Tending Livestock in [Freezing] Winter

[tortoise]

Freezing temps make animal care chores more challenging. How do you manage?

 

[tortoise]

I have cold intolerance and touching metal or wet items below 60 degrees can be excruciating painful. This is my biggest challenge. I can't exert much force with my hands against cold temperatures because of pain in my skin. The intensity of pain perception is from the rate of change of skin temperature. This is normal, but between my thin skin and hyperreactive autonomic nervous system, I have more problem with it than most people do.

I installed big hook and eye latches on my chicken coop with rubber grip. They're large enough I can open them with mittens on and the rubber should help slow thermal transfer.

I use a heated waterer for chickens. I will put it in today. We have a (metal) frost free faucet near the chicken coop that is not hooked up this year. DS14 has been carrying water (uphill) from the barn. I might need to get into a daily habit of carrying less water at a time from the house. I can stay warm while waiting for a bucket to fill.

I use a heat lamp in the coop when temperatures are below zero.

 

[Hinotori]

I only have the chicken to worry about. I use a bucket to haul water twice a day, but if I had issues I'd use gallon milk or water jugs. Water is in rubber bowls that I stomp ice out of.

Electricity isn't feasible to run out to all the pens. Only the large fowl one is within distance for a 100 ft cord. I did used to give them a heated dog bowl inside and the rubber bowls outside. They prefered to peck holes in the ice than use the heated bowl.

 

[Hinotori]

We have less rats in winter only because the pretty much surface water table gives them less places to escape the wrath of the dogs and silkies.

Poor Athena yesterday. She wanted me to tilt one of the little silkie houses to get a rat. She grabbed it and pulled it out. It was screaming and she needed to readjust her bite to kill it. She got a face full of yelling silkies as they came running to get the rat. She let the rat go rather than accidentally harm one of the chickens. So she's a good dog. She pouted for a while after that. German shepherds don't seem to have the instinct to shake what they catch.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Heated water bucket for sheep and LGD’s. I often lug water from the bath tub because the outside spigot freezes. The pigs… I break Ice and give them fresh water 3x/day. Hoping to have no pigs this winter, it’s not fun.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I dont know what I would do for livestock water without electricity!

I don't know what I would do in a freezing winter, lol. (except we had a hell of a freeze earlier this year)

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

Heated waterer for the chickens here. Only have them for now. I do not heat the coop at all, I don't want them dependent in case we lose power.

 

[flowerbug]

can't you stack some hay bales to create a wind-break and another layer of insulation around a chicken coop to keep more of the heat in?

i'd think that for birds as long as they are dry and out of the wind they can pretty much cope with a lot more than we can.

 

[Alaskan]

Freezing temps make animal care chores more challenging. How do you manage?

We bring out water 2x to 3x a day.

Only when it freezes solid too quickly do we plug in the electric heater, a stock tank de-icer.


When we had horses we would run a hose (3 lengths, about 150 feet of hose) from the upstairs house faucet to the barn. We would turn the water onto super hot and fill their water trough. There was a heating element in the bottom of the water trough, and we had it boxed up, insulated, and half the top covered.

When we had more poultry we would consolidate them as much as possible for winter.

We now have 2 winter coops.

We designed the coops so we don't have to do any snow shoveling.


I don't heat the coops. I once, many years back had a heat lamp in the winter. I went into the coop and the gust of cold air that came in with me made the heat lamp shatter all through the bedding.

Never again heat lamps in winter, too dangerous.

When we had goats we had a warm-up box for new kids. That was a heating pad duct taped into a freezer ziplock in a cardboard box.

 

[flowerbug]

I always worry about using an aquarium heater...

1. They bust if they are run dry
2. They tend to keep the water at pretty warm temps, warmer than you need, so wasting electricity

A bird bath de-icer or stock tank de-icer is usually safer and uses less electricity.

in a covered bucket and the temperature set low enough the water will not boil or run dry and they have ones that are heavier duty so they won't break, especially if not exposed to birds or whatever else it is you're trying to provide heat to.

if there is a specific heating device which is designed to be used in a stock tank or for heating then certainly use it, but i was making the suggestion for those who haven't been able to find those for some reason and have to adapt something else that might work just as well.