I own salt company… any kind of salt will work. I use water softener salt being I sell it. Pellets or crystals whatever you can get. Even ice melt will work just keeping the water in bottles from freezing. Very nice video. You have a beautiful farm! God bless
I have been fighting frozen water for our chickens and rabbits for 2 days now LOL. My wife loves those chickens so much that I actually went down in the dead of the night and put a little heater in the chicken coop so her babies would be fine. It was -3 here on our little homestead in Sparta TN last night. I even got an egg this morning:) It's gonna be back in the 60's and 70's next week here thank the Good Lord!
Thank you for your comment! Our little animals sure need a little extra love right now! They love you for that heater! Stay safe and warm and Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for watching my channel!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch It's a pleasure! My wife's channel isth-cam.com/users/CindiLoohooMoon Cindi (and I) are sky watchers and UFO buffs. She had a big channel and it got hacked so she has started over. It's small now with a lot of really good people from around the world:) She'd love to see you there:)
I'm in alexandria, we used NO HEAT in our 8x8 coop. All my birds did fine! Heat can create humidity which can cause frostbite. Dry and cold they can do. Wind and wet kills....
Year's ago, Western Horseman Magazine had a tip to bury a 2'x10' metal culvert on end into the ground flush with the ground level, like a well. On top of that, they put a 2'x 10' round cattle water tank over the culvert, so the culvert was in the center. This was in Wyoming where winter is rough, yet the ground temp, and dead air space under the tank kept it from freezing.
I know I’m a year late here, but tis called geothermal heating (they do great greenhouse systems that way too) watched one like that yesterday. Thought I was going nuts when I couldnt find it again but its by enjoying northwoods chan. They dug down far enough to get heat from below ground, insulated with loose packed hay. Thats a bit too much for me here, but still really cool to know. Can also pack inside a tire with straw and manure then sit the waterbowl in middle and it stays warmed. So happy I found this one!
In Central Texas my granddad had in ground stock tanks, basically ponds. He was always glad to see them populated with ducks in the winter because they would keep the water churned up and prevent freezing.
The reason that those water bottles work is because salt water has a much lower freezing point so they won't freeze and when outside where the sun can shine on them it acts like a magnifying glass and helps the sun to heat the water below. Saltwater also is an electrolyte which attracts and magnifies electromagnetic waves from the sun to vibrate the water. It didn't work very well in the inside waterer because it needs to be floating on the water's surface that is exposed to the air/sunshine.
They work also because they float and create movement in the water. I have had zero sunshine here, snow, freezing fog for days on end but they float and are always moving. Thank you for watching and your comment. Merry Christmas!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch - Also mention not to pour it out at the end of the winter. You can store them for next year or pour all of the saltwater into one larger container to store it. I have used them year after year for many years and not needed to make more saltwater, but I do change the bottles every few years because they will become brittle from the sun.
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch - I will say it again, not for the sake of arguing, it is NOT the bottle movement that keeps the water from freezing. If that were the case then you could put anything (pebbles, antifreeze, milk, sand, etc.) in the bottle and it should do the same, as long as it still floats; you also wouldn't see half-full bottles of stuff frozen in the ice along a river bank or on a lake; this is the actual science behind it.. The saltwater is electrolytic, it will create a small charge all by itself (without direct sunshine) which vibrates the water, but will do even more if sunshine hits it. Even when the sun doesn't shine through the cloud over, there is still electromagnetic waves that do, and it affects the saltwater. Electrolyte - An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water
I for one am grateful for the explanation. Just because you may feel your explanations better it didn't make the other one wrong. Our mission should be to encourage and give explanations of how to deal with certain issues if we are homesteading or had our power knocked out. Sharing and not criticizing is how we help and grow.
So as I was making hot salt water bottles my wife was listening to this video and now I have to go get some popcorn LOL On Christmas eve! We have those Americanas also and a chocolate something or other:) I keep a fountain in my pond to keep the water thawed for the horses and stuff.
Feeding the birds popcorn reminds me of my mom back in the hills of E Tn when i was jes-a-toe-head! She always loved to plant popcorn, She had planted a large field one yr. But it got so hot that yr it all popped in the field & the cows thought it was snow and they all froze to death! 🤣😂🙃
I am definitely going to try this for my chickens. After growing up on a farm where you had to break the ice two and three times a day for Hogs and cows; this would have been wonderful if we just had known about it. It would have made life a little more enjoyable in the winter time.
What about trying a sand battery placed under their water bowls? Of course the stainless steel containers holding the hot sand will have to be insulated. We don't want hot water. Just let enough warmth bleed through the top to keep the water from freezing over. youtuber desertsun02 has many videos on how to use the hot sand for warmth, or run a thermal fan during the summer. People use hot sand to heat their homes and to cook on. It should work to keep water from freezing.
Water that moves does not freeze. I find that an aquarium pump pumping air into a water bucket keeps the freezing to a minimum. I live in North Texas so I find a small air pump sufficient. Colder climes might require more air than I use.
