# How do you guys get water to your pigs in the winter?



## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

We live in Michigan and have always had a few pigs over the summer. We decided to grow some out over the winter this year and then had an "OH " moment after the first freeze. These pigs seem to be particularly destructive compared to all of the other ones we have had so having a trough with a heater in it was out of the question. They would just rip out the heater, chew it up and burn/electrocute themselves. 

I thought about a big tank with a nozzle on it, but the nozzle would freeze and we aren't looking to spend a ton on an automatic heated waterer. My boss wated to take our big lowboy tub and just put the heater in it and screw a piece of plywood on the top with a hole cut out for their head. I figured they would stick their nose under the lip of the wood and rip it off anyways.

SO we had a 5 gallon heated bucket that one of our horses cracked, I took the heating component out of it and foil taped it to the bottom of a metal trough that we thought** would be heavy enough when filled that they wouldn't tip it. I also sealed the bottom with foam to protect it further. We pushed it into a corner and the next morning it was ripped up all over the pen. UGH. PIGS. They can't leave anything alone!

So yesterday I had a stroke of genius. We have an old tractor tire that was heavy enough they couldn't lift it, and big enough that the trough fit in it perfectly! the tire is a little wider than the trough is tall so they can't move anything. We pushed it in the corner and WHALLA! They have water! They can chew on it, because I know they will, and they can stand on it and get to the water easily. Its perfect!

I was wondering, how do you guys get water to your pigs when it's cold outside? Any other strokes of genius?


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

I have PBs and I use a kiddie pool, dump and refill when the cold spells break. But they just stomp the ice until they get water.


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

everything we had was freezing solid overnight, so for a while I was just dumping and refilling in the morning but it really wasted a lot of water.


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## cooper101 (Sep 13, 2010)

Dump and refill. Unless it's *really* cold, if I do it twice a day, the ice that does form is thin enough that they can break it to get water. Mine aren't as destructive. I use 15 gallon plastic barrels cut in half with a piece of 4x4 on each end to level it. They'll flip it over if it's empty, but with some water in it, they seem to leave them alone.


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

You can also buy tank water heaters, there are different kinds. I'm sure one of them you can make hog proof.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We have running warm springs on the mountain. We pipe them with 1" black plastic pipes through a series of troughs, each trough feeding the next. The fast moving water doesn't freeze even in the coldest (-45Â°F) weather. Adding a micro-climate and wind block helps. Most of our water lines are simply lying on the ground. They get buried deeply by the snow.

Pictures here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:sugarmtnfarm.com+water


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

I just turn on the faucet and pick up the hose to fill the trough, but then I am in S Texas. 

It has to get into and stay in the lower 20's a couple of days for me to have problems, and that rarely happens. 

I realize that reply wasnt helpful, but I enjoy a gig at you Northerners now and then.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

*grin* Yes, but we don't have your abundance of nasty snakes, spiders, alligators, kudzu, drought and heat waves. I would much rather have winter than Texas.


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

I have AHH. Besides snow (which isn't really that great of a water source), I slurry the feed with plenty of water. They get 'force fed' water in this manner. Their urine output is fine. Never had any trouble. 

Well, I take that back. I've had visitors that INSIST on giving my pigs free-choice water. My pigs are so used to feed/water that they get frustrated and dump out PLAIN water. They want feed/water. Anything else seems to insult my pigs. COMMERCIAL large hogs would need more water, I'm sure. And lactating sows will definitely need more. I would guess that pigs get used to what their normal on your place is.

If you can get some of those black, soft rubber feed pans? I get along great with them and you can even smoosh them down into rimless tires to keep them from dumping them immediately. Water as much as they want. 

Just like humans and other animals, pigs really don't stand at the water trough drinking incessantly. If they (or you) do, you have other problems.


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## gerold (Jul 18, 2011)

I cut the end off 50 gal. plastic barrel 10inch. deep and connect one side to fence and two post on the other side to hold it in place. A big rock in the middle to hold it down. Above that i build a stand for 50 gal. barrel to set on with a valve install in the bottom of the barrel. Pipe runs from outside water hydrant under ground to the 50 gal. barrel and enters at the top. In morning i turn on the water at the water hydrant filling the 50gal. barrel. Open the valve at the bottom of the barrel letting the water drain down and filling the water container below for the pigs. When i turn off the water at the hydrant water drains from the pipe so it don't freeze at night. I leave the valve open on the 50 gal barrel in the afternoon so all the water drains out of the barrel. 

