# Salt water bottle?



## Duckfarmerpa1 (Dec 12, 2019)

Hi there!  I’m new to BYH, but I’ve had my pots for awhile now.  I’ve had my ducks longer!  Before winter I was frantically reader ways to keep water from freezing, as I am in NW PA.  I have been using 1/4 cup regular salt in a regular water bottle...I duct tape it..and float it in my ducks’ water.  They live in our barn.  They have three water eras.  One is heated with heat tape.  The salt water bottle has been working pretty good.  The theory is that salt water doesn’t freeze as fast.  I have no idea if it’s because it’s floating in there or if the theo holds true, but a lot of the time most of the water eras are not froze solid..

Now to my pigs.  They were supposed to be in the barn too.  We’ve had a difficult time getting my very overweight, arthritic pots up the ramp.  Don’t get mad..they came to us that way from a bad farmer who actually went to jail.  I have them on a diet and they are doing much better.  But, they do not like the big barn.  So, anyways..they stayed in the small barn without electricity.  So, no heat tape.  Do you think I could try the salt water bottle...or do you think my pots would try to eat it?  They are as gentle as can be.  But I would never want harm to come to them.  My hubby thinks it would be ok since deer have salt licks and I feed my goats trace minerals that contain salt.  He is not the farmer, he is the builder.  What are you thoughts?  The water seems to freeze a few times a day..and at times I can’t keep up with it..especially overnight.


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## WyoLiving (Dec 12, 2019)

I am not sure how well it would work, but it never hurts to try.  Seems to me that even though the saltwater freezes at a lower temperature, the regular water will still freeze below 32* and freeze around the other bottle.  So you would end up with a bottle of cold salt water in a chunk of ice.  But I have been known to be wrong - there may be some thermodynamics at work that escape me. 
I don't think it would hurt anything - how big are their water dishes?  If the pigs crack the salt water bottle open, it will be diluted by the regular water, right?  I f the tubs are deep enough, can you weight down the salt water bottle so it doesn't float and the pigs can't get to it?


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## Duckfarmerpa1 (Dec 12, 2019)

WyoLiving said:


> I am not sure how well it would work, but it never hurts to try.  Seems to me that even though the saltwater freezes at a lower temperature, the regular water will still freeze below 32* and freeze around the other bottle.  So you would end up with a bottle of cold salt water in a chunk of ice.  But I have been known to be wrong - there may be some thermodynamics at work that escape me.
> I don't think it would hurt anything - how big are their water dishes?  If the pigs crack the salt water bottle open, it will be diluted by the regular water, right?  I f the tubs are deep enough, can you weight down the salt water bottle so it doesn't float and the pigs can't get to it?


Well, they use those rubber dog bowl dishes that are impossible to break, so I can throw them on the ground when froze.  The bottle only has the salt in it and it does float.  It has worked pretty good for the duckd, but they are in a barn..plus..they have beaks that really couldn’t break a plastic bottle.  We have to have very shallow bowls for the pigs because their heads are probably only six-eight inches off the ground.  We tried sooo many tubs over the summer and they all failed.  Lol..ugh.

 I am tempted to try it..but if the bottle Broke.....would they die from drinking the salt water?  I’d rather they go a night without water than have too much salt and get dick or worse


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## WyoLiving (Dec 12, 2019)

Oh, its just salt - not salt water.  I think I understand. 

I looked online at a couple of posts on people trying the bottle of salt water to keep a cattle water bucket ice free.  And they formed an opinion of why it works is that the water around the salt bottle doesn't freeze.  Because water freezes from the top down, there is an open spot in the layer of ice at and around the salt bottle.  The cows can and will push the bottle down and drink the unfrozen water underneath.   A tub of water without the bottle in it had 3" of ice and the cattle could not get to the water; the tub with 2 salt bottles only had 1" of ice and the water level was below the ice layer (air gap between ice and water).  

If your tubs are shallow, then there may not be anyplace for the pots to push the bottle to get it out of the way so they can get at the unfrozen water underneath.  But they may only need to move the bottle out of its hole to get to the water - so win!

I don't know pigs at all, so this is just based on what I read on-line:
I did a quick google search and it looks like too much salt will make potbellied pigs sick. 

**  If you try it, use salt water instead of straight salt to limit the amount of salt they would get into if they chew the bottle.


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## Duckfarmerpa1 (Dec 12, 2019)

WyoLiving said:


> Oh, its just salt - not salt water.  I think I understand.
> 
> I looked online at a couple of posts on people trying the bottle of salt water to keep a cattle water bucket ice free.  And they formed an opinion of why it works is that the water around the salt bottle doesn't freeze.  Because water freezes from the top down, there is an open spot in the layer of ice at and around the salt bottle.  The cows can and will push the bottle down and drink the unfrozen water underneath.   A tub of water without the bottle in it had 3" of ice and the cattle could not get to the water; the tub with 2 salt bottles only had 1" of ice and the water level was below the ice layer (air gap between ice and water).
> 
> ...


Wow!  Thanks!  You’re a regular...science wizz!  So, if you don’t have pigs..why read about them..or was it just interesting to read about the salt idea?  I will definitely shut the salt in the bottle a bit and add water..just to be safe!  They steal your hearts!  We don’t have cows yet, but are thinking of it.  Actually thinking of a Hereford?  Did I get that right?  A friend through it out at dinner on Sunday because it’s smaller, and, basically, because I do all the farm chores.  Yep, my hubby does the building and leaves me with the actual hands on action.  Which is great!  When he goes and lets animals out...it messes things up..and..well..he gives corn to goats!!  Ugh!  Lol. Thanks a ton for your help!


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## WyoLiving (Dec 17, 2019)

I came to this thread because of the salt water bottle.

I would like to get a couple of pigs for home grown pork, but DH says absolutely not!  I think I need to purchase 1/2 a pig from the local butcher and let him try some homegrown.  Then take him down the road and show him the neighbors pasture with pigs in it - it doesn't stink and they are not living in a mud-hole.  Very happy piggies there, lol.

In the mean time, I research and learn what I can.


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