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Re: freezing bird baths



On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Golden Cockerel wrote:
> 
>     Joshua's note made me think:  should I put sugar (or some other
> substance) in my bird bath to keep it from freezing and therefore keep more
> birds happy?  Salt might be the obvious, but might give thirsty birds high
> blood pressure (smile). Is there anything of the sort on the market that is
> "bird-friendly"?  Anybody out there putting sugar/salt into bird baths?

I'm not sure how you could do this without potentially harming the birds. 
Adding sugar to the bird bath will speed up fungal and other growths that 
can infect and kill birds, probably even more quickly in an open bird 
bath than it happens in a mostly-closed hummingbird feeder. And salt 
would defeat the whole purpose of the bird bath: drinking salt water 
dehydrates the body, while birds (and all vertebrates) consume water to 
hydrate the body and get rid of excess salts (among other wastes). I 
can't think of anything which you could dissolve in the bird bath to 
lower the freezing point that might not have negative consequences for 
the birds. 

When the bird bath freezes, I just dump the ice and replace it with water 
every morning. If that's too much work, or you are not at home enough, 
then they sell bird bath heaters that keep the ice away. Try the Wild 
Bird Center or your local equivalent, or check the ABA's catalogue.

Cheers,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/