What do you guys do for water for your ducks? In the spring/summer/fall we have a "pond" in their run that the love to swim in. We dump it every other day and it stays pretty manageable. But here in the NE we are now below freezing during the day and night. If i put a smaller water trough in will they still try to swim in it even though it's really cold? how can i keep the water clean and defrosted??? thanks!
same problem here. I wen to TSC and bought a few rubber bowls and refill them every few hour. kind of a pain, but it works. It was about 6 bucks and is about 10 inchs around and 4-5 deep. No matter what I do, they still swim in it.
I have a pastc bucket that is about 12 inches tall and 14 inches across. I use a bucket heater that I got at the feed store. Yes, they will try to swim in it. I have muscovies and the girls figured out how to get in the bucket. The boys are too big. I solved that problem by getting the lid and cutting 4 wedge shaped hoes in the lid, leaving the center of the lid and four "spokes" intact as well as the edge that snaps on the bucket. I then cut a notch in the edge of the bucket for the power cord for the heater. I dropped the heater in, snapped on the lid and poured water in. My ducks were disgusted with the arrangement but able to drink all the water they wanted.
I got this http://www.tractorsupply.com/livest...cast-aluminum-utility-deicer-250-watt-2170738 and a big plastic tub. My ducks free range so I put in right under my water supply next to the house. Once hubby installs the heater on the water line I will be able to just dump and refill without having to haul water. Now the little buggers refuse to get out of it and go in to bed at night because it is so warm
I use a big rubber feed bowl with a pond de-icer in it. Last year I put the cinder block against it to make it easier for the little one to get in, but they all seem to manage this year without it. The de-icer I got says it's for ponds-it floats and doesn't have an exposed heating element. It's 1250 watts, so even though it only goes on below a certain air temperature, it might put a hurtin' on your electric bill. It's weighted pretty well and the ducks have never knocked it out. I thought before I bought it that I could just stomp on the ice and dump it. No way, not here in the Mid-Atlantic. My problem now is the frozen hose and getting clean water out to the warm bowls. I'm thinking of getting a heated hose. Sorry for the hazy through-the-pen picture; it was the only one I had handy that showed the setup.
This is the one I got and it works great. http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/RTProduct.asp?SKU=FI-H-49 at 250 watts, the electric bill doesn't take as big of a hit as soe of the others I was looking at.
Okay, it may not be 0 here but with nights in the teens and days in the low 30s I had a heck of a time with the duck water for a while. I dump pools usually every day but not with that cold so I just made sure the pools were deep enough that they didn't freeze all the way through and then I busted ice and shoveled most of the big stuff out. They played in the water and bathed less than usual but they had water. I gave them fresh water twice a day in a rubber tub and they would play in that, too. Thank goodness today is supposed to hit 50 and I can dump their pools, clean them and refill. Oh what ducky joy!
I bought the heated hose, and the heated 5 gallon bucket. I had a problem with pipes freezing to the outside water, but now I just leave it dripping. The hose and bucket work great, but when i can break the ice in their pools and other buckets, they MUCH prefer the freezing water!! lol. silly ducks.
We no longer have Call Ducks. We now have Chickens. We had a pond. We used a small round water heater, placed it in one corner of the pond. Our Ducks loved using the pond all year long. The small water heater kept a space large enough for our Call Ducks. It worked GREAT. We have fish in our pond. We read you needto keep a small portion of the Pond open for the fish to survive. AND the Fish are multiplying and are fine. We do prefer Our Chickens.
