Heated chicken waterer experiments

The time has come to think
about heated
waterers
again.  For those of you who haven’t been following along, you can
read the last couple of years worth of experiments by following the
link above.  If you’re more of a facebooker, you can see my
favorite heated chicken waterers in visual form here.



Even though we like
several of the heated waterer options we’ve used and seen, there’s
still room for improvement.  Our heat
tape chicken waterer
did a great job last winter, keeping the flock’s drinking water thawed
until we hit a low in the mid teens, but I think the design could use
some work on the ease-of-construction side.  Perhaps this ultra-cheap
heated bucket would
make a good starting point?



I
also want to make the insulation a bit more high tech (and less
clunky).  Roland pointed out that a circle of sytrofoam on top of
the lid would be a great addition to our Reflectix wrap, and I also
want to improve on the wrapping design.



Meanwhile, as I was
perusing old photos, I remembered Marvin
Bartel’s old design
from a few years ago.  I wonder if a thermocube plus a better
heating element could help keep the nipples thawed at yet lower
temperatures.



Any new heated chicken
waterer designs kicking around out there?  I’d love to see your
photos — email them to info@avianaquamiser.com and I’ll share them on the
blog.