How Do I Prevent Birds Drowning in Water Trough?

Put a STICK in your water trough. It's an old cowboy trick.

I had the same problem with poor little squirrels. They'd drown and I'd have to pull out the bodies and clean out the trough.

Til I tied a big enough stick to the edge of it.... so if they fell in, they could swim to the stick and climb back out. It works perfectly. No more drowned bodies.

Simply tie the stick to the edge of the trough....do it in a way that the horse can't pull it out or move it out of place.

Shallow Water Trough

I think the only solutions are to either keep the trough really, really full so the birds can hopefully swim over the edge (but this works in theory, but who can keep the trough that full) or else put a couple of pieces of wood in the trough. That really is all you can do.

I think birds are like humans when they struggle, they often panic and stop thinking and don't go to the wood. I don't think there's anything you can do to prevent this short of posting an experienced lifeguard at the trough! A percentage likely do manage to claw up onto the wood, dry off and fly away, but you don't know about those because they leave no evidence behind.

A swimming pool scoopy works well to get out yucky stuff like that!

Lastly, a bird bath in a nearby area might attract some of the birds and save them trying the trough.

I used to work at a stable and we had the same problem! We tired so many different things and nothing seemed to work. We would fill the troughs up to the top and that seemed to help a little bit but every once in a while we would have a bird in their. If it was filled to the top most of the time the birds would just land on the edge of the trough. Which they cant do if the water is too low causing them to land in the water and drown. Good luck, hope you find something that works for ya.

I have never had a problem with birds drowning but rabbits and squirrels are another thing. There is a one legged crow that lives here and he balances just fine, i feed him because i feel sorry for the thing. I think what your doing may be the safest thing, if you put something on the edge the horse could scrap their nose.

I have scooped out dead chipmunks, and birds from my trough. Since I placed the end of a 2X4 about a foot long in the trough, I don't have any more little bodies to scoop out. I don't know why your wood pieces did not work perhaps they were not big enough to support the little critters till they were strong enough to escape.

I suppose you could try putting something ontop of it, but that only limits their access to it- obviously there would still be an opening to the tank. Really floating stuff doesn't help, as even if they can get on it, they are by then soaked (The can't fly until they dry) cold, and most likely have water in their lungs.

Do you have a bird bath somewhere? Putting one near may help reduce the deaths in just that they have access to safe water.

Here's an idea.

Try putting chicken wire lining on it, on an edge. If you make it stick out a little somehow you provide something for them to climb up.

Chicken wire:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum...

Maybe put something in between the trough wall and the wire so it sticks out a little, and there is room for the bird to wrap its feet around it. Maybe a sponge like this:

http://www.horsetackinternational.com/images/09345...

just so it sticks out. You could wire the sponge on by sticking wires through it and wrapping it around the chicken wire so the sponge doesn't slide down into the trough. with wire like this

http://www.metal-yarn.com/image/wire/High_Spring_S...

So it would be like a chicken wire wall with a sponge or two between the wire wall and the trough wall. So the birds could climb up it and get out.

The bird would climb it like this:

http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2008/09/01/16/362-2...

LOL sorry if it got overly descriptive, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't too confusing. I love animals too and it breaks my heart when sometimes a squirrel dies in my trough. I've never had a bird die in it though.

Good luck!

We use buckets at my farm and it's never happened to us. You could try giving them a relatively large bird bath so they aren't as tempted to go into the trough. Good luck!

You need some stones in the water for them to get their feet on. Blocks of wood float and the bird can't climb onto them (imagine you trying to get on a lilo with your arms tied behind your back).

They tire themselves out flapping around and drown. The water level needs to be shallow enough for them to reach the bottom. Sloping edges they can walk up would also help.