Winter weather watering

[skysthelimit]

Trying to devise a plan, with the advisory of a long cold winter. Not looking forward to filling up 10 gallons in the house, down a flight of steps, and out to the barn every day. Short of reducing numbers, I have to think of a way to reduce the hassle. I was thinking of filling a rain barrel and putting in a stock tank heater, but someone pointed out how heavy that would be to wheel around to refill.

 

[Secuono]

Have a hose?? Just refill with the hose, drain hose and put it in the barn with the water barrel.

 

[skysthelimit]

Have a hose?? Just refill with the hose, drain hose and put it in the barn with the water barrel.

Of course it's not that easy, lol.

Outside spigots are turned off in the winter to keep them from freezing down the line to an unheated basement. Turning it on will result in the water left in the spigot freezing the spigot closed. Been there, tried that, then couldn't get it closed, and it broke the spigot when it expanded, and leaked after it thawed.

The only source of water is the kitchen, and the barn is on the side, not the back. Hose around the house to the barn, a 100ft house doesn't reach the distance. Usually I cart the gallon jugs to the back of the house every morning. No hose across the living room carpet. If there was a way to heat the pipe and the spigot, I would still have to drain the hose each use and carry it into the house, where it would freeze in the unheated basement.

Seriously, how do the Amish water their animals? Maybe well pumped water doesn't freeze?

 

[Secuono]

Well pumps freeze, ours does. We have the well-house insulated and heated now.

Why not get another hose and hook it up to the kitchen faucet? That's what I do for refilling my fishtanks.


Insulate and heat the barn?
Circulating automatic water with heater and insulation?

 

[JessicaR]

Im in the same boat as you Sky, winter in Ohio sucks! We also turn our hose off in the winter to avoid it from freezing, then leaking in the spring. Of course my rabbit numbers are small, only 8 adults, but I just haul gallon milk jugs of water twice a day to the rabbits and chickens. I wish I had an answer for you.

 

[MaggieJ]

Sky, can you use the rain barrel with stock tank heater and just dip from it by the bucketful down in the barn? Seems to me that would be easier than moving the barrel around. The only thing I wonder about is refilling the barrel... if you are using ten gallons a day, a fifty-five gallon barrel would do you less than a week.

 

[Dood]

Seriously, how do the Amish water their animals?

they carry it

Maybe well pumped water doesn't freeze?

we have a livestock well, it is below the frost line (3.5 feet in our area) so doesn't freeze but we do have to drain the pipes after using as they will freeze and plug up with ice or possibly burst.

Im not sure where your barn is in relation to the kitchen but how about putting the hose out a window?

They have new expandable hoses that shrink to a manageable size

If our well is out of commission then we fill a bunch of pails, put them on a trailer and use the ATV to drive them out the animals. Perhaps you could refil the big barrel this way but use a wagon to transport 3-4 buckets of water at once.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I second the idea of running the hose from the kitchen faucet. You can buy an adapter at the hardware store that will allow you to connect the hose to it (I had one when we lived in the suburbs so I could bathe the dogs with warm water outside).

Draining the hose is a hassle, so I would say don't bother. Ready for an "Ah-ha!" moment? :mrgreen:

Drum roll, please...

Coil it up and put it in the barrel with the stock tank heater.

Voila!

Problem solved.

*Smug grin*

 

[tailwagging]

if you can have more then one covered 55 gal barrels/or trash cans then you would have to run the hose to fill them up less often.

 

[skysthelimit]

Well pumps freeze, ours does. We have the well-house insulated and heated now.

Why not get another hose and hook it up to the kitchen faucet? That's what I do for refilling my fishtanks.


Insulate and heat the barn?
Circulating automatic water with heater and insulation?

Not gonna drag a hose through the dining room, across cream carpet, out the front door to the barn.

Don't have the money to insulate and heat that barn, don't have the money to insulate and heat my house. After the $1000 gas bill, I turned the furnace off, and now only heat the room I am physically in, and periodically a space heater that keeps my house pipes from freezing. The barn is bigger than my house.

I wish I could afford a heated system. Even when I was working, that wasn't financially possible.<br /><br />__________ Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:36 am __________<br /><br />

Sky, can you use the rain barrel with stock tank heater and just dip from it by the bucketful down in the barn? Seems to me that would be easier than moving the barrel around. The only thing I wonder about is refilling the barrel... if you are using ten gallons a day, a fifty-five gallon barrel would do you less than a week.

That's what I was thinking, but it's better every three days than every day.


I would just fill up the five gallon jugs once every few days and have them stored in the barn, but they would freeze solid.

I know they have 5 gallon heated buckets, do they have 10 gallon? I wonder what's the largest one I could get that I could cart out there?

