it has gotten down to -22 F at least once a winter. I use a semi clear 11 gallon tote with lid, horizontal nipples, and a 250 watt stock tank deicer that is rated for use in plastic. The stock tank deicer has a thermostat built into it. It turns on at 35 degrees and off at 40 or 45 so it is pretty energy efficient. The tote is large enough that it only gets refilled once a week for 12 birds. The water stays clean because the tote is covered. I am very fortunate to have a freeze proof faucet near the coop. I just hook up one of those shrinking hoses to it, fill the waterer, and disconnect the hose to bring it inside. Makes watering as simple and easy as it can be when it's below 0.

 

[Cazook]

i've put a waterer inside the coop for now - going to look into getting a larger size that i can insulate and leave in the run. i could maybe drill a few holes in this 5gallon water container i have and then screw the droppers into it.

thanks for your help!

 

[wamtazlady]

It is important to use horizontal nipples rather than vertical nipples during winter. The horizontal nipples have a little O ring that keeps water out of the nipple when not in use. The vertical ones do not. That little bit of water in the vertical nipple can cause the nipple itself to freeze even though the water in the container is thawed.

 

[jreardon1918]

I happened to be at Tractor Supply this morning. This is the stock tank deicer I use. It is in a 5 gallon bucket with horizontal nipples. This works in SE Mass where we get teens to occasionally below zero Fahrenheit.

 

[blackdog043]

This is what I use.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ock-tank-deicer-and-horizontal-nipples.74609/

 

[skylarholly]

put a fine grain of salt in the water untill it dissolves and the ice shouldent get too thick to were the chickens cant peck through the ice

 

[rosemarythyme]

put a fine grain of salt in the water untill it dissolves and the ice shouldent get too thick to were the chickens cant peck through the ice

Adding salt isn't a good idea, they need very little salt to get by and past that, you could start to risk dehydration from the salt plus it still isn't a solution to keeping the water from freezing in the first place.

A heated bowl or waterer is the easiest solution if there's electricity.