Can you stop water freezing?

[Kuikentje]

A bit early to be asking but it was prompted by one of the replies to sunnyskies' questions.

It will freeze in a trice in the traditional drinker such as I'm using, what has everybody else found useful?

[kitla]

You'll find lots of discussions about this on here! I think a lot of people find just
changing the water several times a day is usually enough, but there are days when
it just freezes up so fast! I've invested in a couple of those microwave heat pads,
I heat them for 4 or 5 mins & put them under the waterer, that lasts for a few hours
on those extreme days.

[Kuikentje]

Changing the water several times a day isn't an option for those of us who work full-time, I'm afraid. The microwave thing would probably help a bit, for a while, that's interesting. If they are deprived of water for a few hours, do they drink to make up for it when they do get some water?

[kitla]

I think there are electric heaters of some sort if you're set up for that. someone
uses candles in a metal tin but that would worry me if I wasn't home. Actually
I was thinking about this myself the other day & wondering if there was any way
of tapping into the heat from a compost heap - via a pipe or something, probably
not or it would already have been done.

[Totally Scrambled]

If you can get electricity up to the coop area you could try a heated dog bowl either for them to drink from direct or devise a way to set a drinker on it so that the heat would keep it ice free.
Something like this

Dom

[sazchops]

What about glycerine? Is it poisonous?

[Kuikentje]

If you can get electricity up to the coop area you could try a heated dog bowl either for them to drink from direct or devise a way to set a drinker on it so that the heat would keep it ice free.
Something like this

Dom

Really? What will they think of next!

[Stef]

We leave 2 or 3 water things in different places. We have the winter sun spots well mapped out

They may well go without for a few hours but as there is still grass and that will be wet/ice covered, or even snow, they seem to do fine.

We usually bring the water in overnight to defrost and put out a tub of water when we get in. They haven't left home yet!

[Hintza]

We have a small ceramic animal trough about 6 inches deep and 18"x12" in size. As long as I break the ice in the morning the girls will keep a hole open through the day.

Anything with thin sides is going to cause a problem, so an old feed trough or ceramic sink with a bit of mass to it will make life easier.

Remember hot water freezes faster than cold water.

[Kernow]

Remember hot water freezes faster than cold water.

???

Can't possibly happen

[Kuikentje]

Remember hot water freezes faster than cold water.

???

Can't possibly happen

I think it's something to do with the distance apart the molecules are - when things get hot, they expand, in other words the molecules spread out a bit. Each individual molecule will then cool down a bit faster than if they were all huddled together like penguins in the Antarctic. So if you heat the water up, increasing the spaces between the molecules, then it is perfectly logical that it will lose heat more quickly.

I don't know if it makes a significant difference in the quantities I'm talking about though. I never thought of the thickness of the container - that makes sense but we are 800 feet up here so it's a degree or two colder than further down.

What a pity to have to be thinking about this already!

[Richard]

One of the few things I remember from Physics I think it was - yes, hot water does freeze quicker.

Can't remember why though !!

[Hintza]

Remember hot water freezes faster than cold water.

???

Can't possibly happen

The Mpemba Effect

[Kuikentje]

The Mpemba Effect

I looked that up. Heck, it's complicated. And still no final scientific explanation!

[jackian]

If I remember from the last couple of years ,the bigger and thicker the container the longer it takes to freeze (but not to big they could fall in it )