Frozen water troughs

Ladylina83 said:
I'm a slam it with my foot until my welly goes in then fish the bits out with numb fingers before chucking them in the hedge ! :-)
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This is me too!!

Someone once told me they put goldfish in their troughs to stop the water freezing! Iv heard of putting them in for keeping tanks clean but didn't really get how they stop troughs freezing as my mums fish pond gets a sheet of ice over it! Not something I'd do as I like to see goldfish with some nice gravel in, weed and a shipwreck ornament, plus I think my horses would eat them!
 
remove!!
this is what happened to my mare when a shard of ice had frozen into place after breaking - temperature was below -10 and i missed the ice shard... or, in trying to break the ice is broke, made some shards... then refroze pointing up and next time she broke ice to get water, it sliced... then her lip froze as it was so cold (-15 ish) Vet had to chop off the part of the lip that's sticking out as it was solid :o
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after some healing - you can see she had a chunk missing:
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some people leave a ball floating in it to stop freezing or you can take ball out to leave hole while;e horse s drink then put back, also putting salt in water helps to stop freezing you can do this with your stable horse too put salt in bucket stops his water bucket freezing.


lastly fish in troughs help to stop water freezing but there must be an air hole in it for them.
 
put hot water in the cold water regularly to raise the temp of the water to help stop it freezing. add insulation round the trough/bucket so that the ice doesnt go down the sides of the container and it makes removing the "lid" of ice far easier.

Have had troughs freeze over completely - 3-4 inches of ice thick... no way could you just make a hole big enough for them to drink :confused: - it would freeze over too quick. i've removed the ice and had it starting to form ice across the top straight away!
 
I have fish in mine they do keep it clean but don't stop it from freezing no sunken ship i'm afraid and as yet never been eaten even though they come to the horses mouths when they drink to eat and bits that come out their mouths!
 
get an old laundry cauldron... two bricks of coal and the water doesn't freeze for 24 hours even in really cold weather. We had -17° last night and the "warmest" at lunchtime was -10.5°.
There is only some smoke when you heat it for the first time, later the coal is just smouldering so no smoke anymore. And it's not an open fire so there is no risk for the horses. Wouldn't place it inside though... ours is standing in the middle of the farmyard so the horses and the cattle have access to it.
Have been using it for the last 11 winters and wouldn't want to miss it.

I paid 40€ for the thing, so it also was the cheapest way to heat the water.
 
Last year the yard i was on didn't break the ice, just a tiny hole. Well, the hole got smaller and the ice got thicker until it was just a giant bath sized ice lolly and the hole was too small for noses to fit in. Apparently my simple solution of putting a few kettles of water in was not acceptable. 'It will make it freeze quicker!' Than an already frozen solid foot thick slab???

I like to make decisions based on experience rather than an illogical notion from someone else. If the water isn't frozen and the horses can drink from it then you've done the right thing. I found 3 kettles of water in a frozen bath kept it freeze free all day. It doesn't have to be boiling hot so you could take water from a hot tap if there's any available nearby.
 
somethingorother said:
Apparently my simple solution of putting a few kettles of water in was not acceptable. 'It will make it freeze quicker!' Than an already frozen solid foot thick slab???

I like to make decisions based on experience rather than an illogical notion from someone else. If the water isn't frozen and the horses can drink from it then you've done the right thing. I found 3 kettles of water in a frozen bath kept it freeze free all day. It doesn't have to be boiling hot so you could take water from a hot tap if there's any available nearby.
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sorry..just been ice breaking so i have to agree with those who told you it freezes faster!!!:DTotally depends where you are & how cold it is & what your trough exposure is & what its made of/insulated with-my horses are in..integral stables within a thick stone walled stable block..with window (fraction ajar for air change) and door to the outside yard..also only a fraction ajar. There is one floor above the stables and the roof is good..there are 4 in and literally a 2meter square entrance so we're talking cosy with just enough room to get into 2 stables & lead thru boxes into the adjoining ones...so plenty of circulating warm air tho in small space..and the walls are feet rather than inches thick...buckets last night all filled with hot tap water & I mean scalding..they were frozen this morning..only thin but still frozen..that was despite my having agitated each of their waters when I did their very late check plus they will have drunk at some point.All their waters were 'on the rocks!':eek:
 
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