Winter weather can be a real pain for our daily farm chores, but with a little teamwork and thoughtful planning (or re-planning), a lot of the cold weather challenges can be minimized or eliminated entirely.
Here's the problems we faced, and solutions we came up with during freezing temperatures:
Problem: Frozen water bowls
Solution: 2 qt rubber feed pans instead of ceramic or metal crocks. They're flexible even in freezing temperatures, allowing me to knock the ice out and refill as needed throughout the day. $6 each at our local Wilco.
Problem: Frozen water trough
Solution: Hot water. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best lol I hate breaking ice out of the trough, and we use 1/2 white barrel split down the length as the trough for our goats, so when it freezes, that's enough peril for my clumsy self to start looking for better alternatives that just breaking through it. I already use 2 1-gallon jugs to haul water to the rabbits and chicken water pan, so I just make one extra trip first, fill both jugs with only hot water, pour that over the top of the ice in the trough, and leave it to melt its way through while I refill for the other critters. By the time I'm done watering everyone else, the hot water has already done its work, and I just use a metal pole to run around the inside edge of the trough to make sure any remaining ice is loose and the warm water is mixing in.
Problem: Frozen chicken water pan
Solution: Hot water. Usually, between the dogs and chickens and yes, even the goats, drinking from this large rubber feed pan, by evening when everyone beds down, the level that will ice over is pretty low. In the morning, I'll add between 1-2 gallons of warm water, and let that slowly melt away the ice and fill the pan. If it has enough debris to warrant being cleaned out first, its easy enough to flex the sides to break most of the ice, flip it over and knock on the bottom to break up the rest of the ice, then flip it right side up and refill. I usually don't have to scrub it out during the winter; knocking ice out tends to take all the debris with the ice.
Problem: Livestock exposed to wind/extremely low temperatures
Solution: To protect against wind, we set up tarp walls and low temporary walls in front of the chain link fencing to help redirece or outright block wind cutting through the rabbitry, where the calf and goats also bed down. For really low temperatures, I sacrifice an extra bale of hay. First, I divvy up flakes among the rabbits, stuffing their nest boxes/hiding boxes full of nice dry hay. Next, I fluff the remaining flakes of hay through the aisle in the rabbitry, where the calf and goats sleep, so they have a nice thick fresh bed of hay to snuggle down into. The goats in particular LOVE this; they "surf" in the hay, stretching out, laying on their sides and blissfully rolling around in it. The calf thinks it's great fun to gallop through the clouds of hay, kicking up his heels and causing quite the commotion :)
Problem: Increased predator activity/exposed chickens
Solution: The chickens free range all day across our property, eating greens as they can, and hunting bugs, though they're also given supplemental layer feed daily. To keep them protected, however, they get locked up every night in their coop. Most willingly head for the coop as the daylight fades, but we have a few stubborn stragglers that persist in roosting elsewhere, so as it starts to get dark, I make the rounds to their usual haunts, and nudge them off their perches, at which point they give an indignant squawk and head grudgingly for the coop. Once everyone is inside and accounted for, the door gets closed and is secured with a carabiner for the night.
Problem: Risk of damage to tarp shelters from high wind/heavy rain/heavy wet snow
Solution: Maintenance. It's not fun, but tarp shelters aren't meant to withstand years of abuse without frames being reinforced and tarps replaced with heavy duty tarps. This means anchoring all legs with ballast/weights against high wind, and using non-pointy devices to either hold sagging sections of tarp roof up enough that rain won't collect and damage the tarp further or drip on the livestock its supposed to be protecting, or going out multiple times to shake heavy wet snow off the tarp so too much weight doesn't build up and risk tearing through a tarp or collapsing the frame under the excessive weight (I like my heavy flat head metal rake for this - works great!).
These are the main issues we encountered and resolved so far this winter. With a few minor adjustments, we've avoided bigger problems.