The Water Experiment - Trying to stop it from freezing

The forecast is promising us that the coldest week of this winter yet, starting tomorrow.

Temperatures are not to go above 0 during day time apparently and drop down to possibly even double figures. While for other countries this is normal, here in the middle of the UK this doesn't happen all that often. Being spoilt by mostly mild winters, it's needless to say that one isn't really prepared for such a chill. 

A recent dry spell has dried up the grounds quite well and it is already frozen rock solid, ready to accept the forecast snow, which appears to be right now at the 50% change of arriving some time during next week.

I am sure glad I made that lucky purchase of my winter tyres. Perhaps I finally get a chance to give the a good testing.

While I am used to 'proper' winter weather and accompanying conditions, it's a little different in the UK. But regardless where you are, all share one big issue: how to keep the water for the livestock from freezing.

The boys will be outside for anything from 4 - 8 hours, depending on weather. 'Hill Farm' is fully exposed to the elements and there is no shelter in the fields. If it is really foul we bring them in or don't turn out at all. They have 15 x 15 feet stables each, plenty of room to move around.

Not much can be done to prevent the outdoors water from freezing but the grass is mostly water and if there is snow they have that to help out. We do of course break the ice and remove it from the outdoors water in the morning but it is likely to freeze over during the day. But as they won't be out for all that long it will be OK.

The main troubles are the indoors water troughs / buckets. The boys stables are what I call 'open-air' stables. Basically a big steel building, three walls, front open. Split into 3 compartments.

When they are inside they eat haylage and along with that they will need plenty of water. Although animals will break through a small layer of ice if it covers their water supply, I doubt that 'Mr F' will bother or realise what to do. Many times have I noticed that natural self-preservation (appart from spooking at random items) isn't on his list of priorities.

So I now am on a mission to find a way to stop 'Mr f's water buckets from freezing. My first thought was manure. 

Those among us that are mucking out themselves will know that manure creates heat. All the droppings and urine are fermenting. On cold winter days we can see the steam come off manure piles and if you dig in a little or put your foot deep into the muck will notice the warmth and if you ever had to empty a full muck trailer by hand with pitchfork, you will have noticed that quite often some of the bottom layers have been converted into ash! A perfect natural heat source, smelly it may be.

My first thought was to insulate his water buckets with bubble wrap and then somehow surround them with muck and straw.  'Mr F' has a thick layer of straw in his stable.  The main layer, right on top of the concrete, is a compacted mass of straw and urine. On top of that is loads of fresh clean straw. About once a week or even a little longer, the stable gets a proper muck out. But right now in the cold weather, the compacted layer offers not only softness but also insulation. I often sit in the stable and although it is outdoors, it is cosy and surprisingly warm and never smelly.

All stables here (and the fields) are fitted with metal auto-refill water troughs at the back of each stable. The placement is unfortunate because the back of the stable is also where 'Mr F' prefers to stand / sleep, being the spot that is most sheltered from the winds. In 'Mr f's case. he also seems to prefer this corner as his main toilet. In the first 2 weeks of him being in the stable, I had to empty his trough 3 times because he had droppings in it. Rather than wasting water, I have stopped the refill mechanism, emptied the trough and instead placed water buckets in two places, avoiding his preferred toilet spots. 

Water in buckets means of course smaller mass of water and therefore it will freeze over quicker. This will pose to be a tricky situation in this coming week (so far). So there is the manure / bubble wrap idea.

Wondering if someone might have come up with something else it was time for some 'googleing'.

I could add an electric water heater (that is inserted into the water) but I don't fancy that, just another object that could be a potential hazard. Then there are numerous sites that recommend filling up plastic water bottles with water and saturate it with salt (add salt to it  until the water can take no more) and then put these bottles into the water buckets. The idea is that it will bob on the surface and a moving surface is less likely to freeze. Having unfrozen water inside that plastic bottle will keep it movable ... apparently. That's why adding just ordinary water won't do the trick, so it is written. Or one could just put any other floating object into the water buckets. Although that is yet another potential hazard if you have a horse that likes to chew things when it is bored.

It was time for an experiment, the temperature forecast looks promising as it's going to drop well below 0 degrees C. And below are the results:

• Frozen in the morning: Large bucket placed at the back of the stable, surrounded by straw with an apple floating inside (seems safest object in case 'Mr F' wants to chew it). Nothing else done to it. This morning it had a very thin layer of ice on the surface.
• Successful: Smallish bucket wrapped with several layers of bubble wrap on layers of manure. This was to go into the empty metal water trough which I had prepared  with a thing layer of manure and a layer of  fresh clean straw on top. Any empty space surrounding the bucket was filled out with more straw. Fill with warm water last thing before leaving. There was not a single bit of ice in this bucket the next morning.
• Frozen in the morning: Smallish bucket outside, fully exposed, with small-ish drinking bottle filled with salt saturated water. It is supposed to keep bobbing encouraged by the wind and disturb the water surface which in turn will stop it from freezing. Result: water inside bottle not frozen but water in the bucket frozen solid, about 5mm thick ice top. Small bottle frozen in place and needed considerable force to break loose.

I have to see how we fare by tomorrow morning. It's supposedly going to get colder from now on.