Yesterday here in North Carolina, the temperatures stayed in the 20’s. That’s pretty cold for us southern folks.
All of the children were so excited over the chance of snow! Schools were scheduled to close a couple of hours early and it looked like we might see some of the beautiful white stuff.
I bundled up to check on my chickens and found their water founts frozen solid! I anticipated some ice, but not a frozen block of ice. My daughter attempted to break the ice, but each blow just slipped away and the ice remained strong. I knew that would be a losing battle, so I had to come up with something else.
Aha! Last year I had purchased one of those little heaters that goes under the water founts! That would take care of at least ONE coop and I could lock all of the chickens together if needed. So with that plan, I ran out to the shelter to unpack it. I ripped open the box like a child at Christmas! With great excitement (and frozen fingers) I tore off the plastic and read the instructions.
OH
NO!
To prevent ELECTRICAL SHOCK — the manufacturers suggested not using an extension cord! What? Do people ACTUALLY have an outlet in a chicken coop right beside of their water founts? I certainly don’t. Well, that knocked out that great idea!
Without a close outlet, I had to move on to plan B and use some redneck engineering! (I am grateful to have some of my daddy in me.) Thankfully a guy I know had told me that he had used his heat lamp to keep his chicken’s water from freezing. (Thanks Jeff.) I wasn’t sure if it would work for me because he uses the 5 gallon bucket type of waterer. But it was worth a try and my chickens needed water.
In the photo below, you can see that the water fount on the ground is actually a block of ice. The heat lamp worked and even melted through the frozen waterer!
The coop in the photo below doesn’t belong to the Rhode Island Reds, but they claimed it as their own as soon as I installed the heat lamp. Since they enjoyed this coop so much, I allowed many of them to have a sleep-over last night.
Oh, and about all of the excitement concerning a chance of snow … We didn’t receive snow, but ICE. Our daughter was bummed because there was no snow to play in and I was concerned because nothing good comes from ice-covered roads. There were a lot of accidents yesterday and I was grateful to be tucked away in our warm house.
I pray as the temperatures reach the 40s today, all of the ice will quickly disappear.
This is what our drive looks like. Yep, a sheet of ice …
Have a happy and safe Saturday everyone!
Psalm 92:1-2
It is good to praise the Lord
and make music to Your name, O Most High,
proclaiming Your love in the morning
and Your faithfulness at night
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Hey Beth
I love your blog.
Keep on inspiring the world to follow Christ
Please check out my blog at rockingtherunway.blogspot.com
LOL! I love that you called your post “Red Light District” That’s always what I think of when I look out at my chicken coop at night. We use the heat lamp near our water fount too, and it works for all but the very coldest days and nights here in North Central Washington. Thankfully we do have power in the coop,so no extension cords here. I keep trying to think up a way to warm the keep the rabbit water from freezing up out in the garden. For now I just bring the bottles in to thaw, then bring them back out each day. Hope it has warmed back up for you!