Dealing with frost for chicken drinks?

[4Shoes]

We use a water butt but that will freeze in prolonged frost.

d000hg

Please consider all your friends and backyard poultry keepers. You really should not be watering your chickens with rain water if it could be contaminated with bird droppings.

A water butt can be used for a local store, but it must be clean, covered and filled from a clean water supply. I'm sure many of the ideas listed will help you deal with frozen water, but you should review the biosecurity advice detailed below and look at what improvement are possible.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/avian-in...ecurity-advice

And here is an extract on how AI is spread..

How avian influenza is spread
The disease spreads from bird to bird by direct contact or through contaminated body fluids and faeces. It can also be spread by contaminated feed and water or by dirty vehicles, clothing and footwear.
The avian influenza virus changes frequently, creating new strains, and there is a constant risk that one of the new strains may spread easily among people. But there is no evidence that any recent strain of avian influenza has been able to spread directly between people.
Avian influenza isn’t an airborne disease.

[SarrissUK]

I'd never even thought of that! I never thought to use a water butt to water my chickens, but still.. I'd not made that connection either.

I have two drinkers for them, and swap them out every 12 hours when it's really cold.

[d000hg]

Which bird types can communicate disease to my chickens by crapping into the water butt?
Not a consideration I'd had.

On the main topic, we used to carry a can of water every day and even with an outside tap not frozen it's a pain to carry it 100m...a minor 2min thing but it just seemed more sustainable as well as convenient to harvest the rain.

[Guest]

Just an aside and just saying. Rainwater v tap water is a very personal thing.

I have known breeders to claim against water boards as the water has been responsible for the drop of fertility in their birds. Rainwater is softer and better for animals. The next best thing is cooled boiled water but that is a bit extreme for your chooks. (by the way I use tap out of convenience )

[veggiechicken]

Which bird types can communicate disease to my chickens by crapping into the water butt?
Not a consideration I'd had.

On the main topic, we used to carry a can of water every day and even with an outside tap not frozen it's a pain to carry it 100m...a minor 2min thing but it just seemed more sustainable as well as convenient to harvest the rain.

A 100m!! Thought you were talking about half a mile. How many chickens do you have? 6 maybe? How much water does a chook drink in a day? If it was a pint I'd be surprised.

I keep a 6 pint plastic milk container in the kitchen to collect the "hot" tap water that isn't "hot" - when it starts running. I use this water for the chooks and seedlings. Ticks all the boxes for me.

[d000hg]

It's the principle... who wouldn't rather spend 10 hours on a project that will save 2 minutes a day

[veggiechicken]

First thing I do in the morning is say Hello to the chooks - and let them out of their coop. Its takes me a lot more than 2 minutes as I have to have a little chat with each one, give them a smooth (a stroke) and give their home a look over. Its one of the highlights of my day.

[Scarlet]

On the main topic, we used to carry a can of water every day and even with an outside tap not frozen it's a pain to carry it 100m...a minor 2min thing but it just seemed more sustainable as well as convenient to harvest the rain.

You can just hook up a 100m hose? We have two joined up by a connector....

[d000hg]

First thing I do in the morning is say Hello to the chooks - and let them out of their coop. Its takes me a lot more than 2 minutes as I have to have a little chat with each one, give them a smooth (a stroke) and give their home a look over. Its one of the highlights of my day.

Do you let them roam freely? I like watching them come out of the coop but within the first minute they all do massive poos which makes me prefer to leave them to it until later on
I do like to bring them scraps later in the day - today they are getting kebab and chicken casserole (we ate all the chicken!)

You can just hook up a 100m hose? We have two joined up by a connector....

Could except it crosses our gate and might trip someone... and as I said when it's cold the thing will just freeze I suppose I could bury one. Our main garden is away and down a big slope from the house so actually running mains water down there might be a plan in the future for gardening, etc.

[veggiechicken]

Do you let them roam freely? I like watching them come out of the coop but within the first minute they all do massive poos which makes me prefer to leave them to it until later on

Their coop is inside a walk-in run, with roof to keep it reasonably dry.
When I'm in the garden they're out with me, when I'm not they're in their run or their other run, which is not roofed.

[Scarlet]

Do you let them roam freely? I like watching them come out of the coop but within the first minute they all do massive poos which makes me prefer to leave them to it until later on
I do like to bring them scraps later in the day - today they are getting kebab and chicken casserole (we ate all the chicken!)

Could except it crosses our gate and might trip someone... and as I said when it's cold the thing will just freeze I suppose I could bury one. Our main garden is away and down a big slope from the house so actually running mains water down there might be a plan in the future for gardening, etc.

I put mine through plastic white pipe to give it some protection and buried it so that I wouldn't have to reel it in every time we got the mower out.
My stepdad then fitted it to a tap near the chickens coops....but it does freeze. Though it saves a ton of work most of the year.
The water pressure isn't great but it is better than carrying it every day.

[4Shoes]

I do like to bring them scraps later in the day - today they are getting kebab and chicken casserole (we ate all the chicken!)

.

DEFRA police here Cease. Step away with that pie!!

Just posting this more as an information thing.

It has been illegal since 2014 to feed animal protein products to farm animals. In the legislation, poultry are farm animals.

I could go on, but essentially you are not allowed to feed anything that contains meat products, has been in your kitchen or to feed meal worms to your poultry. All sound bit OTT, but animal products were thought to be the source of the last incidents of Mad Cow Disease (BSE), Foot and Mouth and Swine Fever.

The legislation also prohibits feeding of vegetable waste from in your kitchen.
To work within the legislation, you can "prepare/clean ready for use" in a utility room, in the garden or anywhere else. Just not in a kitchen.

[d000hg]

Good grief, one of the nice things about chickens is to reduce food waste and use up scraps.

The world's gone mad!

[SarrissUK]

I can see it from both sides... my chickens like scraps too. Now I take my peelings and instead of dumping them in to the chicken coop, I boil them up, then chuck in some oats and make a porridge for them. If boiling doesn't kill germs off, then it won't make a difference if I feed them to my chickens or not lol

[Scarlet]

I give mine the occasional scraps from the kitchen. I think it's quite different to using catering waste where everything (raw meat/cooked meat/ veg/left over food etc) gets chucked in together. Though as a rule I've never fed them much other that the usual chicken pellets. Any extras are once in a blue moon. They easily get fat and stop laying if you keep giving "empty" treats.