The Poultry Keeper

Zooey · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 82 Location: East Sussex

Apologies if you've seen this elsewhere, but with another cold spell forecast, I thought I'd let you in on our solution to frozen drinkers. We use a 2 gallon metal drinker and have placed it on bricks inside an upturned plastic garden planter. The front has been cut out, but it has a roof and three sides for protection from the elements. Next, we use a beer maker's belt wrapped around the drinker and plugged in to our field shelter next door. The belt only gets slightly warm, but in the 5 or 6 years we've been using this method, the water has never frozen. Even down to -8C!

fenwoman · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:14 pm Post subject:

Good idea apart from the fact that I don't have power down there and would need a lot of double adapters to put brewers belts on to 12 drinkers Smile

Lisa · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:31 am Post subject:

Zooey - can you post a picture for the hard of understanding (ie me :oops) It sounds a good idea....

Fenwoman - so how do you power the electric fences you are so keen on to keep the foxes out?

fenwoman · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:01 am Post subject:

car battery. I use a 12 volt energiser.

summayah · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 4289 Location: luton

Like Lisa I'd love to see a pic of your 'invention'

chicken_house_man · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 100 Location: Brynmawr

if you visit www.rswww.com and search for silicone heat mats you'll find a range of heaters that are self adhesive, 12v which would be ideal for sticking to a drinker.

My idea, should i ever get around to it, is an insulated box with a couple of bricks inside. The lid would have a hole in it to limit the amount of heat that escaped. Heat the bricks in the oven, put in the box and put the drinker on top.

Zooey · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 82 Location: East Sussex

I'm afraid I can't help with pictures as all my cameras take film and my processor (although very good), isn't exactly fast. I'll try and describe it a bit better though. The drinker is a standard 2 gallon metal one, in two pieces, with a shallow bowl at the bottom. The beer maker's belt is a narrow plastic strip about 1cm wide, .5cm thick and around 60cm long. It has a cable and plug at one end. I've tied a bit of string on the other end of the belt to enable me to wrap it around the drinker and tie it on firmly. We've cut a hole in the side of the field shelter to plug in the other end. It's generally only switched on at night when the temperature is going below zero, but on very cold days we leave it on all the time. The belt gets slightly warm to the touch and the drinker (being metal) conducts the heat to the water. The water itself doesn't feel warm, so doesn't put the chooks off drinking. The planter is just a plastic box, open at the top and around 2.5' square. We cut out one side and turned it upside down so it provides the drinker with a roof and three sides. It gets very cold where we live, but the water has never frozen. For larger set ups, our llamas and goats have a fish tank heater in their water trough, situated inside the field shelter. That's never frozen either Smile

nigel · Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:11 pm Post subject:

i like those 12v ones, i'll have to investigate this further i think. If we move to Sweden things like this may prove most useful.

mojo · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 am Post subject:

in sweden the chooks will want central heating in the barn silly

stephen · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:05 am Post subject:

I wonder if the heat pump would go that far?

stamina · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:26 pm Post subject:

Try floating glycerin on the surface of the water. The hens don't seem to mind and you don't need any power.
An old method but it works
Stamina Wink