Did I order too many ducks?

[Pinckney]

I think his objection is mostly because the idea of kiddie pools in winter sounds super not-fun.

Nah. I'm in MI and have a couple dozen ducks with 3 geese along with chickens. I give them 1 bucket and one of the larger feed tubs per day, that is it. They pretty much keep the water open themselves until the mid to low teens and then I have to break the water open for them during dinner. They use the larger tub, which is a 5 gallon bucket worth of water to bathe in. It's really not that much work. Chickens are harder in winter and need a heated bucket and get frostbite. I've kept ducks outside in subzero weather too- much heartier.
Ducks are like the pigs of the poultry world, and I LOVE both, because they love to hunt for bugs especially around their water source, so to prevent that put any water source up on hardware cloth or move them frequently.
If you have a garden put the ducks there for a month before you plant and they'll eat all the bugs, fertilize, and remove sod for you.
They laugh at me when I come home after work. Makes me smile every time (I have about 24 so there's lots of quacking, along with jumps of joy).
Love ducks!

 

[Pinckney]

I can confirm that ducks do eat more than chickens, but they also seem to lay better, even in winter

Funny but when I had rounds of hay in the barn where the ducks are I was thinking they didn't eat much over the winter. I got 2 more rounds that weren't as nice and then bam! huge difference in the amount they ate. Once they are out on grass it goes down again. They only have food in front of them while the horses are eating their grain, otherwise they get fat and stop laying.