My Chickens' Water Froze... That Will Never Happen Again!

Hey, what's up? I got that chicken water that I upgraded, I'll say, a little bit earlier before the winter hit

And it's been working just fine, actually, exactly as it was until things got really cold over the last week or so

We've had temperatures. You guys have probably seen it across the whole country. But temperatures here have been high today was 20, and the lows are right around zero, less than 10 degrees, basically, every night

This morning when I got up, it was 1 degree Fahrenheit outside. So we're gonna see how it's doing right now at 20 degrees, but I'm guessing it's probably still totally frozen

So I'm going to put together a winter waterer the reason that I like the one that I have is because it's outside the coop

Which makes it really easy for me to refill with the hose or what I do here in the winter is

You know gallon pitcher or whatever hey girls or a bucket that I can fill with at least room temperature water from inside

But what's happened is these nipples here in the pipe, they've just totally frozen

So I'll show you inside here what I've had. See, look, this is just not enough

I'm getting ice on the top here. In fact, I had just a normal, it's kind of like a big puck

You'll see it here in a few minutes that was sitting on the bottom here. But it wasn't enough to keep the pipe from freezing

So I took this one. This is actually one that is intended to be wrapped around the pipe or run alongside the pipe

But I wanted to keep it inside here because I didn't want to. the chickens pecking at it and getting themselves zapped

So I have this one, but again, it's not keeping this from freezing

When I tap those nipples like with a stick or something, they're just frozen solid and the chickens can't drink

They brought up that bowl with warm water and you know by midday totally frozen So we going to come up with a better solution For this new chicken water I still want to go with a bucket This is a two bucket going a little smaller so it easier for me to carry in it out Plus my chicken coop not huge so I wanted there still to be plenty of space in there

So I wanted something with a little bit smaller footprint. Plus, I'm either going to hang it or I'm going to have to set it onto something so that the nipples are on the bottom

But they're still easily accessible to the chickens at the right height, not like weighed out of ground levels

For those reasons, I decided to go with a two-gallon bucket. bucket got a lid this kind of lid does like seal on and then it has this like

tear off strip I will just start by tearing it off gonna need it be torn off

not a big deal fact I could just tear it off now because I'm not worried about

this bucket staying sealed so regular lid so then I also need nipples I have three

chickens I could get by with one or two nipples but for today I'm just gonna show

you by putting the one nipple on it screws in but it's also got this backing on it

it here too, a little nut that I'm going to use to tighten it in there. Specifically, this is for

putting it on a thin walled thing like a bucket, right? I have a drill with a eight and a half

millimeter bit. This is a 516th, which is just barely under that. And then utility knife

Utility, anyway, for cutting a hole in the top of the bucket or actually a little bit of a flap

so that I can run a power cable through because I am going to have to put a warmer in the

bottom of this. Let's get going. We're going to keep this simple. I do want to drill

a hole pretty dang close to the bottom of the bucket that way as much of the water

as possible can be used I'm also going to go ahead and put it right here on the

side where the handle is easy hold drilled then we're just going to take this

and screw it in they actually taper the threads here it a little bit tapered that way it will seal as you put it in I kind of just had to press it in I just going to go all the way in Hopefully that not too close to the bottom

and the wing nuts don't just hit, barely. Okay, now that should seal

So I'm going to go ahead and fill it up with water. Well that's going, I'm going to go ahead and cut a hole in the lid

Actually, I'm not going to cut right at the edge. I'm just going to cut a little flap just a little bit in from the edge

I'm going to do it carefully so don't slice myself again. Now I'm going to come this way so that the flap opens toward the rim

The reason for that is the flap has a tendency where it hinges

to want to keep cracking further and further up, but it's not going to really crack against this edge that's a bit stronger

I just, I've scored it, but I need to go through it a couple of times. I just really need this to be big enough to fit the plug for the outlet through

Hopefully this is it. I think that's going to work. Safely done with utility knife

Okay, one thing I wanted to check is that I'm not leaking around this. and it's looking pretty good to me. We're almost done. Okay, next I've got my K&H, this heater. I've used it in the past. Works great. This just sits down in the water on the very bottom. And it doesn't make the water warm. It just keeps it from freezing. But with this in there, I've never had even ice crystals show up on the top. Okay, it's time for the moment of truth on my hole. Does it fit? Yes. Barely, but yes. This is my chicken water full of water. Now, we've got to go get it out there. I think I'd really like to kind of hang it right there in that corner

see there's not a whole lot going on down there it wouldn't get in the way of their purchase I could potentially do it here more in the middle where I already have

sort of support beam up there thinking hanging all right for this I'm going to go

ahead and let them out just so they out of my way here you go yeah snow huh you want stay there Okay well because I coming in Okay got that connected

Now it's just a matter of running a power cord to it, and we're good to go. And now we're done. Here's what I've got

Got the bucket hanging with the one nipple right down there near the bottom

It's at a really good height for them. I've got it height adjustable because that's a taut line hitch

hooked to this power cord. Go ahead and close it because they've all opted to stay inside

And then this actually fit coming out the back up top really well

And I've got it plugged in. The other thing I did to help with the winter was I put this tarp up on this one side

That's just to help block any wind so that it won't be quite as cold inside

So wind can't just blow straight through. I could do another wall like here on this backside

But with that fence there, we're not getting strong. cross breeze this direction. So that should be okay. My hope is that this watering system works

all through the winter even at these zero degree Fahrenheit and even subzero temperatures that we're

facing right now. I'll know by morning. So I'm going to let you know here in just a minute. I mean, a minute for you. Obviously, I have to wait all night. And check that out. No freezing

over at minus one at least. I'm going to call that a victory

this thing's going to work. No. Oh my, I cannot believe. I just did that

What are the things are you doing to help make sure that your animals stay safe and reasonably

comfortable through this cold winter days? Let me know in the comments below and we'll see you next time