Buying ducks in the winter?

[learycow]

It's perfectly fine to raise ducklings in the winter as long as you can provide adequate warmth for them.
I would suggest waiting until they are 3/4 feathered. Move to a heated garage (50-60 degrees) and let them be there without a light for a few weeks. That will help their bodies adjust to cooler weather.

Then you can move them to a coop and shouldn't have issues. Make sure it's well bedded so they can nestle and get warm. But by that age they should be able to regulate their own body heat and stay warm without a light. But some people will put a light out there as it makes THEM feel better
I suggest a 60 watt bulb, not an actual heat bulb as it's a huge fire hazard.

Also, when raising inside be sure to supplement with greens as often as you can. I like to use the bird suet feeders and fill them with romaine and cabbage leaves. Gives them a good source of greenery plus it keeps them busy!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Raising ducks in winter isn’t hard but shipping maybe if someone was going that route I have seen quite a few heart sick members who lost their ducklings / chicks from being shipped when it was too cold

 

[tayjamieson]

Hi there! I live in Washington and our winter's get pretty cold, currently at night we can get as low as the 20's. I have had 2 ducklings die from accidentally getting too cold and it was so heartbreaking, I still have a hard time with it. The thing about hatching in the winter time is the fact you have to work a little harder to make sure you keep them warm enough and that may mean keeping them inside your home for a while, besides that I don't see any problems.

I wouldn't expect to be able to put them outside after 3 weeks old personally. The biggest lesson I have learned since hatching ducklings myself, is how extremely fragile they are. You really want to be careful and handle them like gold. They do need to be fully feathered before you can start introducing them to cold temperatures like that. We just moved our 1.5 month old ducklings into our basement, it doesn't drop below 50 degrees in there so with a heat lamp and lots of clean hay in their pen I know they will be safe. I don't foresee placing them outside full-time until at least March-April when spring rolls around. I just don't want to risk it.

Good Luck!