Cube Mark One Run

[Tiggy]

has anyone heard about putting glycerine in the water ? If so did it work, how much and where do you get it from?

[The Dogmother]

This was mooted a couple of years ago and a scientist friend of mine worked out that the amount of glycerine you'd need would be bad for the chooks.

 

I just have two snugglesafes and reheat them when I come home for lunch and that keeps the water ice-free. Don't forget to bring the drinkers in at night though; if you have plastic gravity drinkers they'll split if they freeze.

[Paola]

Do you have Glugs, Dogmother? If so how do you attach the snugglesafes to them? They sound like a great idea

[The Dogmother]

I don't, I use gravity drinkers which are normally suspended from the run roof, but I take them down in the cold weather and stand them on bricks. I guess that if you put the snugglesafe on bricks under the glugs it'd do the same thing though.

[Space Chick]

see this thread from a few years back

[The Dogmother]

The one i was thinking of was prior to that but the same gist.

[Tiggy]

I thought it would be something like that, someone from the craven poultry club posted it on facebook because he read it in a mag. i knew id get to the truth on here Thanks for the tip dogmother I'll have a look at snugglesafe

[NatalieC]

A couple of golf balls (clean of course) in the water seem to work as they bob around and stop the water being still enough to freeze. We did this last year when it was really cold and it worked.

[peachachecha]

I have purchased a heated dog water bowl. I filled it with sand up the one inch from the lip and I am going to place a child's trick-or-treat bucket full of water in the sand. In the morning I plan on bringing out another bucket with fresh water to replace the old one. Someone had posted this on another site and said they have done this method for a few years.

[Luvachicken]

We bought this http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Electric_Heater_for_animal_drinkers.html and a galvanised water holder. It was a bit expensive but was well worth it.

[meezers]

I wondered about those little hand warmers you put in your pockets, some are advertised to keep your hands warm for hours. If they were sealed in a ziplock bag and floated in the water I wonder if they'd work ? Touch wood the water in my drinkers has only frozen a couple of times and I'm always here to defrost it with hot water, but the thought of frozen drinkers is enough to put me off going away for a break in winter.

[Luvachicken]

Those handwarmers are brilliant for us but the chemical reaction causes the stuff inside to crystalise and go hard.

My sister - being the experimental type - somehow managed to get a piece of the crystal out and it went in her hand like a splinter

She said the pain was enormous. I'm not sure what it might do to a chicken if it ate it

[Mollie333]

I use ping pong balls to bob around in the water.

[Heidi-Hi]

I use the superglugs with nipples. I am lucky enough to have four, so when the feezing weather starts, I keep two by the sink and in the morning take them out with warm water in, and bring the two frozen ones in. A rotating system works well

[loulops]

I found that in the worst freeze last year ping pong balls just got frozen in! So I put a whole apple in the glug and while the chooks love apple bobbing for a treat, it takes them ages as the apple keeps bobbing away, and this seemed to do the trick at keeping ice at bay until they went to bed AND keeping the girls entertained during the day. Result!

[Lavenders_Blue]

I seem to remember someone on here (Lesley?) suggesting standing a galvanised drinker on a triangle of 3 bricks with a tea light in the middle to heat the drinker and keep the water defrosted. You would need the tea lights with a longer burn time. The triangle of bricks should stop the chooks getting to the tea light and burning themselves so it ought to be safe. I may try this when the temperatures drop even further as my two drinkers are both galvanised.

[Mum]

I found that in the worst freeze last year ping pong balls just got frozen in! So I put a whole apple in the glug and while the chooks love apple bobbing for a treat, it takes them ages as the apple keeps bobbing away, and this seemed to do the trick at keeping ice at bay until they went to bed AND keeping the girls entertained during the day. Result!

Brilliant!!