Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

When I was first getting set up for chickens, I bought a bunch of things when they were on sale that I thought I might be able to use. One of these items was a heated dog dish because I'd read that a number of poultry keepers used them as founts in the winter months.
It turned out that it really wasn't a practical solution for our coop/run setup, because:
- The heated dog dish took up too much space inside the coop (it's only 4' x 8')
- It had too much potential for spills which would soak the coop bedding making it a breeding area for all kinds of health issues
- It was constantly filled with bedding, even when I put it up on bricks.
- The surface area of exposed water in the dish is much larger than a conventional fount, which only has a catch tray of only about 1 3/4" around the base, so there would be significantly more evaporation and higher humidity in the coop, which as we all know is not a good thing.
I tried using it out in the run, but again, it was messy and high-maintenance out there as well: it was constantly full of stuff kicked in by the chickens scratching about, and when the temperatures went below -15 or so, the dish couldn't keep up, which meant unplugging it and bringing it inside for it to thaw out overnight, then hauling it and the water to fill it back out to the run every morning. Since I don't have a lot of time in the mornings before work, that lasted all of two days, before I gave up and just switched out regular plastic founts in the morning and in the evening, and putting them on a make-shift heater made from a string of Christmas lights stuffed into the centre of a cinder block. This kept the water from freezing completely for most of the day, until I switched it out again. Not ideal, but at least the chickens were only without free-running water for a few hours in the afternoon.
Later I wound up buying a used for one season heated plastic fount from a person who was getting out of chickens. It worked great in temperatures up to almost -20, until one day when I went to grab it to top up the water, it slipped out of my hands and cracked a piece off the catch tray. Hubby wanted to keep it to see if there was some way to fix it, and in the meantime made a clay pot heater (similar to the popular cookie tin heater), which was in use up until last week, when it died. It looked like the lamp base was fried, so hubby took another look at the base of the heated plastic fount. He tried putting one of the one gallon plastic founts on the base and found that it fit nicely inside the lip where the original water reservoir twisted in. The only problem was that now it would be a bit of a stretch for the hens to lean across the heated fount’s catch tray to drink out of the one gallon catch pan. Hubby solved that by cutting off the broken outer catch tray with one of his power saws. I tried it out earlier this week, and it works like a charm! So happy we didn’t throw it out. The plastic reservoir part however … I really can’t think of another use for it. It will be tossed out, unless someone would like a spare reservoir for their heated plastic poultry fount? It’s like this one http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produc ... _vc=-10005 .
Back to the plastic heated dog dish for a minute: I was thinking that I could use it out in the run to feed the chickens their fermented grains or porridge. With the cold temps we’ve been having they don’t have time to eat everything I put out before it freezes solid, so they can’t get it out of the dishes any more. I’ve had to throw out quite a bit of perfectly good feed the last little while, because FF is only good fresh, not previously frozen. Any opinions on whether or not the dog dish will work? Does it matter that the entire bottom won’t be covered? It’s a big bowl, like this one http://www.tscstores.com/125-GALLON-HEA ... r4jqLQrJhE

BTW these are on sale this week at TSC

hi jaye, i completely missed this post. i think if you put some water into the heated bowl and then added the fermented feeds it would be fine. I would hesitate on putting "dry" feed (only calling that because it's not going to be really moist enough to transfer the heat effectively) in without a moisture carrier (like water) to help transfer the heat. The heated bowls have a single thermostat in the bottom of the feeder, and if it doesn't get the feedback from the moisture in the bowl helping to transfer the heat around it may either 1) not turn on, or 2) once it's on it might read the air temp and not turn off....i would worry about an overheat if it doesn't get the input that the bowl is thawed from the feed inside.
you could always try it, but i think chances are without having water up to the top of the feed that the top of the feed will freeze solid (especially if it's -20 again!) while the bottom is nice....

if you do try it, i'd love to hear how it turns out. i don't do fermented feed for the chickens, but i do feed beet pulp to the horses and it would be much nicer to actually hydrate that outside so that my lab doesn't try to break into the bucket with it...i only have so much counter space in the kitchen....lol. and putting hot water into the beet pulp only lasts so long at -20....

Thanks for your input, WLLady! I was just hoping to come up with another use for this heated dog bowl, since my original reason for buying it didn’t work out. Of course, I didn’t keep the receipt, so it’s basically a $30 dust collector. You’ve got me thinking in other directions, which maybe will help me to come up with something that will work.

As long as the grains stay submerged in their lactic acid “bath,” they will be preserved indefinitely, though there comes a point when the grains can become too sour and thus, not very tasty… Since the bacteria is most beneficial when it’s served fresh, I only leave enough feed out that my chickens can finish within half an hour. This is fine when the temps are above or just below the freezing mark, but at -20c and below, when everything freezes solid before they can finish it … lots of waste.

I see your point about needing to have water to the top of the feed. The thing about lacto-fermented grains is that as long as the grains stay submerged in their lactic acid “bath,” they will be preserved, so the fermentation water is strained off just before feeding it to the hens. The hens won’t eat fermented grains sitting in the culture water probably because the culture water is a bit too much sour for them, so leaving the grains in the cultured water won’t work. Topping them up with plain water will just dilute the benefits of lacto-fermentation, I would think. When I drain off the culture water from the feed, the grains are plumped up with the culture water, but you’re right – probably not moist enough to conduct enough heat to keep them from freezing. More likely the feed will just dry out. And then freeze. I think I will abandon this idea.

:lightbulb: I think your beet pulp idea has promise, though. If the beet pulp doesn’t need to be warm for feeding, or stay warm while the water hydrates it, I think it would be worth trying out, since in theory the water should not freeze, so the beet pulp should have time to absorb it. I don’t have any beet pulp to try it out though. If you have a heated bucket, it would be worth a try to see what happens.

Another thing I wanted to try was to fill the bowl with some sand that I have that for some reason has high moisture content. It’s stored outside, and is a solid rock in the bag right now. I thought that maybe if I put it in the bowl and plugged it in, it would help to thaw the water in the sand out and maybe even evaporate some of the moisture. Plus, it’s big enough for one hen at a time to take a dust bath in it, so I thought if I put it inside the coop and plugged it in on really cold days when they don’t go out, at least it would serve some purpose. Or maybe I’ll just sell it. LOL

well, i do have a heated dog dish that is annoying me....it's not so great at -15, so i will have to pull the thermostat and replace it, but in the meantime, it's going to be a gentle -6 or so, so i think i'll try your beet pulp idea, and see what happens. of course, my horses are 2000 pound super eaters, so the one dog dish won't be enough, but i usually hydrate it in the house overnight, i can put some in the dish and see what happens. if it works....hm.....

i like your idea of the dust bath. you'd probably have to keep putting the sand back into the dish....(at least if your chickens are anything like mine!)....

the other thing i've seen is people making plywood lids for the water bowls. they're just slightly bigger than the lip on the bowl, and then a hole just bigger than a chicken head is drilled in the "lid" for access. stops the birds from stepping in the water and generally making a mess. also insulates the bowl a tad, preventing evaporation out of the "lid"...