I live in Canada and we can get cold winters and when I was a kid, we had an above ground pool which held a lot of water. My Dad would put a big pc of wood or a rubber tire in the pool, for the winter. When the water freezes, it pushes against that object in the water as it expands instead of against the sides which would wreck the pool! It works!
Thank you for the salt bottle info ...I also didn't know about putting something on my face before going out to keep from getting chapped. You saved me some $$ and worry today. Very appreciative.
I had trouble with the chicken drinker also...I put Vaseline on the threads & keep an old hammer close by to use the handle to turn the drinker handle. Also to break any ice. Been doing it for 25 yrs
At 8:45 seal up the end wall better to slow down the wind passing through the chicken coup and if you double up your blue tarp with two to four inches between each layer it would be the same as insulated. At 8:49 your heatlamp is too high…… lower it down to floor pointing towards water container! Install a wire crate around the lamp to keep your chickens away. Add a metal ductwork type enclosure above the heat lamp to keep the chickens off to the very top of it. Heat raises thus will be warmer for your birds.
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch yes your birds look great….. the led light yes you’re right however then I’d change it over to a regular light not a “LED” if not using the light for heat then it’s just wasting your energy because chicken can mostly see in the dark. Myself when trying to keep my animals warm I took a old metal ammo box. I install a light fixture inside of it and then put it in the coop with a 40 W lightbulb inside. It was enough heat off a 40 watt lightbulb to keep all the critters warm. The metal ammo box kept the bulb from being damaged and allowed a controlled space so I didn’t have to worry about the bulb starting a fire if straw or anything got put on the bulb! Just what I did the only downside to having that in coop……. None of my animals/critters wanted to leave the coop! Had a snoopy neighbor who would try and get my animals to come out of the coop….. they wouldn’t come out for him so he called animal control and told them I was mistreating my animals! Officer came out and confronted me! After putting his hands Inside of the coup he went over to my neighbor and talked to him about trespassing.
Biggest problem with your test was not enough water. When cold keep the water level high and the bottles will work. The chicken water was almost empty.
I bought a heated dog bowl that looks identical to your green one in your chickens. I picked it up at Rural King a couple days before the Christmas blizzard last week. We had temps of -8 and -38 wind-chill, it didn't freeze during that storm.
I also put foam tube pipe insulation on the electrical ( outdoor. ). Extension cord and cord to heated water bowls. Compliments of. Brother in Alaska. Ty Marc
I have the black, rubber bowls for my chickens. They freeze solid! It's supposed to warm up here, but I'll be trying this when we get our next cold snap.
I have the black rubber bowls for my rabbits. Down to 1,wind chill -20, I had to put them inside before I could stomp the ice out. Rest of time they stomped fine. Put one of the black rubber bowls in the chicken house long enough to thaw their waterer.
A cinder block with a light fixture with an incandescent light in it and then a "paver" cinder block on top of it keeps our metal chicken waterer just warm enough to keep the water from freezing
You can also simply use a fish pump hanging in whatever kind of container you use.. Midway so it didn't get easily clogged by debris. Moving water is very hard to freeze. If needed add a simple tank heater but creating moving water is best!
Living in Wisconsin, we're used to cold winters, but that was crazy! Then to hear you all in southern areas had the same temps and same windchill, how horrible. When I had horses, cattle and chickens every tank had a heater. We'd cover half of the tank to try to keep some heat in. I had an electric chicken waterer that worked very well except the most extreme temps, then it started to ice over but not solid. A single light bulb in the small chicken coop kept the girls happy. Hope that's the worst we get this winter!
My heated dog bowl worked great last year for my chickens! It got 20°F below zero and still worked! I've tried the salt water and it didn't work! I made a box around it though, so maybe that made the difference 🤔
Here in Central Florida, we deal more with heat than freezing, but it did freeze last week. The last time it dropped this low this fast was in the 1970s, I believe. It actually snowed here in Central Florida in the late 70s, and we didn't even get a snow day, huh. By the time school was out, the snow had melted, we kids were so disappointed.
Watching you with your bare neck and chest in that cold---BRRRR. I'm only in GA, but always at least wrap up with a kerchief from October to March. Otherwise I'm always getting a sore throat.
I don't have electricity available to my troughs...I can say that I spray painted my chicken water black as it keeps the algae from growing...it gets super thick when the light gets through. I'm glad I'm not the only one straddling my chicken water to get the lid off 😁
Pyramid science foundation is another TH-cam channel. He builds/sells pyramids and they have many benefits. I remember one of the benefits is that water will not freeze when it's under one of these pyramids. I've never tested that part out myself. He sells them and has DIY information. I built one diy for it's other benefits. I think you could make a smaller version for the chicken water fairly easily. I'm sure it sounds crazy. Not a joke.
When I saw your plastic jugs in water tanks, it made me think of how we use them to beat the high temps during summer here in Central Florida. I freeze the water bottles and then plop them in the horses' water tanks to help keep water from getting too warm. IDK if the water temps get that hot where you are, but here it can make the tank water warm and our horses will not drink it. With sweltering summers where temps are 95-100°F, the horses must stay hydrated. Tip: Don't fill the water to very top of the jug because it will expand when it freezes.
