How do you keep animals water buckets from freezing?

bcabrobin

Looking for ideas on how you all keep water from freezing.

No electric to the barn, chicken coops area. So off grid ideas, please.

If it gets really cold the water in the goats barn will freeze, if its' mild sitting the buckets inside in a pile of hay helps, but when it gets into the teens and down, they freeze even there.

Have rubber buckets and that helps to break the ice if it's not thick.

Last year I tried wrapping the buckets in the wool from sheep shearing - it didn't keep the buckets from freezing.

Every year I've tried new ideas - it gets old quick when you have to carry water, ok not carry we have a sled with milk crates tied on, but you get the idea.

Also looking for ideas to keep the big tanks 250 gal. from freezing, again non electric ideas please.

naomi.kohlmeier

I haven't tried this, but somewhere I saw that a person filled a gallon jug with a strong saltwater solution and placed it in the water tank. You do have to make sure the salt water doesn't leak into the fresh water.

My FIL used to keep goldfish in the stock tank. They lived there for years. I don't know what their purpose was, though. Maybe the movement kept the water from freezing?

Here are some more ideas I found here: https://thegrownetwork.com/7-ways-to-keep-livestock-water-tanks-from-freezing/

Hope these help!

Seeking Serenity and Harmony

I know I have heard about putting ping pong balls in the water and the movement of the balls keeps the water from freezing. That was for poultry water.

Merin Porter

A few other good ideas here: https://thegrownetwork.com/how-to-keep-chicken-water-from-freezing/

HearthForYou

There are some great ideas in the comment section of the article above. Just to throw an idea out there to brainstorm off of, I wonder if building a small rocket stove with a cob bench to radiate the heat throughout the night would work. It wouldn't need much wood and should be pretty safe.

bcabrobin

Thank you everyone for the great ideas!

Need to add making water heaters to the must complete by winter list. (I think the list is getting longer not shorter, and I need to add the words this winter to the title)