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 Expert
Posts: 2276
  
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | im not a fan of having heated buckets...i have the worst luck and im afraid of a fire or one of the horses messing with it.
we are having a brutal winter right now for what were used to temps right around 0 and -10 to -20 with windchill and my buckets are freezing faster than the horses can drink it.
i saw somewhere someone menioned putting like a ball or something in the bucket to float around to keep it from freezing...does that actually work? never heard of that before.
ive also seen these new bucket cozy things to help insulate it..anybosy tried them or have any tricks i can try?? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 448
Location: lone star state | I turn my hot water on hot. Fill buckets with hot water and water my horses this way. Horses love it. Its like you having hot coffee. they play until its cool enough to drink. No worry about shock or other problems with heaters. My next barn will have a water heater built in :) |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 762
Location: NC | my inside buckets have coozys on them. Can tell you they def help and if they get ice, its so thin its easily broken. The only thing is my lovely mare likes to pull tops off and dunk them in her buckets. Otherwise my gelding doesnt touch the coozy but drinks a bunch. I also haul hot water out when i go feed 2x a day (they are rough boarded 2 miles from my home. i fill gas jugs with hot water and go) |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I have heated tubs and they drink so much more. Easier than buckets to keep water in them so the horses don't get so tempted to play with them. And no the ball thing doesn't work. I broke out a 2" ice sheet from around the ball in the unheated tank yesterday and our high was 27. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | I don't have a way to heat my mare pasture. I tried the milk jug filled with salt water, but my 2 year old decided it was more fun to pick it up and throw it at the other horses. I'm out twice a day breaking ice. |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | Nothing will ever be better than heated buckets. I have heated buckets in the barn, then a heater in the 100 gallon trough in the pasture. They love their warm water and drink a ton. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Heated buckets and heated stock water tanks.
I will take my chances with the buckets malfunctioning, as the fear of loosing a horse due to colic scares me more.
Horses are more prone to colic in winter due to reduced water intake due to lack of adequate water sources |
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Expert
Posts: 2276
Location: ohio-in my own little world with pretty ponies :) | cheryl makofka - 2015-01-09 1:11 PM
Heated buckets and heated stock water tanks.
I will take my chances with the buckets malfunctioning, as the fear of loosing a horse due to colic scares me more.
Horses are more prone to colic in winter due to reduced water intake due to lack of adequate water sources
That's what I'm most afraid of. Not sure why I didn't think of hauling hot water out there lol our barn isn't far from the house either. They are all getting warm beat pulp 2x a day to help get more water in them. I think I may try the cozy things. At least get one and see how it works for now. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| firewaterfuelsme - 2015-01-09 11:56 AM
I turn my hot water on hot. Fill buckets with hot water and water my horses this way. Horses love it. Its like you having hot coffee. they play until its cool enough to drink. No worry about shock or other problems with heaters. My next barn will have a water heater built in :)
Doesn't hot water freeze faster? Or do they drink it all before it freezes? |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| IowaCanChaser - 2015-01-09 12:35 PM
firewaterfuelsme - 2015-01-09 11:56 AM
I turn my hot water on hot. Fill buckets with hot water and water my horses this way. Horses love it. Its like you having hot coffee. they play until its cool enough to drink. No worry about shock or other problems with heaters. My next barn will have a water heater built in :)
Doesn't hot water freeze faster? Or do they drink it all before it freezes?
yes warm water freezes faster. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| My feed is fed soaked anyway but in the winter they get soup plus when they are done eating I feel their feed buckets backup with water and they drink every drop. I feed off the ground with those black rubber tubs. |
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| you could try an insulated bucket holder: http://www.sstack.com/water-buckets-waterers/High-Country-Insulated-Bucket-Holder-Black/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=paid_search_google_pla&scid=scplp712763&gclid=CM6WlYXJh8MCFYKPMgodoAsAsA
I used 1 years ago & while it isn't going to work when it is 20 with negative windchills, it is certainly better than just the bucket alone.
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 Tough Patooty
Posts: 2615
Location: Sperry, OK | FlyingJT - 2015-01-09 12:38 PM IowaCanChaser - 2015-01-09 12:35 PM firewaterfuelsme - 2015-01-09 11:56 AM I turn my hot water on hot. Fill buckets with hot water and water my horses this way. Horses love it. Its like you having hot coffee. they play until its cool enough to drink. No worry about shock or other problems with heaters. My next barn will have a water heater built in :) Doesn't hot water freeze faster? Or do they drink it all before it freezes? yes warm water freezes faster.
