Winter Water

During the winter, it is not easy to keep fresh water in the coop. Every morning, we clean the water containers, and put fresh water out for the chickens! We have one heated water container in the main run, but the other one usually freezes during the night, and occasionally during the day also. The chickens still need access to unlimited fresh water in the winter also.

This morning, I was refilling their containers, and I noticed, that even though it was 29 degrees outside, they were wanting the ice cold water directly from the hose pipe! Keep this in mind, it may take a little longer during the winter months, but your chickens can still get dehydrated if their water containers are constantly frozen.

One thing we leaned the hard way about out water spigot is how easily it freezes up, we were carrying 3 water containers to the house for a couple of days for refills until we figured out a solution. We  make sure to remove the hose after each use, and we have wrapped the main pipe in pipe insulation and zip tied it all the way to the ground, so far, it hasn’t frozen up again.

Here is a link to the heated water container that we currently use.