What Are Your Winter Woes?

[Miss Lydia]

LOL, yes, Miss Lydia...yes, I do! Alternatively, if I could talk DH into running electricity out there so I don't have to be tripping over the 150' extension cord that we are using now...hmmmm...

And, as far as frozen duck poo...no cleaning here. We just throw more straw on top, it's like walking on rock otherwise. lol

LOL sounds similar to here when everything is froze solid including all duck and goose poop. your right about it being similar to walking on rocks.

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Makes for hard walking to, I tend to slip down in that stuff.

Yeah, it really does!

 

[Amiga]

Being a little absent-minded, below-freezing temperatures are less forgiving when I forget to turn the inside valve off to the outside spigots (faucets). Happily, the work-around is just a quart of very warm water trickled over the spigot.

Tonight I forgot to bring in a dish of moistened food. Clunk! Set it aside so the ducks don't break their bills trying to eat it.

Ice - we have that mostly handled. I toss used bedding on the ground so that even if it's icy, the bedding is much less slippery.

So, it's when I am feeling less than excellent in the morning that bundling up and going out into air that hurts the face is something I do not look forward to. But the sheer joy of the ducks tumbling out into the daylight eases that. This morning, half a minute after they got outside, Elf started back into the night shelter. But her friends called her, and she turned back around and trotted over and they all played outdoors for oh, maybe 15 minutes!

 

[Catie79]

Hauling out buckets of water. Sure, I've got a heater in the tub for the muscovies, but I still have to dump it and haul out more water for them. I'm teetering along the icy path, thankful for the ice cleats I use.

And my drake jumps in and throws the water everywhere, which freezes the bedding I provide near the water to keep them off the snow! They happily waddle along in the snow to go visit the creek and the open spots where the moving water provides them with baths, but at -17* F for a low, they want off of the snow and ice while being able to sun bathe, eat, and get a drink. The drake can throw water for feet in any direction while bathing. I just throw more bedding on top and plan to move the whole thing to compost come spring.

Also collecting eggs before they freeze. The girls are laying despite the temps and if I'm not on top of it, they freeze and break. A complete nuisance when the sun sets before I'm off work, so I'm rummaging in the hut with a flashlight and 4 muscovies that aren't big fans of their hut being invaded in the dark.

 

[BrendaJ]

All the Oregon rain..... The run can get pretty mushy

 

[minnehaha]

This thread has been such a fun read!!!

I'm usually hanging out in the chicken threads since i have 32 chickens and only 3 ducks. However: I've really fallen hard for these quackers, and really am still learning about them. I was weak in the feed store last March when my daughter begged for ducklings. I broke down, brought them home, and we have raised them. I never liked them, but they were safe from re-homing or being dinner because my daughter loves them. Fast forward to December. You would think my dislike for the ducks would be multiplied when winter care kicked in and the easy days of summer were long gone, but strangely, I fell head over heals for them in December....while caring for them endlessly! I guess I should save this for a Harlequin romance novel!

But hey, they are after all ridiculously adorable!

I have 2 acres fenced in with 7 foot fence and 2 feet of the fencing buried underground around my house, the property is 18 acres though. I cross fenced the 2 acres so that I could separate the ducks and the chickens because the ducks bully the chickens, and I was sick of chicken poop on my porch. How many of you have problems with your ducks bullying the chickens? I saw the 3 of them waddling and quacking after the wild turkeys who come for free food today, and those big turkeys were running from my girls...

Winter care:
I have a covered shelter/run for them in the daytime with 2 gallon pet bowls for food and water. I empty the water out a couple of times a day because they are spoiled and DEMAND loudly for clean water. I feed them a mash mixed with scratch that I add a lot of water to, they love it really soupy. The soupier I make it the more they make those delighted gluttonous noises while slurping it down. Because I change the water so often in the water bowl, I have quite the ice slick forming outside of the run. The girls free range but have access to their run which has a nice shelter in it.

They detest sleeping in the run even though it is dry with deep clean hay, instead, they prefer the hen house. just before dark, they get their last drink of water then stand in front the the hen house door and quack loudly. The hen house is sectioned off on one end, and that end is on the duck side of the cross fencing. They stand their and wait for me to open the door, pick them up and put them into their area of the hen house. It is a 16x8 insulated building, warm and dry with deep clean pine shavings...and they like it! In the morning, I open the door and they fly out. It's a pain considering I have an auto door that opens and shuts for the chickens on the other end, but I have to go out to let them out and put them away. I wish I could keep them with the hens, but they won't let the hens eat or drink, and in the evening won't let them in the hen house....I wish they were nicer to the hens...

I also have a heavy duty black plastic cement mixing tub from the hardware store that is the exact right size for them to get in and take a a bath, it even has sloped sides that make it easy for the ducks to get out from. I break the ice and dump the water and refill it everyday for their bath. Which of course they love. I have the tub sitting next to a frost free outside spigot. I have a 3 foot hose that I attach, fill the tub, them take the hose off and hang it up so no water freezes inside. I have a glacier forming where I empty the tub daily!

Here they are right now this minute in the hen house, I have a camera in the chicken area, and one in the duck area. The chickens are on the other side of the door, you can see the slits in the door for air flow. It stays really clean because they do not get food or water while in there, and they do fine without it till I let them out in the morning.

3 spoiled Cayuga hens:

 

[Miss Lydia]

This thread has been such a fun read!!!

I'm usually hanging out in the chicken threads since i have 32 chickens and only 3 ducks. However: I've really fallen hard for these quackers, and really am still learning about them. I was weak in the feed store last March when my daughter begged for ducklings. I broke down, brought them home, and we have raised them. I never liked them, but they were safe from re-homing or being dinner because my daughter loves them. Fast forward to December. You would think my dislike for the ducks would be multiplied when winter care kicked in and the easy days of summer were long gone, but strangely, I fell head over heals for them in December....while caring for them endlessly! I guess I should save this for a Harlequin romance novel!

