Need ideas for watering animals in winter without breaking the bank

[SheriM]

Our winters in Saskatchewan are long and very cold (-40 or even lower). One of the biggest drains on the electricity is the de-icers we need to keep open water in front of the goats. I'm also planning to start raising chickens and need to keep them warm and watered. Anyone have any good ideas for ways to keep water open in winter that don't involve electricity? I've seen solar powered devices, but most are WAY too expensive.

 

[farmerlor]

How many chickens do you have? For my 17 girlies I use a gallon and a half plastic waterer. They DO have a heat lamp in their house but what I do for water is I keep an extra waterer in the house. Every morning (and evening if it's really cold) I fill up the waterer in the house with warm water and take it to them and bring in the frozen one to thaw out and clean for the next watering. Now, this year we're planning on expanding the chicken operation and I don't think that little trick will work for me anymore so I'll be interested to see what the others do.

 

[patandchickens]

First, have you tried those blue heated water tubs for the goats? They are like muck-bucket sized, and the heating element is sealed within the plastic. I use them for my horses, and if you put them on a piece of styrofoam or something (obviously this would have to be protected from goats) they really use amazingly little current to keep the water thawed. If you built a box around them they'd prolly use even less. MUCH MUCH better economy than traditional stock tank heaters IME.

For chickens, I fear you really need electricity in SK. (In a milder climate you could just bring fresh buckets of water several times a day, but not where you are ). It won't cost much though unless you are going to have millions of chickens or lots of separate pens. A heated waterer or heated waterer base is usually about 100watts, and won't necessarily be 'on' all the time. Especially if you do a good job designing the coop so that it holds as much heat from various sources as possible.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

Well, my dad is in Northern Maine and it recently hit -55! His water froze that night! But he insulated his chicken house with salvaged foam sheets that are 4 inches thick, I think, and it is warm as toast in there. He also uses the deep litter method, which produces quite a bit of heat if the litter is "mature" and composting. He just adds more bedding when he smells ammonia, the hens dig it in (he tosses whole grains in the bedding to keep them digging) and it is good to go.

It is not as cold here in MA, but it does get to -10 at times. I made an insulated bucket for my horse that worked quite well and could be adapted for other animals. She was in an open shed, no insulation, and the water rarely froze more than 1/4 inch at the top.

I took a muck tub and cut a top for it from plywood, round like a donut, with the hole in the middle to fit a white 5 gallon pail. I stuffed the space between the tub and the pail with foam packing peanuts (salvaged, I asked at a computer place and they gave me lots!) and filled the little spaces with Great Stuff spray foam insulation, which glued it all together. I was going to bolt the top on, but didn't need to.

I bleach it out and use it in the summer for an ice bucket for drinks at cookouts, ice stays frozen all afternoon in very hot weather!

I filled it with warm water twice a day and it worked great. I don't use it now, no more horse and my little goats can't reach it. I bought and salvaged stuff to make a smaller chicken version, but haven't gotten around to it! My two-gallon pail takes many hours to freeze half-buried in the mature deep litter in my uninsulated coop, and I change it twice a day.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

 

[SheriM]

First, have you tried those blue heated water tubs for the goats? They are like muck-bucket sized, and the heating element is sealed within the plastic. I use them for my horses, and if you put them on a piece of styrofoam or something (obviously this would have to be protected from goats) they really use amazingly little current to keep the water thawed. If you built a box around them they'd prolly use even less. MUCH MUCH better economy than traditional stock tank heaters IME.

For chickens, I fear you really need electricity in SK. (In a milder climate you could just bring fresh buckets of water several times a day, but not where you are ). It won't cost much though unless you are going to have millions of chickens or lots of separate pens. A heated waterer or heated waterer base is usually about 100watts, and won't necessarily be 'on' all the time. Especially if you do a good job designing the coop so that it holds as much heat from various sources as possible.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

I know the heated pails you're talking about, but for 50+ goats, I'd need so many of them or have to fill them 50 times a day. I have about 25 does in the barnyard right now, hopefully all bred, and they're going through a 50 gallon stock tank in about 2 days. Of course, I don't let them actually "go through" it, as I refill every day.

 

[patandchickens]

Oh. *50* goats. OK (I dunno, it might not be *that* impractical though, the tubs are 16 gallons each, so it would only take a few...)

(I have 2 of the blue tubs for 3 horses and it works really well, lasts 1-2.5 days depending on weather and diet and so forth)

Have you at least built a heavily-insulated enclosure around/under the stock tank? That will save you much electricity even with a regular stock tank deicer.

So if you have 50 goats, how many chickens are you planning on?

Pat

 

[SheriM]

Oh. *50* goats. OK (I dunno, it might not be *that* impractical though, the tubs are 16 gallons each, so it would only take a few...)

(I have 2 of the blue tubs for 3 horses and it works really well, lasts 1-2.5 days depending on weather and diet and so forth)

Have you at least built a heavily-insulated enclosure around/under the stock tank? That will save you much electricity even with a regular stock tank deicer.

So if you have 50 goats, how many chickens are you planning on?

Pat

Well, I started with 9 goats and here I am, so I guess telling you I plan to start with "just a few" chickens doesn't mean much, huh? Seriously, I think I'll try to keep it to about 25 chickens.

 

[miss_thenorth]

How much snow do you get in SK? When I lived up north--ppl used to shovel the snow up against the barn to help insulate it in the -40 weather.

Where I am now, the coldest has been around -20. Granted, I have a heater in my horses water, and my chickens water I have in an electric dog bowl. They also have a heat lamp to prevent eggs from freezing. (the barn is unheated, and not enough snow to pile up)

However, I also have rabbits, and no way of heating their water. Their water froze quickly, but I changed out their water twice a day. I would go out moring and night, fill their water with warm water. I waited until they were done drinking,(refilling as necessary), and then went out again. We went the whole winter this way, and the rabbits are fine. i think that if you at least watered them twice a day, they should be fine. In the summer --they obviously need more water. Just my experience.

 

[valmom]

Before we built our barn our horses lived in tent shelters out in the pasture- no electricity. We had a 120 gallon Rubbermaid tub for water (no water, either- we ran a hose 300 feet from the house and coiled it up in the garage every third day or so.) I had heard of some horse people building a manure box to surround the water trough- plywood about 2 feet out from each side of the trough, and fill it with manure to compost and produce heat. Then, cover most of the top with insulated plywood leaving only half (at most) for them to drink out of.

I wasn't crafty enough to actually build this, but I did take manure and pile it up in a bank around the trough. Between that insulation and having the water inside the tent there wasn't as much ice as I had expected. (the tent was one of the Farmtek ones with the clear panel down the center top to let in sunlight. I didn't put the ends on and the temp was still a good 15 degrees warmer in it than outside.)

 

[patandchickens]

Oh! This thread resurfacing somehow reminded me of what I hadn't thought of before...

...what about building an old-timey wood or coal or lantern-oil burning "snorkel" heater. You can find lots of designs for them if you read books from like 1900-1950 on building useful things for the farmstead. Basically they all consist of a submerged waterproof/fireproof container with breather tubes to allow fresh air in and combustion gases and smoke out, that sits down in the water tub and keeps it from freezing.

I gather they were a nuisance to tend, and could go out unreliably... BUT no electricity so you might find them worth experimenting with.

Good luck,

Pat