Adding heat tape to a chicken waterer

Adding heat tape to a chicken waterer to keep it from freezingMy name is Jim Hoffman, and
we live in New Bern, NC. We have used
your little red
clicking waterer accessory
for a few months now. We
installed three of them on the bottom of a 3 gallon drinking water
container available at Lowes or Home Depot.




They work great until
the weather got cold and the temperatures wanted to freeze the water
and the clicker accessory. What we did, is purchased a electric heat
tape cord, also available at Lowes or Home Depot in the pipe section.
They come in 3 lengths, 12 feet, 18 feet or 28 feet I think. Not very
expensive. Simply wrap the black part of the cord in a spiral format
around the tank to cover the most surface area.




Bucket chicken watererWe put our water on a stand
with galvanized legs. Attached the sensor to the galvanized leg to
measure temperature. When the temperature falls below 36 degrees, it
comes on automatically to insure bottle temp does not freeze. Also goes
off automatically. It provides just enough heat to keep the temp above
freezing and also keeps the clicker accessory from freezing as well.
Takes very little power to run as it is thermostatic.




Keep plug out of reach of chickensWe
use packing tape to secure cord to water jug and make sure chickens did
not pick at it. We also kept the plug connection outside the cage for
the same reason and out of chicken reach. Hope the idea helps you all.




— Jim Hoffman

We recommend our 3 pack
DIY kit
for making a
heated waterer for up to 50 chickens.  The CD that comes with each
kit includes complete instructions to help you build our favorite
heated options without any trial and error.




The heated waterer
we use in our own coop requires two buckets,
a
three foot length of pipe heating cable
($23), and the contents of
our kit.  With a layer of
chicken-friendly
insulation
, the
waterer is good down into the teens.

Latest Comments

  1. Diane Roeder February 20, 2011
  2. anna February 24, 2011

Leave a Reply