I have been having success keeping my ponds for geese and ducks, and water for my chickens with a small fish tank aerator. Connected it to solar and battery.
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch the movement of the added salt water bottles will be a great addition to keep the ice from forming. Thanks for the info.
Thank you for the information. One thing that I have been told if you want to stop or try to restrain the pecking order for some of your birds getting pecked is to put some Vicks vapor rub on their tail feathers. The ones that are pecking the weaker ones butt supposedly find a new activity or hobby.
Well let me tell you my friend Washington DC is 80% black so that was very racist hahaha and you start talking about the pecking order and cruelty to one another you hit the nail on the head
I use the same kind of chicken waterers in the summer. I'm taking a guess but you may have lost your water since you didn't put the little cap on the place where the water comes out at. That's probably why you noticed water coming out before closing it back up. :-) I'm going to try this on my tub for the geese!
I have similar poultry waterers and before you open the top you have to put the cap on the bottom water outlet. Then don't forget to take it back off after screwing the top one back in" me, telling myself Everytime I fill the waterers from the top."... 😆
Air bubblers like for fish tanks work. And because they have a small draw you could yse solar to run em. Also painting the white tanks black or putting a black trash bag over will help
On your waterer that had the loop handle at the top which you had trouble opening get you a thin longer board that will go through the loop and stick out about 6 in 8 in 10 in whatever on each side of the loop and it will give you leverage to get it loose.
There's a problem with using salt water in jugs, namely, each jug can prevent only barely more water than its own volume from freezing, at least that's been my experience with troughs in the unprotected open, no solar, no electricity. A better method is to bury a plastic tank underground and circulate trough water through the trough then into the sump and so on. This requires planning AND make sure your watering trough is anchored well enough that it can't be moved by whatever animal it is you're watering. Here's a NUGGET: Put a 2 x 4 (or steel T post) at an angle, one end on the bottom and the rest sitting, extended out of the top of the trough at an angle, so when the surface freezes, that 2 x 4 will be a big LEVER - making breaking the ice many more times EASIER!
I am still using the same ones from last season with no added salt or water. I stored them out of sun so the plastic would not deteriorate and am reusing this season. No problems. Great question. Thank you for asking!
If you have power that's GREAT 👍 Due to these frigid temperatures some folks don't have power and there are a lot of folks who are OFFGRID too!!!! This is a great way to save money too!!!!!
At 7:10 I expect the chicken water trough lid is frozen. Pour water on it thus thawing it out! Don’t use force because it will break the lid in the cold! Remember flowing water will thaw out frozen water.
A big block of wood or an innertube in the cow troughs will keep the water from freezing solid also! That's what they call "picking s----t with the birds"!
I've got food for though. In many cold places of the world they have been using beet juice to keep the roads from freezing. It naturally has a lower freeze point. So it would be good to use to keep water from freezing. It won't take very much and you can put it directly in the water. Salt water is not good for humans or animals!
L o l..... You sound like you're dealing with Wyoming weather....... Right now I am just curious as the why the water in the little water jug for your chicken look like it's so dark??... Maybe do to algae build-up???
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch We wash the inside walls of our water jug probably once a month.... Keep the algae out. You have to ask yourself ...would you drink out of the same jug??
i'm not sure why you have a light on for your chickens. they have 40,000 feathers so they don't need heat. we get eggs year round in new hampshire as long as i keep them out of the wind. i will try the salt bottle trick with my rubber water buckets, thanks
My daughter just had to kill a rooster that got frost bite on one foot. The black moved up his leg and he was dying so she had to put him down. He was in a pen that was tarped but it was not enough.
Anything below about 10 degrees it doesn’t work for the chicken water containers. Has worked in the cow water troughs in negative weather. A lot has to do with the winds.
Please clean your chicken waterer. 😊 All that green is gross. I clean mine at least once a week. I figure, if I wouldn't want to drink it, my birds dont either. On that note, definitely going to try this!😊
I feel so bad for you all that experience such terrible cold (24 ABOVE zero) You don't know what cold REALLY is unless you've lived through a northern Minnesota winter. I've lived through 52 of them now. I've already had MINUS -25F degrees in mid December and that is far from the coldest it gets. It routinely gets -30F and -40F below zero here (and more WITHOUT the wind chill factors) in December - February. You simply insulate your chicken coop well and eliminate drafts and put heaters in them AND heated watering containers inside the closed coop. Only on days where the temperature is going to be 10F ABOVE or more do the chickens come "out to play".
I hear you. My dog lives in the house with clean water, and she cannot wait to run outside to drink from the first dirty puddle she sees. Maybe she needs the minerals. Animals are made to survive in the wild, even animals we have made our own will go for the wild.
LOL she removed my pic showing after in 3rd year of chickens mine are still clean i dont clean them everyday as said and removed i rinse them out when they need refilled and wash em in dishwasher once every 2-3 months but hey enjoy talking to yourselves i dont care whats posted here
No this does not work. I tried it in my stock tanks in the deep south during freezes and the water froze anyway. Don't waste your time, buy a tank heater.
