Central Alberta gets its first hard freeze in October and the water in an unheated bucket can be a solid block by morning from November through March. Animals do not drink well from ice, and an animal that stops drinking soon stops eating. This guide walks through the K&H Pet Products heated waterers that Pipestone Farm Supply stocks in Millet — stock tank de-icers, bucket heaters, heated bases, heated bowls and a heated poultry waterer — and how to match one to the animals you keep. Every product below is on pipestonefarmsupply.ca for in-store pickup in Millet or shipping across Canada.
Why open water matters more in winter
Water intake is what drives feed intake. The British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture's livestock watering factsheet gives rule-of-thumb daily requirements of roughly 10 US gallons (about 38 L) for a dry 1,300 lb beef cow, 12 US gallons (about 45 L) for a cow with a calf or a horse, 2.5 US gallons (about 9.5 L) for a ewe or doe, and about 6.5 US gallons (about 25 L) per 100 laying hens. The same factsheet lists a water temperature of about 10 °C as desirable and 4 to 18 °C as acceptable. A heated waterer does not make water warm — every K&H unit here is thermostatically controlled to hold water just above freezing — but it keeps it liquid and available, which is the part that matters.
Some Alberta cow-calf operations winter cattle on snow, and it can work when there is enough clean snow and the herd is in good condition. For horses, poultry, sheep, goats, dogs and barn cats, and for any animal on dry hay in a pen with packed or dirty snow, an open water source is the safer plan.
Stock tanks: the Ultimate Stock Tank De-Icer
For a tank that waters a group of cattle or horses, the K&H Ultimate Stock Tank De-Icer is the workhorse. It is a caged de-icer that floats with the ring attached or converts to a submersible by unscrewing the ring, so it works in a rubber tub, a plastic tank or a galvanized tank without damaging plastic or liners. It is thermostatically controlled to keep the water just above freezing, cycling on and off as needed rather than running continuously, and it comes with a cord clip to keep the power cord out of the animals' reach. K&H builds the model in 250 W to 1,500 W ratings; check the size on the product page before ordering and match it to your tank volume and how exposed the tank is to wind.
One rule from the manufacturer: a de-icer must be in water at all times. Never plug it in when the element is not fully submerged, and pull it when you drain the tank.
Buckets and pails: two ways to heat them
Horses in individual pens, a couple of goats, a calf on a bottle — anything on a pail rather than a tank — has two options.
The K&H Ultimate Bucket De-Icer is a 250-watt caged submersible de-icer built for water pails. The guard keeps the element off the bucket wall, the cord clip keeps the cord up the side, and the thermostat holds the water just above freezing. It is the right choice for a large pail that gets refilled and drunk down fast.
The K&H Perfect Bucket Heater is an 80-watt thermostatically controlled heater that sits inside a pail and keeps it open in buckets up to about 61 L (16 gallons). It is safe for plastic or metal buckets and draws a fraction of the power of a de-icer, which adds up when it is running through a five-month winter on a barn circuit that is also carrying lights and a stock tank heater.
How to choose between them: the bucket de-icer has more heating capacity for a pail that sits outside in the wind; the bucket heater is the lower-draw option for a pail in a shelter or barn.
Heated bases: keep the heater out of the water
The K&H Universal Waterer De-icer takes a different approach. It is an 80-watt heated base, roughly 39 cm square and 7.5 cm tall, that a poultry waterer, a bucket or a bowl sits on top of. Nothing electrical goes in the water, which makes it a good fit for a chicken coop where a submersible unit would be knocked over or pecked at. K&H rates it for aluminum and plastic poultry waterers, dog bowls, buckets and other water receptacles, and it carries a thermal cut-off safety feature and a 5.5-foot cord.
If you would rather have the waterer and the heat in one piece, the K&H Poultry Waterer is a 9.5 L (2.5 gallon) gravity waterer on a 60-watt heated base, so the flock has open water without a daily thaw.
Heated bowls for barn dogs and cats: the Thermal-Bowl line
Working dogs and barn cats need open water as much as the stock does, and a heated bowl is a small investment against a dog that gets dehydrated on a January night. The K&H Thermal-Bowl line is thermostatically controlled to turn on only when the water is about to freeze, uses as little as 12 watts depending on size, and has a 5.5-foot abrasion-resistant wrapped cord to discourage chewing. The electronics are sealed inside the bowl and the plastic models are BPA-free. Pipestone carries four sizes:
Thermal-Bowl 32 oz, Slate Gray, 12 W — about 950 mL, sized for a barn cat or a small dog.
Thermal-Bowl 96 oz, Blue, 25 W — about 2.8 L, roughly 20 cm across, for a dog kept outside through winter.
Thermal-Bowl 120 oz, Stainless Steel, 25 W — about 3.5 L with a stainless drinking surface, wide and shallow.
Thermal-Bowl 1.5 gal, Granite, 25 W — 5.7 L, about 25 cm across, for large dogs or several animals sharing one dish.
Ponds and dugouts
A stocked pond or a small dugout that freezes solid traps decomposition gases under the ice. The K&H Thermo-Pond 3.0 is a 100-watt floating de-icer, 30 cm across, that keeps a hole open in the ice so those gases can escape. For a larger or more exposed pond, see the Thermo-Pond Deluxe 1500 W. These are pond de-icers, not livestock waterers.
Setting up safely
Power. Plug heated waterers into a GFCI-protected outdoor-rated outlet. K&H's units are MET safety listed and the manufacturer discourages extension cords; if you cannot avoid one, use a heavy-gauge outdoor cord rated for the load and keep the connection off the ground and out of the snow.
Cords. Use the cord clip that comes with the de-icers and bucket heater, and run the cord up and away from the animals. Horses and goats chew cords; cattle pull them into the tank.
Watch the water level. Submersible de-icers must stay under water. A tank that gets drunk down or a pail that gets tipped exposes the element.
Check it works before the cold hits. Put the unit in a bucket of water on a mild October day and confirm it comes on when the water is cold and off when it is not. Replace any unit with a cracked housing or a damaged cord.
Clean the tank. Warm-ish water in a heated tank grows algae faster than you expect, and a dirty tank cuts intake as surely as ice does. Scrub it out on a chinook day.
Where to find them
All of the products above are in the K&H Pet Products brand section, and you can browse by animal in horse supplies, cattle supplies, poultry supplies, sheep and goat supplies and pet supplies. Orders over $199.99 ship free across Canada, or pick up in store in Millet. If you are also getting the barn ready for winter, see our guide to fall mouse control in barns, shops and outbuildings.
Sources: K&H Pet Products product pages for the Ultimate Stock Tank De-Icer, Perfect Bucket Heater, Universal Waterer De-icer and Thermal-Bowl (khpet.com); British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Watering factsheet 590.301-1, "Livestock Water Requirements"; Canadian Cattlemen, "Winter water systems for cattle."