Anyone else having water trough troubles with all this ice? Any tips?

[cariad]

Ah, yes, good point. I speak as someone with the luxury of having horses at home so can use domestic taps. Still think they're a good idea though. When I was at livery yards, the field hoses froze, but there was still water on the yard, even if only through a large tank the yard owner filled up -known as a bowser- and they would have been useful to transport water from the yard to the fields rather than buckets slopping everywhere or two of you carting them out.

Having said that, one of my friends at another yard did in fact transport water from home in her car in those white buckets like you get Fieldmark supplements in, with the sealable lids, when the water froze at her yard. I bought some plastic buckets with sealable lids for 20p each from our local junk/antique shop, who got them apparently from Chinese chip shops who get their cooking oil in them. I had loads as they don't last forever, but they do the job and at 20p are, dare I say it, cheap as chips? There was also a Chinese chip shop in one of the small local towns that piled their buckets outside and invited you take them away for free, so I took advantage of that when they were there too. You can never have too many buckets in my opinion. Buckets R Us has got to be a world beater(so why aren't I doing it then?)

 

[millitiger]

i take the layer of ice off and fill the container up with a load of hot water.

means it is longer before it ices over again and when it does it isn't so thick.

 

[sweetblossom]

Our pipes are frozen solid so for the last 3 days we have been using the water butts, now we are at the bottom of the water butts the water is black ewwww so we have been bringing water from home.
I put about 4 apples in their water to stop it from freezing and it does work, my youngster on the other hand likes to bob for his and has been successful every night in eating them lol.

 

[lilym]

I wouldn't be surprised if they are eating trhe snow!! none of mine seem thirsy, I have been using the 4x4 to take filled 5 gallon containers to each trough though.....Looks like mine are defrosting now anyway as it seems to be warming up where I live.

 

[alsxx]

It makes a huge difference if you remove the ice pieces each time you smash it, otherwise it just freezes again getting thicker and thicker. It will still freeze but only be a thin layer rather than a thick layer.

 

[M_G]

I have a cut down fence post that I use to smash the ice

 

[Katie__Connie]

[ QUOTE ]
I use a hammer- works beautifully!

[/ QUOTE ]


hahah love this

 

[posie_honey]

i am very very lucky....
my horses field has a spring that runs into a bath tub... it's never stopped running even in -11 and the water is still tepid! it actually steams!

 

[MrWoof]

A Sledgehammer - you can now get "mini" ones rather than having to wield the for banging stakes in variety. I bought mine down the local market for about a fiver.
Remove ALL the broken ice but throw it well away from the area around the trough or you will end up with a nasty rockery of frozen ice all around the trough.
Just a thought but has anyone tried taping bubble-wrap around their stable buckets. In theory, it should work.

 

[Patches]

[ QUOTE ]
i have heard about putting a football in so you can take the football out in the morning and there is a hole for your horse to drink from. i find the fuller the trough/bucket is, the thinner the ice is on top, the lower its is the more freezes and the thicker the ice is.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have huge great big cow troughs in my field and I can assure you they have a very thick layer of ice on them too.

Sledgehammer or stamping your foot in them does the trick....although mine is quite high up to get my foot in (and very deep when the ice does give way!)

I don't pull the ice out of my troughs though. I stack the ice on top of the half of the trough I don't break the ice on. I figure that when it defrosts, it'll just fill the trough back up nicely.

 

[Puppy]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't pull the ice out of my troughs though. I stack the ice on top of the half of the trough I don't break the ice on. I figure that when it defrosts, it'll just fill the trough back up nicely.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL! That's exactly what I've done

Especially as water is in short supply as I can't get any out the pipes at the yard, and today I am going to tip lots of hot water on it to melt it down

 

[Lill]

Our lot seem to have a sensible approach... they drink from the ditches which are not completely frozen solid

unlike the water troughs!

 

[soph21]

Imreally lucky with my water trough, it leaks a little constantly so it doesn't ice over

But the buckets and bins need a good kick everyday

 

[spotty_pony]

Yes, our water troughs have been frozen right through the last couple of days and they are not filling up at the moment because the ballcock's are all frozen.

We have been filling the troughs on the yard up using a hose pipe which is kept in a warm barn so it hasn't frozen up. Then, we have been filling up dustbins full of water and taking them out to the fields to fill up the troughs.

 

[mainpower]

I gave a good demo of how not to break the ice the other day...
bash ice with metal spiggot, as ice breaks lose balance ..... and grab electric fence to stop going head first into trough!

Ouch!

 

[brucea]

Aquarium heaters. Inside a length of plastic drain pipe with holes drilled in it. Work a treat. You can buy trough heaters, but they are very expensive - this costs about £20.

 

[Patches]

Wasn't there a thing on one of those brainiac programs once that says hot water actually freezes quicker than cold...for some reason?

I don't have an "ology" so I am thick, but I am sure I watched that somewhere.

 

[mainpower]

[ QUOTE ]
Wasn't there a thing on one of those brainiac programs once that says hot water actually freezes quicker than cold...for some reason?

I don't have an "ology" so I am thick, but I am sure I watched that somewhere.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes! But the science of it escapes me at the moment, but that's why you can defrost your car windscreen with cold water, but if you use warm it refreezes almost instantly.

 

[mainpower]

http://library.thinkquest.org/C008537/cool/freeze/freeze.html

there you go!

 

[happyhack]

We drop a couple of tennis balls in ours and that works.

The bloody dogs try to nick the tennis balls though, little buggers!!

 

[PeterNatt]

If your horses are drinking the water from the water troughs and leaving them empty then the solution is to buy some more water troughs so that there will always be enough water in them to last several days.