It's called the Mpemba effect. |
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Expert
Posts: 1477
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | Not trying to steal OPs post but what about us that's getting abnormally cold weather? I've been breaking ice the last 2 days and all my faucets are froze in the mornings and shortly after dark. It's really not worth spending the money on heated buckets because they would never get used except on rare occasions. So is there anything I can do to help them not freeze? I have one horse that is having to stay in a stall 24/7 and his water freezes during the night. I tried to leave his faucet dripping last night but that didn't work. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1182
Location: Do I hear Banjos? |
Has anyone here tried the geothermal heating method? What you want to do is dig a hole 5-6 feet deep. you need a big round pipe of some sort to put in the hole (say a 12" PVC), so it will be flush with the ground. Put it straight up and down, fill the area around it with dirt and put some kind of heavy metal grate over it, then put the water tank on top. If you then cover part of the tank it shouldn't freeze, down to about 5 or 10 below freezing. The colder your area the deeper you need. The larger the trough you may need more than one pipe sunk. Banking up around the trough with sand helps insulate it a bit as well.
We use a deicer now but we are thinking about trying this method. With an auger on the tractor it wouldn't be hard to do. And...we don't get down below 20 for any length of time generally. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1446
Location: Wisconsin | lexyy12 - 2015-01-09 10:43 AM im not a fan of having heated buckets...i have the worst luck and im afraid of a fire or one of the horses messing with it.
we are having a brutal winter right now for what were used to temps right around 0 and -10 to -20 with windchill and my buckets are freezing faster than the horses can drink it.
i saw somewhere someone menioned putting like a ball or something in the bucket to float around to keep it from freezing...does that actually work? never heard of that before.
ive also seen these new bucket cozy things to help insulate it..anybosy tried them or have any tricks i can try?? No, its too cold right now for the ball not to get frozen solid in the tank. The bigger the tank the longer it will take to freeze, well I should say the more water you have the longer it will take to freeze. Before last week I broke ice in my 100 gallon water tank morning and night, if I was home during the day at noon as well. I now have the Richie waterer hooked up with electric, I spoilied myself this fall and had a water line dug for a hydrant and the automatic waterer. I know that is not an option for everyone but if anyone is on the fence about spending the money to do it, go for it. I wish I would have had it done sooner.
Edited by mcorcoran 2015-01-09 1:11 PM
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  Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | So for those that are using heated buckets and tank heaters, if you don't have electricity right at the location of the bucket, do you run extension cords? My horses stay turned out unless there is moisture coming and there is no outlet near my pastures. I'd have to run about 100 feet of extension cords. Is this what you all do? I do have a couple of outlets in the barn, but they aren't right at my stalls either.
Edited by Herbie 2015-01-09 1:05 PM
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 World 4D Champ
Posts: 28264
Location: PA | Herbie - 2015-01-09 2:04 PM So for those that are using heated buckets and tank heaters, if you don't have electricity right at the location of the bucket, do you run extension cords? My horses stay turned out unless there is moisture coming and there is no outlet near my pastures. I'd have to run about 100 feet of extension cords. Is this what you all do? I do have a couple of outlets in the barn, but they aren't right at my stalls either.
This is exactly what I do. At the house we just sold, the outlet was about 200 ft from pasture. We strung 3 heavy duty extension cords together for our tank de-icer.
At our new house, its about 110 ft...and we have 2 heavy duty extension cords together. Never had an issue.
Last year was the first year I used a de-icer because I always thought the pasture was too far from the outlet (200 ft)...man, I wish I would have asked people sooner if it was feasible!! I'll NEVER go another winter without a de-icer!!!! Best $20 winter investment I've made! |
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| I run 1 to a tank heater... 2 cords. I wrapped the connections with electrical tape. |
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Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | BRcwgrl81 - 2015-01-09 1:12 PM Herbie - 2015-01-09 2:04 PM So for those that are using heated buckets and tank heaters, if you don't have electricity right at the location of the bucket, do you run extension cords? My horses stay turned out unless there is moisture coming and there is no outlet near my pastures. I'd have to run about 100 feet of extension cords. Is this what you all do? I do have a couple of outlets in the barn, but they aren't right at my stalls either. This is exactly what I do. At the house we just sold, the outlet was about 200 ft from pasture. We strung 3 heavy duty extension cords together for our tank de-icer.
At our new house, its about 110 ft...and we have 2 heavy duty extension cords together. Never had an issue.
Last year was the first year I used a de-icer because I always thought the pasture was too far from the outlet (200 ft)...man, I wish I would have asked people sooner if it was feasible!! I'll NEVER go another winter without a de-icer!!!! Best $20 winter investment I've made!
Thank you. I'm in Texas so we typical don't have many days in a row we have to worry about it but the few we do it's a big pain in the rump. I have a tank heater from when I lived in MO, but have been too afraid to run the cords. Guess I need to give it a whirl if mother nature doesn't get us warmed up! |
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