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I notice this with mine every winter. You'd think they would eat more when it's really, really cold outside, but they're sitting around conserving heat and covering their feet.

I use a string of white LED Christmas lights. They put out uniform lightning that's bright enough for me and minimizes shadows in the corners when I need to do something in there.

He looks normal to me. My profile pic is my first group of Silver Appleyards. He looks like he's just standing more straight up than the other one. Being a large breed duck, I would also expect him to be a little bigger than a mixed mallard duckling.

I would still be suspicious of it being a blue runner that's not true to type. I don't keep runners myself, but I've heard that some runners don't stand as straight and tall from certain hatcheries.

I would probably avoid ointments or creams inside the wound. If you haven't already, giving the wound one good clean-out sounds like a good idea to reduce infection risk. You could try hydrogen peroxide or even just sterile saline to clear any dead tissue or debris. These items could be...

If it was deep enough to expose the skull, then it probably would need some sutures to heal the best. I would try to take her to a veterinarian.

In previous years, I had used heated dog bowls for water, but they always got frozen to the ground from dripped water and never lasted more than 1 season. I've been using a different type of water heater that's submersible and it's been much easier...

Going to be close to 40 F here for the next couple of days! My ducks spent the last 2 weeks closed up in the barn and are glad for some more space.

Soaking inside for that amount of time should not affect his tolerance of cold. I've done this before, and I notice more wing-lifting inside to release heat rather than shivering when put back outside. A happy-medium that I've done in other situations is bringing them into the garage for...

That's been my thought as well. The outsides of the foot and longer middle toes don't get tucked up into the down feathers as well.

Are you planning to roof over your run? That's what I'd recommend from my experience. Initially, I just had a welded wire top over the run. A few years of dealing with snow and mud necessitated the addition of a roof. It has helped immensely with reducing slop from rains and snow melt.

I would say frostbite is a possibility. I also live in MN, and have had ducks with very similar-looking injuries during winter time. My vet has always recommended Epsom foot soaks twice a day for about a week. The key is to keep it from getting infected, and they usually completely heal. With...

Your run overall looks in good shape. My ducks had turned a grassy run into mud in a matter of weeks. I use a mix of playground mulch, leaves, woodshavings and old straw from the coop in the run. It gives them a nice spongy surface.

Shoveling for them is really the best option. I ended up building a roof over my run because I got tired of shoveling the snow out of it after every major snowstorm.

They will be fine without water for that long. Excess moisture in the coop from water being available at night would probably end up causing more health problems in the long run.

My Blue Swedish is the wildest one of my bunch. She'll eat from my hand, but any more interaction than that is beyond her comfort level. I have Silver Appleyards and a Saxony as comparisons.

You'll probably start seeing some change in feathering soon. My first round of ducklings, I got in late May. Below is a picture of what they started looking like in August. Notice the green starting around the bill and eyes and chestnut on the chest.

Can you get a tall bucket that will sit upright in the dog dish and cut holes in the side of it for your calls? That way it's still easy for you to dump, and they still can't get in it.

While vultures typically eat carrion, they aren't above picking off live critters that they deem easy for the taking. I keep an eye on vultures because I've had circling vultures get very low to the ground while my ducks were out...

Here’s a pic of how I do it. A standard 2-2.5 gallon bucket from a feed store. It sits in the electric dog bowl. I also installed a GFCI protected outlet to plug it into. I do this to increase the water capacity, otherwise the ducks would empty the dish alone within an hour.