Day 173 - Water Woes

After our frugal and failed attempts to avoid the frustration of freezing water, we went with a  more reliable option. We bought heated waterers. We had seen them in our research. They were somewhat expensive but we were assured that they would keep the water from freezing.

Until they didn’t.

Besides being expensive, these waterers were smaller than we had hoped. To help keep nearly fifty birds from getting thirsty, we bought two. 

And just as soon  as we bought them, they broke.

The first waterer simply didn't warm up the way it should and the water froze.

The second one had an unfortunate electrical issue. While our barn didn't have running water, it did have electricity. Antiquated and minimal electricity. We had limited outlets. And, because our coops were on the opposite end of the barn’s only outlet, we had to create a maze of electrical cords to get the power to the heaters.This sometimes made earth tension of the cords more taut than needed. Combine this with subzero temperatures and things get a bit brittle. Our second waterer found this out when the metal prong at the end  cord snapped inside the waterere, rendering it essentially useless.

Just a few days into the coldest time of the year and both new and “improved” heated waterers were junk.

Fortunately, for us, they were also replaceable and covered under their warranty. After returning them both to where they were purchased and getting their replacements, we tried again. Our second set of waterers were much more successful. Their diminutive size still required us to fill them multiple times each day but at least the water stayed warm.

We survived the winter, though filling up water containers in the house and shuttling them down to the barn in frigid temperatures multiple times a day got real old real quick. When spring finally came and the threat of freezing was over, we were happy to go back to using our larger waterers which didn't require as many refills.

Now we could focus on figuring out how we could get water to the barn easier. We thought we had a solution that took care of everything.

We didn't.