Why not put the chickens water inside their house if you have a heat lamp. Also place the heat lap closer to the floor of the house as hot air rises anyway and cold air sinks. Also tractor supplies has a bowl made 9f black rubber the ice cones our by hitting it against anything without any damage to the bowl. Also I recommend just fill the bowl with water, in the morning when you set them loose. I lock up the chickens at night in their house.
I do not have a heat lamp in the coop just an led light to provide some daylight. This was purely an experiment to see if this idea worked. Thank you for watching and your great ideas! Happy New Year 😊
I own salt company… any kind of salt will work. I use water softener salt being I sell it. Pellets or crystals whatever you can get. Even ice melt will work just keeping the water in bottles from freezing. Very nice video. You have a beautiful farm! God bless
Thank you for your comment and insight! Truly appreciate it! Merry Christmas!
I have been fighting frozen water for our chickens and rabbits for 2 days now LOL. My wife loves those chickens so much that I actually went down in the dead of the night and put a little heater in the chicken coop so her babies would be fine. It was -3 here on our little homestead in Sparta TN last night. I even got an egg this morning:) It's gonna be back in the 60's and 70's next week here thank the Good Lord!
Thank you for your comment! Our little animals sure need a little extra love right now! They love you for that heater! Stay safe and warm and Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for watching my channel!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch It's a pleasure! My wife's channel isth-cam.com/users/CindiLoohooMoon Cindi (and I) are sky watchers and UFO buffs. She had a big channel and it got hacked so she has started over. It's small now with a lot of really good people from around the world:) She'd love to see you there:)
You must live in NC. Haha
@@Ruckus_Longhorn Tennessee:)
I'm in alexandria, we used NO HEAT in our 8x8 coop. All my birds did fine! Heat can create humidity which can cause frostbite. Dry and cold they can do. Wind and wet kills....
Year's ago, Western Horseman Magazine had a tip to bury a 2'x10' metal culvert on end into the ground flush with the ground level, like a well. On top of that, they put a 2'x 10' round cattle water tank over the culvert, so the culvert was in the center. This was in Wyoming where winter is rough, yet the ground temp, and dead air space under the tank kept it from freezing.
I’d like to see a picture of what that would look like. Does it have a name? Do you know of a picture?
I thought I was the only person on earth who remembered that!
@@kenyonbissett3512 It's been years ago. Picture a mushroom with the stem being a buried culvert stood on end.
@@gmwwc I thought I was! HA! It's a great idea if it works!
I know I’m a year late here, but tis called geothermal heating (they do great greenhouse systems that way too) watched one like that yesterday. Thought I was going nuts when I couldnt find it again but its by enjoying northwoods chan. They dug down far enough to get heat from below ground, insulated with loose packed hay. Thats a bit too much for me here, but still really cool to know. Can also pack inside a tire with straw and manure then sit the waterbowl in middle and it stays warmed. So happy I found this one!
In Central Texas my granddad had in ground stock tanks, basically ponds. He was always glad to see them populated with ducks in the winter because they would keep the water churned up and prevent freezing.
The reason that those water bottles work is because salt water has a much lower freezing point so they won't freeze and when outside where the sun can shine on them it acts like a magnifying glass and helps the sun to heat the water below. Saltwater also is an electrolyte which attracts and magnifies electromagnetic waves from the sun to vibrate the water. It didn't work very well in the inside waterer because it needs to be floating on the water's surface that is exposed to the air/sunshine.
They work also because they float and create movement in the water. I have had zero sunshine here, snow, freezing fog for days on end but they float and are always moving. Thank you for watching and your comment. Merry Christmas!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch - Also mention not to pour it out at the end of the winter. You can store them for next year or pour all of the saltwater into one larger container to store it. I have used them year after year for many years and not needed to make more saltwater, but I do change the bottles every few years because they will become brittle from the sun.
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch - I will say it again, not for the sake of arguing, it is NOT the bottle movement that keeps the water from freezing. If that were the case then you could put anything (pebbles, antifreeze, milk, sand, etc.) in the bottle and it should do the same, as long as it still floats; you also wouldn't see half-full bottles of stuff frozen in the ice along a river bank or on a lake; this is the actual science behind it.. The saltwater is electrolytic, it will create a small charge all by itself (without direct sunshine) which vibrates the water, but will do even more if sunshine hits it. Even when the sun doesn't shine through the cloud over, there is still electromagnetic waves that do, and it affects the saltwater.
Electrolyte -
An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water
Thank you for the explanation. I appreciate you taking the time to share.
Salt is a corrosive and it heats up as it melts
I for one am grateful for the explanation. Just because you may feel your explanations better it didn't make the other one wrong. Our mission should be to encourage and give explanations of how to deal with certain issues if we are homesteading or had our power knocked out. Sharing and not criticizing is how we help and grow.
To get the lid off those waterer’s, I use a 2x2 board through the handle for more leverage and it makes it way easier to open those lids.
Absolutely love this idea and I will try it!! Thank you for watching and your comment!
I use an old handle from a rake.
So as I was making hot salt water bottles my wife was listening to this video and now I have to go get some popcorn LOL On Christmas eve! We have those Americanas also and a chocolate something or other:) I keep a fountain in my pond to keep the water thawed for the horses and stuff.
