4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Hen Huggers R Us]

How do we stop the chooks water from freezing??? (And don't say move to warmer climate)

[crazygal]

hmm, I've read of other people putting ping pong balls in the glug, but the one time I tried that the water just froze around it (but it was a very harsh frost).

 

Could you bring the water in at night if a frost is predicted? A hassle I know...

 

On the rare occasions that the water has frozen down here I break the ice with the prongy thing that you keep the run door open/shut with when I let the chickens out in the morning.

[Plum]

antifreeze?

 

No it really worries me but the nipples under the glug still flow when the top is frozen. What about putting some water in the house?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

We bring our grub and glub inside at night (easy to do as the run is very close to the back door and we do it after tucking the girls in ).

 

It's not frozen during the day .... yet .

 

I think some put hot water in the glug or put a cover over the run where the glug is - the shelter seems to make a difference.

[Christian]

antifreeze?

 

Erm, not adviseable, it is poisonous to chickens.

 

The ping pong balls work in my glugs. If they freeze, the chickens peck at the balls and smash the ice.

[Plum]

It was a joke Christian.

[Hen Huggers R Us]

Hmm!!! problem no grub or glug we have a wooden coop and we are UP North here !!, bit chilly to say the least, is there nothing we can add to the water to prevent this? Would glycerine help??

[bigmommasally]

How about trying to insulate the water container with plastic bags filled with straw. Or sitting a water bowl on a pet snugglesafe, these are warmed in the microwave and retain their heat for 10 hours.

 

I live down south and haven't had a problem with freezing water yet so haven't been able to try the above ideas - so they might be pooh ideas!

[Cinnamon]

I find the nipples on the superglug get frozen really easily,so I just have 2 on the go,bringing the frozen one in the defrost in the sink & replacing it with fresh.

[cordelia]

the water in my glug has frozen every day since Friday...on Saturday...it froze during the day too....and Tuesday...

 

I break it with a screwdriver, if I forget to empty it out on a night time...and refill with cold water.

On Saturday as it had refrozen, I refilled the glug with some extra warm water from the kettle, and also put a ceramic plant pot in full of warm water..(it didnt refreeze during the day.)

 

We do live in the North East near Durham...

 

I'd try and insulate around the water container...using straw or newspaper perhaps...but the only answer I suspect overnight is to empty them..

 

We have quite thick snow today...

[debbie26pet]

Hmm!!! problem no grub or glug we have a wooden coop and we are UP North here !!, bit chilly to say the least, is there nothing we can add to the water to prevent this? Would glycerine help??

 

ive heard other chicken keepers say glycerine works, so im gonna try this like you, and not far from you the weather is bad and is to get worse

[jill the potter]

I asked this question recently and have found that I just take a mug of boiling water down to the eglu and pour it into the glug when I go to let the girls out. Have been closing the eglu door at night in this cold snap, and as they are in bed they can't get to the water anyway. Did the same thing when I put them in the run this afternoon about 3 with their warm porridge! Seems to work so far. The water had only just started to freeze this afternoon, and yesterday they both seemed to like eating the melted snow off the eglu!!!

[Barkisland]

My drinkers have frozen solid for the past 3 or 4 nights now. The girls were very thirsty when I thawed them out this morning. I've been at home today so was able to check and they didn't re-freeze today - but I suspect they did yesterday.

OMG they are forecasting 8 inches of snow here overnight

[stoice]

This is from a previous thread courtesy of AnnieP...

 

link here

Its expensive, so I'd only ever use it if I wasn't around to take their water in and put it out in the morning again, but I've got one just in case.

[chickenanne]

Water freezing at night is unavoidable: night time temperatures can be just too low to avoid it.

Titchy bit of glycerine during the day will help, as will getting a much bigger drinker (more water = lower temperatures for longer time before it will freeze).

[helenmb]

You could wrap round some bubble wrap - particularly if it is a super glug. For a standard glug you could wrap the bottom in the bubble wrap and then pop some polystyrene over the top at night (you could cut a bit from some old packaging or buy a bit from the diy stores - just make sure there are no loose peckable bits left lying around) and whip it off in the morning.

 

You could also fill an individual sized water bottle with sand and stand that in the glug overnight and they just pull it out in the morning (might be easier to get out than the ping pong balls if its very cold).

[Barkisland]

Re the Ice Free for birdbaths, I tried it in my birdbath a couple of years ago and it didn't work.

 

I'm going to try wrapping the drinkers in bubble wrap. I use the freestanding fountain style drinkers, and also have a superglug for backup. They have all been freezing solid with temps of -2.

[helenmb]

I agree about the IceFree for bird baths as I also have tried this previously and to get it not to freeze I found you had to use so much additive that it was very expensive and I was worried that it wasn't healthy either - I think I posted about this a few weeks ago. It made the bird bath like a birdy slush puppy rather than keep it free flowing.

[Falkor]

i have ping pong ball (stolen from the cats toy basket but cleaned and disinfected!) in my glug and no frozen water!

[Christian]

I am sure that someone (poss Louise the mad scientist ) worked out that you would need to add so much glycerine to the water to prevent freezing, that it wouldn't be good for the chickens.

 

Not sure of the chemicals in the bird bath stuff either?

 

Ping pong balls work for me and if the water does freeze, then hens peck at the balls to break the ice.

[Barkisland]

I have recently discovered that bubble wrap 'turbans' seem to work for my fountain drinkers, at least to -1 or -2 degrees. I don't know if they will work at lower temps - remains to be seen.

[sandyhas3chucks]

large necked small dumpy thermos flask put in run in the morning? Might work at least they would havre water for a few hours, they don't need soooo much this weather do they?