Category: Chicken Waterers

We decided to try out a heat tape waterer this winter.  The instructions call for a 15 foot length of heat tape, but Mark wants to find out whether a 3 foot length will work as well.  If so, the shorter heat tape should use less electricity and will definitely make the construction process cheaper and easier.

Materials included:

• bucket
  waterer
• a second bucket from Lowes
• 3 foot heat tape
• duct tape
• screwdriver
• drill
• jigsaw
• coping saw

First, Mark removed the handle from the bucket waterer using the screwdriver.

Next, we fiddled around for a while until we figured out the best way to cut the extra bucket into an outside housing for the new heated waterer.  This step will vary depending on the style of your bucket, but if you use Lowes buckets, you’ll want to cut in a line that follows the bottom of the
blue “Lowes” logo.  (Mark suspects that a three gallon bucket might just need the very bottom removed — that’ll be our next experiment since cutting off so much of the bucket felt wasteful.)  Either way, start your hole with the drill, then make your cut with the jigsaw.

The coping saw made a small slit about three inches down the side of the outer bucket. This
slit will allow us to thread the power cord out the side.  (If you’re using a Lowes bucket, the slit goes down to the end of the blue logo.)

We used duct tape to attach the heat tape to the outside of the bucket waterer, close to the bottom. 

Then it was easy to push the sawed off bucket over top of the bucket waterer, letting the cord come out the slit.

So far, our heated chicken waterer has stayed thawed down to the mid twenties Fahrenheit.  I’ll be sure to report back once we discover its lower limit.

Edited on October 29, 2013 to add: It looks like the lower limit of this particular unit as built is 16 degrees Fahrenheit.  We’re experimenting with some new possibilities this winter as well, so stay tuned to our heated chicken waterer page for updates.

As cold weather descends on our chicken coops
and tractors, I tend to get a flurry of emails.  Everyone wants to know the same thing — will the Avian Aqua Miser work in the winter?  My quick answer — it will work better than a
conventional gravity-feed waterer, but you’ll need to do a little more work as the weather cools.

First of all, throwing a stock tank heater in the Avian Aqua Miser doesn’t work since the nipple tends to freeze before the reservoir.  We’re still working on an innovative solution to that problem.  If you’ve figured it out, we’d love to hear from you!

(Edited on October 29, 2013 to add: Actually, we’ve solved this problem in the years since we wrote this post.  You can always see the
most up-to-date posts on our heated chicken waterer page.  As of today, we use a homemade heated chicken waterer built around one of our Avian Aqua Miser Original kits, two buckets, and a
three foot length of pipe heating cable ($23).  However, our tips for using unheated waterers still stand the test of time, so keep reading.)

We have three chicken tractors, so we use pre-made (half gallon) Avian Aqua Misers.  We find it easy to take the waterers in at night after the girls have settled down on their roosts, hanging the clean waterers on a shelf in the kitchen then replacing the waterers in the tractors the next morning.  We like to have a few extra waterers on hand, though, since sometimes we forget and let our waterers stay out overnight and freeze solid.  The frozen waterers thaw out within a few hours indoors with no apparent damage (though I suspect the reservoir might crack after a few months if we just left them out to freeze every night.)

In a coop setting, especially with large bucket waterers, most chicken-keepers instead opt to prevent the Avian Aqua Miser from freezing in the first place.  You’d be surprised at how well a light bulb in the coop works to keep the air temperature above 32 F.  The light bulb will also extend the day length and keep your chickens laying at summertime levels all winter long!