Freezing water in birdbath

[roseycheeks]

I need some advice on how to keep fresh water for our feathered friends. I would like to be able to do it without having a electrical cord. Any advice would be helpful.

[fromlawntofood]

Aren't there solar powered options for bird baths? I might be wrong... and it would still involve cords... but I figured I'd mention it

[MoonShadows]

There are both solar powered and electric bird bath heaters, but solar powered will not be of help on cold, cloudy days. Google the term.

[roseycheeks]

Yes there are solar birdbaths, money is the issue. I think I will go to the Dollar Store and get me a couple metal dog water bowls, keep one inside. In the morning take the frozen water inside and the melted outside so my birds will have fresh water for the winter.

[applestar]

I used to fill a pot with hot water from the tap and pour into the birthbath every day. Now, I’m relying on the pond to provide open water — it maintains one unfrozen spot above the pond aerator disk unless extremely cold.

Putting some kind of thermal mass in the birth bath might help? I’m thinking black rocks or pebbles (decorative ones for aquariums....

I wonder if it would help to float an empty or partially filled water bottle — maybe Put something in the water bottle that doesn’t freeze but won’t harm birds... maybe oil? Maybe something dark like add charcoal to the water — my Idea is for the bottle to act as solar heat collector and keep the water from freezing at least while the sun is shining on it. I don’t have a way to test this theory because my back yard doesn’t get any direct sun at all during the winter months. I would have to go all the way out to the far from quadrant of the front yard....

Hmmm.... If you can get a rubber feed bowl at a farm store, they are easy to push out the ice when frozen solid. They ar black too, so may stay “warmer”. .... When I leased a horse for a time, I had to go help water the horses on “our” chore days when temps went down to teens (the owners who stables their horses there took turns doing the chores for the entire barn). The horse’s water buckets froze and we had to take out the buckets and empty the ice and then re-fill with fresh water. The horses with rubber buckets were easier to take care of because you could just bang it around and then push the ice out. The plastic buckets could crack if you tried to bang and get the ice out and needed to be handled carefully.

[imafan26]

I don't have this problem. But, today it has been cold (61 is cold for me), wet and hazy. I looked out my window and saw a bulbul on my clothesline on the lanai. At least she was staying relatively dry.

[roseycheeks]

Thank you for the suggestion of a rubber bowl, never thought of that! I will go to the store and see what they have.

[Gary350]

Our bird bath is cement, water freezes in it and it will not dump out. If I pour hot boiling water on the ice, water is frozen solid about 1 hour later. Now I fill a tapered plastic container from the kitchen with water so the ice will dump out. It takes about 4 hours for the container of water to freeze. About 3 or 4 times a day I dump the ice and replace it with warm water. I set water on top of the frozen bird bath. I also have a plastic container at the back door it is much easier for me to deal with than walking across the yard to the bird bath.