Took a little work to set it up but works good in the summer and winter and the pigs always has fresh water.


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## HaleyBugs (Sep 12, 2012)

Wow. Great ideas guys! I'll have to save a copy of this thread so if I ever have any more trouble I can steal your ideas


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

I both dump and fill - AND - mix all food with water, to create a slurry, as Gailann does. The pigs much prefer the slurry.


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## BACOG (May 17, 2012)

HaleyBugs said:


> I was wondering, how do you guys get water to your pigs when it's cold outside? Any other strokes of genius?


Out west I have seen the temps get below 0 and stay there for 2 weeks or more. 

One technique people use is to bore a hole about 12 inches in diameter and 12 feet deep. They then place their water tank directly over it & seal around the bottom if needed. What the hole does is act like a natural chimney and lets the heat rise from the ground. According to how soft your ground is you might want to sleeve the hole. If one hole does not provide quite enough heat you can try 2. With a round 8 foot tank you can bore 3 holes in a triangle pattern and set the tank directly over them. If the tank is not flat bottomed and/or the ground is uneven it is important to seal around the bottom where the heat can only rise through the water.


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

We put ours on the warmest part of the pen out of all wind and it seems to be good only froze when we had -2 but it wasn't for long and they were almost empty so we filled them up and they unfroze


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

highlands said:


> *grin* Yes, but we don't have your abundance of nasty snakes, spiders, alligators, kudzu, drought and heat waves. I would much rather have winter than Texas.


No kudzu here. Thats the other T state.
I wish we had more of a Winter. Last week I was hauling corn and drove for an hour and a half thru and area of the Hill Country where they had had about 3 - 5" of snow the night before. Pretty cool for a change of pace and scenery.


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## bruceki (Nov 16, 2009)

Sheep troughs and a hose. You just empty the hose and coil it after filling the trough. If its frozen, you flip it over and dump the block of ice and refill it, or you break the ice crust off it and refill. 

I put in frost-proof hydrants in various places to make this easier;


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## Jan in CO (May 10, 2002)

We feed in a trough made from half of a water heater tank, with metal legs welded onto each end to stabilize it and make it harder to tip over. Make a slurry from hot water heated in a five gallon bucket with a bucket heater, set on a timer so the water is hot when we go out to feed as well as mid day. We mix it half and half with cool water from the hydrant and the pigs are doing fine. Now, if it were the middle of the hot summer, they would need more water, but so far, so good. I'm going to skip raising them in the summer from here on. This way, no mess, no smell, no mud. Works for me. They're going to freezer camp the first week in Feb.


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## Marcintosh (Dec 30, 2012)

some angle iron for protection and one of these







They're called marine ice eaters available at (where else) open year round marinas

Or hook up a compressor and run air into the water through a bubbler system. Moving water rarely freezes. 

Ice Eaters and Bubble systems are both used in this area to keep moorings, docks and piers free of ice. Boat owners use them around boats worth huge cash so they work and work well.

Go to a marina that keeps boats in the water all year long and see what they use or suggest.


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## rmrc (Aug 20, 2009)

I use a 55 gal. drum with a nipple waterer. 6"x6" hole in the top of the barrel to insert the heater. The drum is raised off of the ground 6" and strapped to the wall with 3 ratchet straps and eye hooks. They haven't been able to move it in 3 winters. It hasn't frozen yet.


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## notasnowballs (Dec 28, 2010)

I just dump in hot water in the early part of the day. It stays warm enough they get a good drink before night time freezing again. Also, piggy is in a pen with lots of composted material to root around in, which he seems to love to pile up around his water bucket. It puts off heat too and his water is the last to freeze, as opposed to my poor rabbits' water bottles, which freeze solid. I am thankful we don't have a long time of winter temps here, just mostly rain. If I had to do the hot water thing every day, I would rethink animals.


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## M88A1 (May 21, 2012)

we chipped alot of ice out of our stock tank and transfered water from stock tank to the hog pen, there 55 gal drum was frozen solid a few times. We have no electrical service near them so I'm thinking about a solar bubbler for next winter.


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## dalepres (Dec 11, 2011)

I don't have pigs (I have in the past) but I'm thinking of getting more. This is what I'm thinking for winter watering: Trojan heated nipple waterer. I like it because it doesn't require us to handle cold water every day. We could actually get away for a few days, even in winter.


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