But hey, they are after all ridiculously adorable!

I have 2 acres fenced in with 7 foot fence and 2 feet of the fencing buried underground around my house, the property is 18 acres though. I cross fenced the 2 acres so that I could separate the ducks and the chickens because the ducks bully the chickens, and I was sick of chicken poop on my porch. How many of you have problems with your ducks bullying the chickens? I saw the 3 of them waddling and quacking after the wild turkeys who come for free food today, and those big turkeys were running from my girls...

Winter care:
I have a covered shelter/run for them in the daytime with 2 gallon pet bowls for food and water. I empty the water out a couple of times a day because they are spoiled and DEMAND loudly for clean water. I feed them a mash mixed with scratch that I add a lot of water to, they love it really soupy. The soupier I make it the more they make those delighted gluttonous noises while slurping it down. Because I change the water so often in the water bowl, I have quite the ice slick forming outside of the run. The girls free range but have access to their run which has a nice shelter in it.

They detest sleeping in the run even though it is dry with deep clean hay, instead, they prefer the hen house. just before dark, they get their last drink of water then stand in front the the hen house door and quack loudly. The hen house is sectioned off on one end, and that end is on the duck side of the cross fencing. They stand their and wait for me to open the door, pick them up and put them into their area of the hen house. It is a 16x8 insulated building, warm and dry with deep clean pine shavings...and they like it! In the morning, I open the door and they fly out. It's a pain considering I have an auto door that opens and shuts for the chickens on the other end, but I have to go out to let them out and put them away. I wish I could keep them with the hens, but they won't let the hens eat or drink, and in the evening won't let them in the hen house....I wish they were nicer to the hens...

I also have a heavy duty black plastic cement mixing tub from the hardware store that is the exact right size for them to get in and take a a bath, it even has sloped sides that make it easy for the ducks to get out from. I break the ice and dump the water and refill it everyday for their bath. Which of course they love. I have the tub sitting next to a frost free outside spigot. I have a 3 foot hose that I attach, fill the tub, them take the hose off and hang it up so no water freezes inside. I have a glacier forming where I empty the tub daily!

Here they are right now this minute in the hen house, I have a camera in the chicken area, and one in the duck area. The chickens are on the other side of the door, you can see the slits in the door for air flow. It stays really clean because they do not get food or water while in there, and they do fine without it till I let them out in the morning.

3 spoiled Cayuga hens:

They just have a way of waddling right in to our hearts don't they. your girls are beautiful and very spoiled just what we like to read about, well cared for loved ducks. Thanks for sharing.

 

[minnehaha]

I am a huge worry wart. But I just have to say PLEASE, to those of you using heat lamps, BE CAREFUL. They scare me to death. I have seen and heard of too many stories of barns and coops catching fire due to them. I know they are necessary for the little ones, but grown ducks honestly don't need them if they are healthy. A dry place to get out of the wind/snow/rain is imperative, along with enough food and unfrozen water. Ducks wear down coats!!! And yes, they may act cold, but they are able to deal with it pretty well. I live in Maine and mine all do well in the winter. There are heated resting pads for animals. I use them for my rabbits. Maybe you can use those if you really feel a duck needs them. And old, sickly or young ones might. The ones I have are made of plastic, I have them in an old cat carrier (cut a hole for the cord) and they go in that when they are chilly. It is still heat, but not as dangerous as heat bulbs. Just had to say this, I would hate for anyone to have a fire and wish I had said something......................

What exactly causes the fires? Is it the heat lamp falling into the bedding, or is it usually a wire problem? I have a heat lamp in my hen house, but it only changes the temp by a few degrees because the building is bigger. I have it there as a warming station, the girls (chickens) can come in and stand under it when they are cold. It's also located close to the nesting boxes and helps keep the eggs from freezing. I always thought the fires were caused by the lamps falling, so my lamp is secured like fort knox. Even if the chickens manage to knock it loose, it cannot fall to the floor, it is tethered very securely, with the cord to short to reach the floor or come unplugged. So are the fires started by falling heat lamps, or the wires somehow? Thank you.

The man I buy my feed from (he grinds and mixes everything himself, fabulous food, I have very healthy birds that put their beaks and bills in the air if I dare give them feed store food) has another customer who just lost a 100 foot barn and a couple hundred birds of various breeds, most of them exotic to an electrical fire. I wonder if it was a heat lamp? I might have to ask.

 

[minnehaha]

They just have a way of waddling right in to our hearts don't they. your girls are beautiful and very spoiled just what we like to read about, well cared for loved ducks. Thanks for sharing.

AAAWWW...thank you. it's awfully hard not to spoil them! I need to keep reading the duck threads, every treat I have read about that they are suppose to like, they don't. The only treats mine like so far are raw meat scraps, we learned this while butchering deer this fall. They were still ranging with the chickens who love raw deer scraps and I was surprised when the ducks showed up and went even more berserk than the chickens over the scraps.... Maybe I have weird ducks? They didn't even want to clean up all the goodies in my garden this fall, the chickens were in there pigging, but not the ducks.

LOL...Yes they do have a way of waddling into our hearts, I'm not even sure exactly when it happened, but my daughter is sure glad, and actually saw it before me! I'm sure it was sometime after I separated them from my timid hens and no longer had a reason to be unhappy with them. Separating them was a very good move.

 

[btguy]

We have predators like you wouldn't believe. I built an armored coop and run so everyone is safe but between shirt days and a constant flow of desperately hungry predators trying to find a way in any time we aren't outside ( and scaring them) I am lucky to get an egg a day out of my 9 layers.