Critter water in winter

[Biggkidd]

We don't normally have much trouble keeping our water from freezing here. EXCEPT the chicken waterer it freezes right up. So I am still looking for an option for that one.

For our larger critters we use 275 gallon totes for storage with the troughs sunken in the ground which stops a lot of temperature issues. Both hot and cold. But with temps getting down in the teens and lower with plenty of wind I do worry about the valves and small pipes breaking from freezing. So I am going to put some of our no longer used HF solar panels to use heating the water in the totes. Well one to start off with. But I thought I'd share the idea and project incase anyone wants to copy.

Lowest wattage 12 volt water heater element I could find was 60 watts. Which will require 4 of these little HF panels. No controller nothing but panels wired directly to the heating element. With a volume of water just a few degrees can make a huge difference in whether or not if freezes.

www.ebay.com/itm/273180566437

They will accept $22 for these.

 

[Mountain trapper]

A decent stock tank heater draws 1500 watts. Thats too much draw for my solar setup. I use several 8' diameter stock tanks. Every day during winter I take a heavy bar and break the ice and remove it from the tank and refill it. The ice is usually 6 to 12 inches thick every day.
Our chicken water buckets freeze solid every day. We dump the ice out and refill the buckets. The chickens have learned to drink their fill before the buckets freeze over. I see them pecking at the snow when their buckets freeze up. Water for our stock is always a big chore in winter.

 

[Spikedriver]

For four horses I used a 30 gallon rubber tank with a sinking de-icer. The water line was heat taped and had both foam and plastic wrapped fiberglass insulation. It worked great, until the power went out or the de-icer failed. Both of those did happen...

 

[Biggkidd]

@ Mountain trapper Sinking your troughs in the ground or even partway in the ground will help immensely. I'm always looking for the most economical ways to cut labor on the homestead.

I just a couple minutes ago solved my chicken waterer issue I believe.

A 1156 standard automotive bulb uses roughly 28 watts at 12 volts. I can hook 2 HF panels in parallel to one and put it inside an old pot or such and set the waterer on top. That will help keep it from freezing and help thaw it if it does freeze.

Or I may just seal the bulb up good and solder wires to it and coat in silicone. Then I can sink the bulb in the water. Hmmm????

 

[Amish Heart]

For the small waterers, we bring out gallon jugs of hot water from the house. If it was a bad freeze, I throw the waterer in the milkhouse to thaw out and bring out an empty one to put in the runs. Also do this with the rabbits and the water bottles, have extra, just exchange them each morning. Can also put a sock on those.

 

[Mountain trapper]

@ Mountain trapper Sinking your troughs in the ground or even partway in the ground will help immensely. I'm always looking for the most economical ways to cut labor on the homestead.

I just a couple minutes ago solved my chicken waterer issue I believe.

A 1156 standard automotive bulb uses roughly 28 watts at 12 volts. I can hook 2 HF panels in parallel to one and put it inside an old pot or such and set the waterer on top. That will help keep it from freezing and help thaw it if it does freeze.

Or I may just seal the bulb up good and solder wires to it and coat in silicone. Then I can sink the bulb in the water. Hmmm????

Cant bury the tanks. We get so much snow that when the cattle pack it down they have get on their knees to reach the water.

 

[Peanut]

I was looking a stock tanks and troughs yesterday. Saw 16g tubs with a built in electric heater, about $100.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Years ago I had a propane tank heater for one of my stock tanks. It worked pretty well but went through a lot of propane.
Im going to set up a solar panel, a couple batteries, inverter and a circulating pump to see if it will keep a tank ice free. I doubt if it'll work, our creeks freeze solid too.

 

[joel]

, we break the ice in trough & fill it up twice a day.

 

[Mountain trapper]

This morning I was going through my Premier 1 poultry catalog getting ready to place an order. They have a heated chicken waterer that uses 100 watts of power. They claim its good to -20. I think we'll pick one up for next winter. We dont have electric to our current coop. We're working on a design for a new "poultry barn". This new building will house the layers, meat chickens and will have an incubator and brooder room. As well as a feed room.

