First time duck winter!

[KentuckyDuckMomma]

Hi, I’m a first year duck mom! Spring and summer were great but we are expected to have COLD weather this coming weekend and it staying.

I have this waterer right now and it works fairly good. I NEED to know how to keep this from freezing or what I need to get for winter care. They’re in a 10x10 dog kennel (hardware cloth on the outside) with a metal roof on top and a pool and coop inside.

Not sure what to do with the pool water either? What I’m using now is just a blue kiddie plastic pool from Walmart.

 

[fatty and friends]

make sure whatever you use for water is deep enough for them to dunk their entire heads (not just beaks)

we use small buckets

 

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

Anything made of plastic doesn’t last too well once the hard freeze hits. We use rubber livestock bowls for water. They are indestructible. We rotate two sets AM and PM. For swimming water, we use a cement mixing tub (although we still have their blue pool out right now due to unseasonably warm weather). The hard thing in winter (besides lugging buckets of water from the house) is minimizing spillage, because moisture is the enemy in winter. I’m still working on that 5 years in!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

This is my first winter my ducks are outside
Last year I kept my mom and dad duck indoors in their own room and silly me thought incubating eggs in nov / dec was a good idea
Nope was a terrible idea having 7 ducks inside all winter
I have 16 ducks now so we have moved them into a insulated duck house
I have a heater I run in the day as I keep the little duck door open for them so they can go in and out anytime they want
I use 2-3 gallon heated buckets for water and I set those buckets in a litter box as this catches a lot of the spills and prevents ice around the bucket on the ground
I also shovel the snow down and add shavings to prevent ice and then sticking to the ground
It gives them a warmer place to lay as well. I have build a shelter to put the feed in to prevent snow or rain from getting in it
Fingers crossed we do ok

 

[KentuckyDuckMomma]

This is my first winter my ducks are outside
Last year I kept my mom and dad duck indoors in their own room and silly me thought incubating eggs in nov / dec was a good idea
Nope was a terrible idea having 7 ducks inside all winter
I have 16 ducks now so we have moved them into a insulated duck house
I have a heater I run in the day as I keep the little duck door open for them so they can go in and out anytime they want
I use 2-3 gallon heated buckets for water and I set those buckets in a litter box as this catches a lot of the spills and prevents ice around the bucket on the ground
I also shovel the snow down and add shavings to prevent ice and then sticking to the ground
It gives them a warmer place to lay as well. I have build a shelter to put the feed in to prevent snow or rain from getting in it
Fingers crossed we do ok

I seen the heated buckets but wasn’t sure if they’d work for ducks since they’re so tall or do you use the little 2 gallon?

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I seen the heated buckets but wasn’t sure if they’d work for ducks since they’re so tall or do you use the little 2 gallon?

I have the 2 gallon and one 3 gallon one
The ducks are good with them
But I also have a bigger one and they can’t really use it
It’s my dogs but they try lol

 

[KentuckyDuckMomma]

I have the 2 gallon and one 3 gallon one
The ducks are good with them
But I also have a bigger one and they can’t really use it
It’s my dogs but they try lol

I’m not sure if you mentioned it above but how many ducks do you have? I have 4 so I’m just wondering what size I can get by with

 

[Duckduckchicken32]

Anything made of plastic doesn’t last too well once the hard freeze hits. We use rubber livestock bowls for water. They are indestructible. We rotate two sets AM and PM. For swimming water, we use a cement mixing tub (although we still have their blue pool out right now due to unseasonably warm weather). The hard thing in winter (besides lugging buckets of water from the house) is minimizing spillage, because moisture is the enemy in winter. I’m still working on that 5 years in!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I’m not sure if you mentioned it above but how many ducks do you have? I have 4 so I’m just wondering what size I can get by with

I have 16 so I need 3
If you only have 4 you could probably get one

 

[KentuckyDuckMomma]

I have 16 so I need 3
If you only have 4 you could probably get one

Thank you! I’m going to give this a try!