This absolutely made my day!!! Just to funny you have to buy popcorn!!!! Merry Christmas and thank you for your comment and for watching!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch Merry Christmas to you and yours as well! I didn't mind going to get the popcorn! We appreciate the tip!
@@ezrider1967
🤣😂😅😆😁
Sorry for laughing but I LOVE popcorn with extra REAL BUTTER.
Feeding the birds popcorn reminds me of my mom back in the hills of E Tn when i was jes-a-toe-head! She always loved to plant popcorn, She had planted a large field one yr. But it got so hot that yr it all popped in the field & the cows thought it was snow and they all froze to death! 🤣😂🙃
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing! Great story 🥰
I am definitely going to try this for my chickens.
After growing up on a farm where you had to break the ice two and three times a day for Hogs and cows; this would have been wonderful if we just had known about it.
It would have made life a little more enjoyable in the winter time.
Welllll 🤔
It wasn't perfect but at least the ice was not as thick. Going to try and add some more salt to the water and see if that helps.
EXACTLY ‼️👍🏻
What about trying a sand battery placed under their water bowls?
Of course the stainless steel containers holding the hot sand will have to be insulated. We don't want hot water. Just let enough warmth bleed through the top to keep the water from freezing over.
youtuber desertsun02 has many videos on how to use the hot sand for warmth, or run a thermal fan during the summer.
People use hot sand to heat their homes and to cook on. It should work to keep water from freezing.
@yesican2012 I have not heard of those. Worth checking out.
Water that moves does not freeze. I find that an aquarium pump pumping air into a water bucket keeps the freezing to a minimum. I live in North Texas so I find a small air pump sufficient. Colder climes might require more air than I use.
The air makes the water colder and harder for the animals to drink
@@bobbychaney8372 That's a fact. But its a choice between cold vs NONE.
Had a little horse a while back that didn't like the cold water and would get colic
I live in Canada and we can get cold winters and when I was a kid, we had an above ground pool which held a lot of water. My Dad would put a big pc of wood or a rubber tire in the pool, for the winter. When the water freezes, it pushes against that object in the water as it expands instead of against the sides which would wreck the pool! It works!
Thank you for the salt bottle info ...I also didn't know about putting something on my face before going out to keep from getting chapped.
You saved me some $$ and worry today. Very appreciative.
You are so welcome! Happy New Year!
I heard of this years ago and I totally forgot! Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
You are so welcome! Thank you for watching!
So gracious of you to share this valuable info! It came at just the right time! Thanks from the heart of all our lil critters outside in the cold!
You are so welcome!
I had trouble with the chicken drinker also...I put Vaseline on the threads & keep an old hammer close by to use the handle to turn the drinker handle. Also to break any ice. Been doing it for 25 yrs
Great idea!! I will try it! Thank you!
At 8:45 seal up the end wall better to slow down the wind passing through the chicken coup and if you double up your blue tarp with two to four inches between each layer it would be the same as insulated. At 8:49 your heatlamp is too high…… lower it down to floor pointing towards water container! Install a wire crate around the lamp to keep your chickens away. Add a metal ductwork type enclosure above the heat lamp to keep the chickens off to the very top of it. Heat raises thus will be warmer for your birds.
Thank you for the ideas. It is just an led light not a heat lamp. Chickens have done great so far this winter.
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch yes your birds look great….. the led light yes you’re right however then I’d change it over to a regular light not a “LED” if not using the light for heat then it’s just wasting your energy because chicken can mostly see in the dark. Myself when trying to keep my animals warm I took a old metal ammo box. I install a light fixture inside of it and then put it in the coop with a 40 W lightbulb inside. It was enough heat off a 40 watt lightbulb to keep all the critters warm. The metal ammo box kept the bulb from being damaged and allowed a controlled space so I didn’t have to worry about the bulb starting a fire if straw or anything got put on the bulb! Just what I did the only downside to having that in coop……. None of my animals/critters wanted to leave the coop! Had a snoopy neighbor who would try and get my animals to come out of the coop….. they wouldn’t come out for him so he called animal control and told them I was mistreating my animals! Officer came out and confronted me! After putting his hands Inside of the coup he went over to my neighbor and talked to him about trespassing.
Man I don’t want your neighbors! Wow!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch ya, he is a jerk…… gone now! Have great neighbors now! Take care!
New sub! Just the info I needed for our livestock
Prepping for a hard freeze in Texas! God Bless ❤
Thank you so much for watching and your subscription! I hope this helps! Merry Christmas!
Biggest problem with your test was not enough water. When cold keep the water level high and the bottles will work. The chicken water was almost empty.
I bought a heated dog bowl that looks identical to your green one in your chickens. I picked it up at Rural King a couple days before the Christmas blizzard last week. We had temps of -8 and -38 wind-chill, it didn't freeze during that storm.
That's what I ended up getting as well for my chickens last year and put the main waterer up until winter was over.
We are back to using these this season. They work!
I also put foam tube pipe insulation on the electrical ( outdoor. ). Extension cord and cord to heated water bowls. Compliments of. Brother in Alaska. Ty Marc
Keeps the electrons from getting too cold?