 

[Biggkidd]

Thankfully we don't deal with your temps. I've seen below zero here once or twice but teens is about as low as we usually get and not much of that 20's are much more normal nighttime winter temps here.

 

[WVDragonlady]

We use a heated water bucket meant for horses for our 2 dogs. I think its 5 gallon
We don't have other critters

 

[backlash]

I have a heated water dish for the outside cat. It cost me less than $20 and has never frozen up.
The main reason I sold my cows was I do not want to break ice twice a day.

 

[hughewil]

we use this
https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/556796-farm-innovators-electric-water-heater-base.html
it kicks on when the temperature reaches 34 degrees

 

[LadyLocust]

We don't normally have much trouble keeping our water from freezing here. EXCEPT the chicken waterer it freezes right up. So I am still looking for an option for that one.

For our larger critters we use 275 gallon totes for storage with the troughs sunken in the ground which stops a lot of temperature issues. Both hot and cold. But with temps getting down in the teens and lower with plenty of wind I do worry about the valves and small pipes breaking from freezing. So I am going to put some of our no longer used HF solar panels to use heating the water in the totes. Well one to start off with. But I thought I'd share the idea and project incase anyone wants to copy.

Lowest wattage 12 volt water heater element I could find was 60 watts. Which will require 4 of these little HF panels. No controller nothing but panels wired directly to the heating element. With a volume of water just a few degrees can make a huge difference in whether or not if freezes.

www.ebay.com/itm/273180566437

They will accept $22 for these.

I just used a heated water dish like for dogs.
Eta: like what @backlash showed. Should’ve read all posts first

 

[Mountain trapper]

If I was on grid power keeping the stock tanks thawed wouldn't be a problem. Its a real challenge when your off grid. So far I haven't found a way to keep the water open other than a heavy bar and removing the ice by hand.

 

[LadyLocust]

If I was on grid power keeping the stock tanks thawed wouldn't be a problem. Its a real challenge when your off grid. So far I haven't found a way to keep the water open other than a heavy bar and removing the ice by hand.

Off grid: only thing I know that "helps" is to add hot water (I used to pack 5 gal. buckets from the bathtub to the barn ). The other thing is depending upon the setup, if you have some rocks you set on woodstove in AM, put in tank in PM - break water in AM, fish them out - repeat. Just doesn't freeze as fast.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Off grid: only thing I know that "helps" is to add hot water (I used to pack 5 gal. buckets from the bathtub to the barn ). The other thing is depending upon the setup, if you have some rocks you set on woodstove in AM, put in tank in PM - break water in AM, fish them out - repeat. Just doesn't freeze as fast.

For 35 head of cattle it really isn't practical to haul 5 gallon buckets of water. My stock tanks are 8' diameter and at least 1/4 mile from the house. I break the ice and remove it from the tank once a day. Then I refill the tank from a freeze proof hydrant. The cattle have learned to drink before it freezes again. Once a day is enough.

 

[LadyLocust]

For 35 head of cattle it really isn't practical to haul 5 gallon buckets of water. My stock tanks are 8' diameter and at least 1/4 mile from the house. I break the ice and remove it from the tank once a day. Then I refill the tank from a freeze proof hydrant. The cattle have learned to drink before it freezes again. Once a day is enough.

Just think how in shape you'd be hauling that much water (Don't shoot!) Other than a small generator for a tank heater, I got nuttin'. Sorry.

 

[Peanut]

Rule of thumb of water per day.. the average beef cow will drink 10 gallons a day in winter, twice that in summer. Dairy cattle might drink 40g a day.

