Freezing Quail waterers

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newridersdad
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Freezing Quail waterers

Post by newridersdad » Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:55 pm

I put out a couple of johnny houses on some land about 20 miles from my home. There is no electricity on this land and with our recent cold weather the pvc tube waterer has been freezing. I travel for work and cannot check these every day. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the waterer from freezing without electricity? My johnny houses are 4'x4'x6' and the pvc waterer is mounted inside the johnny house. Thank you for any suggestions.

Pepper
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Re: Freezing Quail waterers

Post by Pepper » Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:10 pm

There are heaters to keep water from freezing, but since you don't have electric, then snow is their water, provided you have snow or a stream nearby :)

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hi-tailyn
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Re: Freezing Quail waterers

Post by hi-tailyn » Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:37 pm

Waiting to see if anyone has any good ideas on this.

Don't know if solar powered battery would power a heater enough to thaw out some of the waterers or not.

When I used pvc with nipples they froze and broke the fittings every time it froze at night.

I switched to 5 and 30 gal barrels with nipples on the bottom and it may freeze some, but they never break and loose all the water. The quail so far have been doing ok with this arrangement for the past 3 winters. I know our winters are nothing like up north, but we do get our share of freezes.
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Scott Linden
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Re: Freezing Quail waterers

Post by Scott Linden » Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:47 pm

I wonder if wrapping in black plastic might at least pull more sunlight and thaw things faster.

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DonF
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Re: Freezing Quail waterers

Post by DonF » Tue Dec 02, 2014 5:42 am

Never tried it but, you might wrap it with heat tape and insulation and hook it up to a deep cycle battery with a solar charger.

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SetterNut
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Re: Freezing Quail waterers

Post by SetterNut » Tue Dec 02, 2014 7:11 am

I would think that you could use an aquarium pump to keep a little water moving. That should take less power than a heating tape. So the solar power and battery might work. You would likely need to put a thermostat on it so that the pump only came on below freezing.

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DonF
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Re: Freezing Quail waterers

Post by DonF » Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:31 am

I think at one time Doug Favor mentioned doing that on his place. An underground tank that pumps clean water through a water'er. Has to have some kind of pump.

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