Thank you for your amazing and happy attitude. Also for responding to everyone even if they are less than positive :) your other videos are awesome!
Thank you so much!
Thanks for testing this! I plan to try this in my horses trough this winter!
Let me know if it works for you!
I have the black, rubber bowls for my chickens. They freeze solid! It's supposed to warm up here, but I'll be trying this when we get our next cold snap.
I have the black rubber bowls for my rabbits. Down to 1,wind chill -20, I had to put them inside before I could stomp the ice out. Rest of time they stomped fine. Put one of the black rubber bowls in the chicken house long enough to thaw their waterer.
A cinder block with a light fixture with an incandescent light in it and then a "paver" cinder block on top of it keeps our metal chicken waterer just warm enough to keep the water from freezing
You can also simply use a fish pump hanging in whatever kind of container you use.. Midway so it didn't get easily clogged by debris. Moving water is very hard to freeze. If needed add a simple tank heater but creating moving water is best!
Living in Wisconsin, we're used to cold winters, but that was crazy! Then to hear you all in southern areas had the same temps and same windchill, how horrible. When I had horses, cattle and chickens every tank had a heater. We'd cover half of the tank to try to keep some heat in. I had an electric chicken waterer that worked very well except the most extreme temps, then it started to ice over but not solid. A single light bulb in the small chicken coop kept the girls happy. Hope that's the worst we get this winter!
Thank you so much for your comment and ideas! Stay warm! Happy New Year!
Thank you so much for your comment and ideas! Stay warm! Happy New Year!
It works for me. Plus I keep the troughs out of direct wind. I fill them to the top with water and add a 1/2 cup of salt to the bigger bottles.
Thank you for watching and your comment! Wonderful!
Thank you for watching and your comment! Wonderful!
How well does it float since you fill up your bottles????
This is so much easier if you mix all your brine in one big tub then fill your bottles.
Looking forward to more videos; liked and subscribed!
Welcome aboard! Thank you so much for watching and subscribing! Happy New Year!
My heated dog bowl worked great last year for my chickens! It got 20°F below zero and still worked! I've tried the salt water and it didn't work! I made a box around it though, so maybe that made the difference 🤔
Here in Central Florida, we deal more with heat than freezing, but it did freeze last week. The last time it dropped this low this fast was in the 1970s, I believe. It actually snowed here in Central Florida in the late 70s, and we didn't even get a snow day, huh. By the time school was out, the snow had melted, we kids were so disappointed.
We hear you LOUD and clear
For the cow heaters, don’t they have thermostats? If so, I would think you would want to get rid of the timers.
Watching you with your bare neck and chest in that cold---BRRRR. I'm only in GA, but always at least wrap up with a kerchief from October to March. Otherwise I'm always getting a sore throat.
I took foam tubes pipe insulation and made a circle and stuffed it. Under the heated bowls inside their rims.
That new microphone koozy worked pretty good!
I don't have electricity available to my troughs...I can say that I spray painted my chicken water black as it keeps the algae from growing...it gets super thick when the light gets through. I'm glad I'm not the only one straddling my chicken water to get the lid off 😁
Pyramid science foundation is another TH-cam channel. He builds/sells pyramids and they have many benefits. I remember one of the benefits is that water will not freeze when it's under one of these pyramids. I've never tested that part out myself. He sells them and has DIY information. I built one diy for it's other benefits. I think you could make a smaller version for the chicken water fairly easily. I'm sure it sounds crazy. Not a joke.
When I saw your plastic jugs in water tanks, it made me think of how we use them to beat the high temps during summer here in Central Florida. I freeze the water bottles and then plop them in the horses' water tanks to help keep water from getting too warm. IDK if the water temps get that hot where you are, but here it can make the tank water warm and our horses will not drink it. With sweltering summers where temps are 95-100°F, the horses must stay hydrated. Tip: Don't fill the water to very top of the jug because it will expand when it freezes.
Great idea! Thank you for sharing!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch Thanks, my pleasure.
I need to try a couple of these in my horse tank.
Super easy! Give a go! It’s basically a free try! Thank you for watching and your comment!
I have been having success keeping my ponds for geese and ducks, and water for my chickens with a small fish tank aerator. Connected it to solar and battery.
Nice job!!! Thank you for sharing !
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch the movement of the added salt water bottles will be a great addition to keep the ice from forming. Thanks for the info.
We get -40 up here. I just rotate two waters: one in the house, one in the coop. Only fill them a couple inches for 30 chickens
Thank you far your message with love ❤️
Thank you for the information. One thing that I have been told if you want to stop or try to restrain the pecking order for some of your birds getting pecked is to put some Vicks vapor rub on their tail feathers. The ones that are pecking the weaker ones butt supposedly find a new activity or hobby.
I wonder if that can be done with quails?
@@isthatsonotsofast9604 I don't know ,I know it works on the neighborhood kids. Ok I'm joking!
@@c.joelummus8880 Hahaha
Would that work in Washington DC ?