 

[Spikedriver]

And old fashioned trick -

My Pops described how his dad kept the stock tank from freezing. First off, his tank was fed by a continuous flowing well. It ran a couple gallons a minute, 24/7, without electricity. The water filled the tank and then the overflow ran downhill. So there was always flowing water. But when it got really really cold the tank would still freeze almost solid and the cattle didn't like the cold water. So grandpa had something like a big tin coffee can with a wooden handle on it. This he would fill with coals from the stove several times a day. It went in the stock tank and gave enough heat to keep the tank partially open. No one remembers if there was a bracket on the tank to hold it or if it just floated in there or what, but Pops says he remembers grandpa using it before the farm got electricity about 1940. (Pops would have been 5 or 6 then.) I have seen something like it but I haven't seen it actually being used...

 

[Spikedriver]

https://www.horsenation.com/2018/01/23/4-low-tech-ways-to-fight-frozen-water-troughs/

 

[joel]

Rule of thumb of water per day.. the average beef cow will drink 10 gallons a day in winter, twice that in summer. Dairy cattle might drink 40g a day.

That what we did, but we had about 45 days under 32F & less than 7 days of snow.

 

[Mountain trapper]

That what we did, but we had about 45 days under 32F & less than 7 days of snow.

Our cold weather, and snow, usually runs from late October through April. By February the cows have packed the snow down around the trough enough that they have to get on their knees to reach the water. I have one though that I'm able to plow around to make it easier for them to reach the water.

 

[Haertig]

I don't have livestock, but did have an issue trying to protect our hot tub from freezing when it was well below zero and the hot tub electronics (power control) went out.

The hot tub shop recommended we drop a portable, submersible sump pump in the tub. Not to pump water out of the tub, but with both the inlet and the outlet of the pump in the tub. So just a circulator. One, the pump generates some heat. Two, the moving water does not freeze as quickly. That's what the hot tub techs said they do if a panicked customer calls them out for potential freezing. They just loan them a sump pump.

I don't know if a trick like this would work on a stock tank, in lieu of a heater. Hot tubs have a lot of thermal mass from the water (500 gallons of it typically), and I don't know if stock tanks are that big. Plus, hot tubs are highly insulated and stock tanks may not be. I mention it on the off chance the idea might be of use for your situation.

 

[LadyLocust]

Our cold weather, and snow, usually runs from late October through April. By February the cows have packed the snow down around the trough enough that they have to get on their knees to reach the water. I have one though that I'm able to plow around to make it easier for them to reach the water.

I came up with an idea quite literally at 2AM this morning. Hubby got up about 1:30ish and I stirred enough that I didn't get back to sleep for a while and this is the question that was going through my mind. I will have to draw it up to explain it. It wouldn't be anything for right now, but would be to do in summer so that next winter there was a plan of attack. I'm whooped at the moment and need to go get in the shower. Will hop back in as soon as I can draw up a quick sketch.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I came up with an idea quite literally at 2AM this morning. Hubby got up about 1:30ish and I stirred enough that I didn't get back to sleep for a while and this is the question that was going through my mind. I will have to draw it up to explain it. It wouldn't be anything for right now, but would be to do in summer so that next winter there was a plan of attack. I'm whooped at the moment and need to go get in the shower. Will hop back in as soon as I can draw up a quick sketch.

I'm looking forward to hearing your plan.

 

[Biggkidd]

Just wanted to let y'all know. Got the chickens water heating during daylight hours. It was frozen again this morning. Got an old tail light bulb in there running off an old 45 watt set of HF panels it is working and heating as we speak. It is going to require some modification on a warmer day. lol But I can say for a fact that it does make a little heat and transfer it to the water.

 

[Biggkidd]

Success the bulb in the water works. It got down to 24 last night and it was liquid this morning. I still think I'm going to change it around and put it under instead of inside. The valve was only halfway working as it's on the bottom.

 

[Amish Heart]

Only our turkey water was frozen this morning, so not too bad. I just switch out the waterer. The chicken's waterers are kept in the hen house, so they stay warmer.