Using Gravity to keep my Chickens Water UNFrozen

Wow, day 2! They're moving fast on this till job. It's getting cold, waters are freezing. I've got ideas for 3 different water systems for the winter. For these guys, I'm hoping to— look up there, there's a pond right there. I'm hoping to reintroduce my Everflow watering system where water is always clean and and never frozen because we keep it moving on a gravity-based system. Would you like that?

That does, um, freeze. The pond does freeze.

Yeah, it freezes on top but not underneath.

If we stick it deep enough in, it won't.

That's right. Here we have our kitchen garden chickens, which I have to think about if I'm going to keep them in here or blend them with another flock. We could do a water heater here, and right here, this is our house. This is south-facing. This would be a perfect spot for a winter place for chickens. Maybe the ICYs. They don't need to be out in the field. They're not getting flies anymore. The flies are— the flies have gone away. There's not as much benefit to the pasture with their poop in that it doesn't break down like it does when it's warm. What do you think about a spot here and just filling up the waterer every morning since the hydrant is right there?

Wait, where are we gonna put the ICYs?

Maybe right here.

Like today?

Well, not today, but maybe soon.

You can do this today.

I like your attitude. You know what I want to build today? What? An Everflow. Or at least I want to get all the supplies ready for the Everflow waterer. We had some potatoes volunteer. Of course they're not going to make it now that it's frosted. No, look at that! Look at this, Jonah! Bonus! Before I get too excited about that, need to move the ices because they want to get outside. The potatoes can wait. This has been working out great with the mini me Chickshaw. The idea was though that they would free range behind the cows, stir the manure. What ended up happening is if we free ranged them here, they, they might end up all the way back to that pine tree. They're going to want to go to these woods and they're not going to do the job stirring this manure. Problem with them being in the poultry net is they can only do that one area. So I'm thinking for next year we would maybe do 3 of these fences and we would set up the fences one day and move the coop every day for 3 days and then move the whole system.

I want to let them, um, free range and I'll be prepared to go knock them out of the trees.

You want to have an experiment? Yeah, and just see.

Hope they go roost on the fence post. Be easy.

This thing is one hand. I'm moving 20 chickens right now, y'all, with one hand. That wheel on center was a game changer, big time. My prediction, Jonah, is they end up in that— in those woods. But maybe not. Maybe day one they won't, but after a few days they get more comfortable, they would. Look, they're already ranging further than they would if the net were up. Good morning, Laura!

Are you excited?

Don't jump, don't jump! She's in that mood. Hey, this weather making you feel frisky? You feeling frisky? Hey, you guys want to see a trick?

Watch this.

Watch this. Jump up here, Laura. Jump up.

You're adorable. All right, you want to do it again? All right, jump up. Jump up.

Jenna, do you know where our Hoses? Our water hose? Yeah, from the cows. Yeah, you did. Where was it? Above the old house.

I know you're overflow watering old hoses too.

Okay, let's go find it. Here's one of our hoses. This piping, I'm hoping it's gonna work. I don't want to call on the— I don't want to call on the earth for any more plastic than we need to. The problem is I haven't really been successful about making this not leak. When I make a connection. These are two— these are 100-foot poles coming together, or this is a patch job where it broke or kinked. This can be a tangle nightmare if I don't do this right. Johnna, come here! I'm already hung 200 feet up there. Oh, that's— you freed it up good though. We have our end here roughly. We'll get a filter, of course. Have to make the right end cap, but I flipped it the wrong way, it looks like. Oh, I guess this is buried.

I think I was right.

How are we getting tangled so fast? John, I got a really fun job for you. We have a problem here because we can't get through this knot through this grate. We got to get through the grate so that we can get under the road into the culvert. We can't run this over a public road. I'm gonna have to cut this. Shame. Yeah, and Jonah, you're gonna have to crawl, crawl up in that pipe. Got about 10 more minutes this morning, so I hope to— let's get this through and then we'll have to finish later.

Hey, are you able to climb through without getting wet?

Yeah, it's a very tiny stream.

Good.

There you are. Can you stand up fully in there?

Oh, I— you're a trooper, buddy.

That's a great job for a little guy like you. Already the chickens have made it down to the cowless water. I don't think there's much hope for them sticking around their coop.

How's everybody?

That's where I want to be, out on the farm. But I totally forgot, I totally forgot, got a dentist appointment today. So who wouldn't rather be out in the farm than going to the dentist?

But it's actually a good thing.

Hey guys, I'm about to go to the dentist.

Did you move the cows?

Yes.

Okay, good.

We were moving the cows, we heard the crocodile doing the honking, honking, honking. Well, they were across your border fence.

They're in the neighbor's woods.

We got them out of there. We had all the neighbors— guess what, guess what, guess what?

I hope they don't perch over there tonight.

Okay, can I tell you the rest of the story? Yeah, we got there. We herded all the ladies through. Goose and rooster, very big problem. We had to— we had— we finally got the roosters through. That took us a very long time. And we got this.

Gosh, sorry.

And then all along here, I got a finger.

Well, that's very responsible.

Jonah felt like he's about to die because he got a thorn in his foot.

When are you gonna be trained to herd?

It's actually a good thing.

I'm getting teeth.

Well, I'm getting a partial. I haven't been able to chew on my left side because I'm missing 3 teeth on my left.

Yes, I'm missing 3 teeth on my left.

Left side.

I am admitting to that.

There's a whole story behind it. If you've been following us a long enough time, when we were in Washington, I got that third one pulled when we were on the Great American Farm Tour. I felt better since. I believe the infection in that tooth was causing some of my problems and being able to fight off Lyme disease. Today I go get that partial, but this just isn't any old dentist. This is actually a holistic dentist. He doesn't use fluoride. He safer ways. He encourages— he can safely take out mercury fillings that can be harmful to you, and he's done that for me, and that also made me feel better. It's surprising just how much of dental, of teeth health, can play into your overall immune system and overall health. So I'm excited about this. I'm actually making a special movie about this, and for or this guy, because I want to help Dr. Matthew Young spread the word. So I think I'll put that out. I had a previous visit I filmed. It's gonna be a little micro documentary, and I want to put that out. Let's put that out for Friday's video. Call Hot Mama. Calling Hot Mama.

I just like to hear Siri say that.

Hey! Guess what? I can— you can put steak back on the menu.

Oh!

I got my left grinders back.

So good!

Hey Becky, look.

What?

Did you see it?

I did.

Where?

Papa's got teeth.

Oh, you got teeth put in.

Uh-huh.

Oh, cool.

That's what Gideon said.

Time to live.

This is why you take care of your teeth, kids.

What?

I like to think it was the Lyme disease, but maybe it was—

Well, the root canal.

Neglect.

The root canal was neglect because we didn't have the money.

Okay, yeah.

And then when it was finally hurting so bad that you couldn't stand the pain, you made me— you had me make a dentist appointment, and by that time it was too late. If we would have taken care of it, the cavity, before it got to a root canal point Maybe we could have avoided a lot of pain, but I'm not saying that Justin doesn't take care of his teeth because he does, but if maybe we hadn't got the root canal, Lyme disease maybe not have happened.

What would we have gotten instead of the root canal?

He would have just had it filled.

Oh.

A regular cavity.

Oh.

But it got so deep that it got to the root and it destroyed the root.

Alright.

So.

Okay.