Well let me tell you my friend Washington DC is 80% black so that was very racist hahaha and you start talking about the pecking order and cruelty to one another you hit the nail on the head
I use the same kind of chicken waterers in the summer. I'm taking a guess but you may have lost your water since you didn't put the little cap on the place where the water comes out at. That's probably why you noticed water coming out before closing it back up. :-) I'm going to try this on my tub for the geese!
Thank you for your comment. I hope this works with your geese! Thank you for watching! Merry Christmas!
I have similar poultry waterers and before you open the top you have to put the cap on the bottom water outlet. Then don't forget to take it back off after screwing the top one back in" me, telling myself Everytime I fill the waterers from the top."... 😆
Air bubblers like for fish tanks work. And because they have a small draw you could yse solar to run em. Also painting the white tanks black or putting a black trash bag over will help
On your waterer that had the loop handle at the top which you had trouble opening get you a thin longer board that will go through the loop and stick out about 6 in 8 in 10 in whatever on each side of the loop and it will give you leverage to get it loose.
Thank you for this idea! I will certainly use that idea in the future! Happy New Year!
I'm excited to try this with my WI birdbath.
Great idea! All the little native birds find our Chicken and Cow water.
There's a problem with using salt water in jugs, namely, each jug can prevent only barely more water than its own volume from freezing, at least that's been my experience with troughs in the unprotected open, no solar, no electricity.
A better method is to bury a plastic tank underground and circulate trough water through the trough then into the sump and so on. This requires planning AND make sure your watering trough is anchored well enough that it can't be moved by whatever animal it is you're watering.
Here's a NUGGET:
Put a 2 x 4 (or steel T post) at an angle, one end on the bottom and the rest sitting, extended out of the top of the trough at an angle, so when the surface freezes, that 2 x 4 will be a big LEVER - making breaking the ice many more times EASIER!
All those trees around your house should slow the wind down lol
Thinking it works because the bottle keep the water agitated. Wonder if a pond bubbler would work-bjt more expensive
Try Mylar Bubble Wrap. Comes in rolls, various sizes. Not esp $$$. A Great Insulator.
The deeper the water the hard it is to freeze. Maybe use something different for your beautiful chickens
How often do u have to change them out? Like add more salt n water?
I am still using the same ones from last season with no added salt or water. I stored them out of sun so the plastic would not deteriorate and am reusing this season. No problems. Great question. Thank you for asking!
Thank you appreciate your help!
Thank you
Thank you for watching!
i wonder if a solid bottle of sand would work, especially for sealed waterers?
Thank you for watching. The bottle of sand would sink for sure.
Farm Innovators Heated Poultry Fountain 3 gallon waterer is what we use.
Thank you for watching and your comment.
If you have power that's GREAT 👍
Due to these frigid temperatures some folks don't have power and there are a lot of folks who are OFFGRID too!!!! This is a great way to save money too!!!!!
Thanks for the tip.
I'm new here, but I wonder why the chicken water is green? Do you add something to the water......it can't be algae, right??
The waterer is stained. The water is clean.
At 7:10 I expect the chicken water trough lid is frozen. Pour water on it thus thawing it out! Don’t use force because it will break the lid in the cold! Remember flowing water will thaw out frozen water.
Thank you for your ideas and advice!
Thank you!
The heat lamp pointed towards the water container is why the water level was so far down (evaporation).
A red-light in the pen will help stop the pecking..
Interesting idea?
100%...not just an idea it's a real world solution
Thank you so much for watching! Simple solution that works!
Intermittent warm water circulation using a Readytemp intelli-circ system solves water troughs from freezing.
A big block of wood or an innertube in the cow troughs will keep the water from freezing solid also! That's what they call "picking s----t with the birds"!
Great info thanks
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching!
Cool concept. Did your cow trough have electric heaters in them as well?
The heaters were not on. I was trying this experiment to save on the electric bill. It works for us down to about 12 degrees. Thank you for watching!
Did you turn off the electric on rhe cattle trouph?
I had not turned the electric on yet. I was trying this experiment first to try and save money. It works too until it hits negative temperatures.
5 Tablespoons= ~1/3 Cup (~=approximately) It's only salt!
I've got food for though. In many cold places of the world they have been using beet juice to keep the roads from freezing. It naturally has a lower freeze point. So it would be good to use to keep water from freezing. It won't take very much and you can put it directly in the water. Salt water is not good for humans or animals!
L o l..... You sound like you're dealing with Wyoming weather.......
Right now I am just curious as the why the water in the little water jug for your chicken look like it's so dark??...
Maybe do to algae build-up???
Water is clean but definitely the algae has discolored the walls of this feeder. Thanks for watching and keeping me on my toes!
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch We wash the inside walls of our water jug probably once a month.... Keep the algae out.
You have to ask yourself ...would you drink out of the same jug??
i'm not sure why you have a light on for your chickens. they have 40,000 feathers so they don't need heat. we get eggs year round in new hampshire as long as i keep them out of the wind. i will try the salt bottle trick with my rubber water buckets, thanks
It was not a heat lamp, I do not use them. It is just a led light to give them extra day light. Thank you for your comment.
It is Not a heat lamp, only a LED light to mimic daylight.