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

I am in the same vote as sky.. I have to truck my water for my chickens,, pigs, and rabbits.. so that is a lot of water.. No heat.. I don't have to as far as you do sky.. but still I have to make two trips for all that water 2x a day. Unless hubby is off and he helps me with it .. which isn't to often. I was thinking on how I can just do one trip a day or every other day.. I haven't found the solution yet.My tap outside is frozen now..unless I get a warm day ,, I can use it that day .also trying to figure out on how to do the water for the rabbits .. with out getting my fingers wet.. once they are wet.. I am coldddddd.

 

[skysthelimit]

If our well is out of commission then we fill a bunch of pails, put them on a trailer and use the ATV to drive them out the animals. Perhaps you could refil the big barrel this way but use a wagon to transport 3-4 buckets of water at once.

The barn is on the side of the house, through the dining and living rooms. I cannot imagine what use that was when this place was a real farm/orchard. I imagine that this was not the main house either. There have been several times when I considered just having the barn knocked down, and putting all the rabbits in the back yard, with the barn in my front yard some things are so inconvenient.

Any way to heat the spigot to keep it from freezing?

 

[tailwagging]

That's what I was thinking, but it's better every three days than every day.


I would just fill up the five gallon jugs once every few days and have them stored in the barn, but they would freeze solid.

I know they have 5 gallon heated buckets, do they have 10 gallon? I wonder what's the largest one I could get that I could cart out there?

not sure if it will work up where you are but can you cover your 5 gal jugs with blankets (or straw) and store them in trash cans?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Not gonna drag a hose through the dining room, across cream carpet, out the front door to the barn.

You don't have a window in front of your sink? I thought that was pretty standard so while doing dishes you could look out the window. :?

I used to just take the screen off and run the hose out the window.

 

[skysthelimit]

if you can have more then one covered 55 gal barrels/or trash cans then you would have to run the hose to fill them up less often.

True. If I set up several of them, with several stock heaters, then I can maybe set a week or two worth of water, and I could justify buying a really long hose to run out the kitchen around to the barn. The good thing is all the junk is out the barn, and I have a lot more space than before.

How hard is it to open an old hot water heater tank? I might be able to get one of those, and put a stock heater in it.

__________ Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:53 am __________

not sure if it will work up where you are but can you cover your 5 gal jugs with blankets (or straw) and store them in trash cans?

Hmm. I don't know. It rarely gets colder than 15F, not counting days with lake effect wind chill. But we did not have a hot summer, and I don't believe the lake is going to keep the air that warm this winter.

__________ Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:57 am __________

Not gonna drag a hose through the dining room, across cream carpet, out the front door to the barn.

You don't have a window in front of your sink? I thought that was pretty standard so while doing dishes you could look out the window. :?

I used to just take the screen off and run the hose out the window.

Not over the sink. The sink is on the wall facing the dining room. The window is on the other side, facing away from the barn.

I'm going to peek and see how long collapsible hoses are, the 100 foot hose does not reach from the back of the house to the barn door.<br /><br />__________ Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:35 pm __________<br /><br />As far as the recirc system. it's not the system that makes it expensive. I still don't have good, permanent cages for every rabbit. About half the barn has cheap wire, and half the barn has good cages. The turnover to good cages is slow, because the rabbitry doesn't pay for itself, and takes a nice chunk of funds. Not very cost effective. Lots of makeshift going on around here.

Once all the cages are in place, I will definitely consider a rigid pipe system that can be heated.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The sink is on the wall facing the dining room.

Hmm. I have never been in a kitchen that has an outside wall where the sink wasn't facing a window. Maybe it is a regional thing then, and in cold climates they avoid running plumbing on outside walls. :?

 

[MaggieJ]

I've never been in a house that did not have a window over the sink, so I think it is more likely that Sky just has an unusual kitchen, MSD. Our pipes all run along outside walls and it really does not make sense in this climate. We have to be vigilant to keep the pipes from freezing if it goes below -15 degrees C. (5 degrees F.)

Sky, I think our advice might be more on-target if we had a better picture of your set-up. How many cages do you have and are you using crocks/dishes or bottles in winter?

When my rabbits were in cages, I used a make-shift but inexpensive system using 16 oz. freezer boxes from the dollar store. I'd be glad to explain this system again, if you think it might be helpful.

I could go cage to cage with bucket of warm water, pop out the ice and refill very easily. I wore rubber gloves and if my fingers got cold, I could warm them in the water. It was the easiest way I found to keep the buns in water but there was the issue of cross-contamination to face, if there had been a problem among the rabbits. In those days, I was lucky enough that this was not an issue.

 

[Dood]

Livestock water trough heaters are like big aquarium heaters and can keep anywhere from 10 to 400 gallons of water from freezing. It is actually easier and more cost efficient to keep a large body of water above freezing than a small amount so I would try and get the largest water tank you can.

We also wrap our 80 gal. barrels in a couple inches of bubble wrap insulation to help keep the heat in and help lower the electricity bill.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

Maggie can you explain that system that you are talking about.. I might be interested in it.

 

[MaggieJ]

Sure, glad to, Mary Ann. I'll start a new thread so as not to hijack this one.