My daughter just had to kill a rooster that got frost bite on one foot. The black moved up his leg and he was dying so she had to put him down. He was in a pen that was tarped but it was not enough.
@@jesuschristismylordandsavi6108 often frost bite is from too much moisture. i keep a window open a couple inches at the top in the coop all winter.
@@makeitpay8241 Thanks, good to know.
dig a 5 foot deep round 12 inch hole n use the heat from the earth n put ur water tub on top of it with gravel around it
Going to try it in my horse's water bucket and hope that he doesn't take it out.
They will be curious. Our cows were curious but the bottles will move away from them. Hope it works! Thank you for watching!
is that a toilet collection at 14:25 lol
It is lol! 😂
You can go to a farm supply store & buy heated chicken waterers.
Yes. This was an experiment to see if we could save on expenses. Thank you for watching! Happy New Year!
We just add electrolytes to the waters. It benefits the animals also.
I have tried this several times and it has never worked for me.
Anything below about 10 degrees it doesn’t work for the chicken water containers. Has worked in the cow water troughs in negative weather. A lot has to do with the winds.
Please clean your chicken waterer. 😊 All that green is gross. I clean mine at least once a week. I figure, if I wouldn't want to drink it, my birds dont either. On that note, definitely going to try this!😊
Thank you for watching. We appreciate your support and feedback!
No need for kosher. Any edible, feed grade, pickling or meat curing salt would work.
Salt melts ice so it warms what is around it
Thank you!
Ty
It only works in a very small bowl or tub. We found.
It works in our cow troughs 100 gallons each but only until about 12 degrees.
It doesnt work on our 3 gallon waterers.
Darn must be very cold there.
Just a note from a jeweler remove jewelry before applying cream
I am unable to remove do to my arthritis. Rings haven’t been able to remove for over 10 years.
Why kosher salt?
Because she has Jewish livestock.
@@OldTimerGarden That must be one of the 613 Jewish laws I forgot.
You can use any salt :). Just what I had in the cupboard. Thank you for your comment!
Tried this. It doesn't work
Why only 3 tbsp in the big bottles and 1/4 cup in the smaller bottles? 🤨 Never mind it is actually the same. Not sure why she said it that way.
You are right. 1/3 cup each.
@@homesteadingwithblueskyranch Ok good! I am going to try it for my animals (cats and dogs)
I feel so bad for you all that experience such terrible cold (24 ABOVE zero) You don't know what cold REALLY is unless you've lived through a northern Minnesota winter. I've lived through 52 of them now. I've already had MINUS -25F degrees in mid December and that is far from the coldest it gets. It routinely gets -30F and -40F below zero here (and more WITHOUT the wind chill factors) in December - February. You simply insulate your chicken coop well and eliminate drafts and put heaters in them AND heated watering containers inside the closed coop. Only on days where the temperature is going to be 10F ABOVE or more do the chickens come "out to play".
We have had a solid -28 without windchill in years past. It is not fun! Thank you for watching and your comment! Stay warm! Happy New Year!
How about putting some of that cold in a container and shipping it to me here in Texas. Will accept shipment July and August only.
Love this! Sending your way! I’m ready for Spring! Happy New Year! Thank you for watching!
😊😉👍👍👍❤
I add apple cider vinegar to my water for the animals
try vingar
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My wife insists on the bottles and they never work.
thats some dirty azz water containers and water would you drink out of that wow but thanx for tip
Water is clean but there is a discoloration on the chicken waterer. Thanks for keeping me on my toes!
First, you are rude. Secondly, they are animals and an drink and eat from less than sanitary conditions and survive. Lastly, would you do better?
I hear you. My dog lives in the house with clean water, and she cannot wait to run outside to drink from the first dirty puddle she sees. Maybe she needs the minerals. Animals are made to survive in the wild, even animals we have made our own will go for the wild.
Drives me nuts to dump the chicken water every day to clean and refill and they come running to guzzle old water off the ground
LOL she removed my pic showing after in 3rd year of chickens mine are still clean i dont clean them everyday as said and removed i rinse them out when they need refilled and wash em in dishwasher once every 2-3 months but hey enjoy talking to yourselves i dont care whats posted here
No this does not work. I tried it in my stock tanks in the deep south during freezes and the water froze anyway.
Don't waste your time, buy a tank heater.
Thank you for watching. I find it works for our stock tanks down to about 12 degrees.
What kind if tank heater?
Why not put the chickens water inside their house if you have a heat lamp. Also place the heat lap closer to the floor of the house as hot air rises anyway and cold air sinks. Also tractor supplies has a bowl made 9f black rubber the ice cones our by hitting it against anything without any damage to the bowl. Also I recommend just fill the bowl with water, in the morning when you set them loose. I lock up the chickens at night in their house.
Marlene you can edit this so it makes sense just click on the right side dots & click on edit.
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I do not have a heat lamp in the coop just an led light to provide some daylight. This was purely an experiment to see if this idea worked. Thank you for watching and your great ideas! Happy New Year 😊
Using Kosher salt is completely irrelevant. ANY salt will do!
Yes this is true. Just what I had on hand. Thank you for your comment.