First Winter in Cold Minnesota with ducks

[chickens really]

I'm in Alberta, Canada and my Ducks are Call Ducks. I provide a heat source although they have a choice to use it or not. I water in rubber livestock pans and never worry about frost bite. Wild ducks swim on frozen ponds with open water each spring and fall. They survive. Domestic ducks are no different.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If you want to read about ventilation and how important it is type it in at top of the page where it says search. A lot of info there.

 

[Animal family]

It's the HIGH humidity you should be worrying about. Wash your hands and DON'T dry them. Go outside and see how quickly your hands begin to freeze. When you have high humidity in your enclosure that LEADS to FROSTBITE. You don't want your animals sweating. Notice the feathers on your ducks. They keep them warm and DRY. Don't go against Mother Nature. Sorry for the rant.

I agree. The humidity is what I’m most concerned with. I had what I thought was good ventilation but now I’m rethinking it.
No offense to Mother Nature lovers, however, a domestic animal is by definition, not natural. They’ve been built by us to serve us.
And wild animals die all the time from exposure and frostbite.

 

[chickens really]

I agree. The humidity is what I’m most concerned with. I had what I thought was good ventilation but now I’m rethinking it.
No offense to Mother Nature lovers, however, a domestic animal is by definition, not natural. They’ve been built by us to serve us.
And wild animals die all the time from exposure and frostbite.

Anyways you definitely ran with that and was not what I was saying at all. ducks are cold hardy and with proper shelter windbreaks they can and do survive.

 

[PirateGirl]

I have not read all responses, but let me say large ducks like yours will be very cold tolerant. It has been below zero F at night for about a week here, and in the teens in the days at best. I neither heat nor insulate my coop for my flock of Blue Swedish and Khaki Campbells. It was 7 below zero F this morning with fresh snow on the ground and the ducks came barreling outside as soon as I opened their door for breakfast and probably would have slept outside in the snow last night had I let them. Really, your ducks will be fine. Pekins are large and fatty and have a great down coat on, and their waterproof oiled feathers are a great defense against the cold. It sounds like you have done a great job with their house, but I wouldn't lock them in it 24 hours a day ever really, they should go in and out as needed. Also I'd be sure the water is in their run and not their house because you risk an icy mess inside that you can't easily clean up until spring. Good luck! It's hard to leave our flock in the hands of others at times, but we just need to take comfort knowing that they have been set up for success.

 

[PirateGirl]

Ok... I have now read through things and it sounds like you have gotten some good advice. While you are out of town I would make sure that your petsitter has a fresh bale of straw available and ask him/her to fluff or add to the bedding in the house if it gets even colder while you are gone. Ducks have a way of packing down the bedding, but once this happens it loses some of it's ability to insulate them well, so it's good if we can fluff it for them once in awhile. Also if it there is fresh snow while you are away, maybe your petsitter can spread a little straw in their run for them.

In terms of ventilation I have two vents in my coop. They are exactly the same size on opposite walls and across from each other (up high). I like to think that because they are positioned across from each other it helps with air flow.

Ducks are wet. We do our best to mitigate humidity. The parts most prone to frostbite would be feet and faces, but when it's really cold they will tuck their feet up in their belly/under wing down and tuck their faces under a wing as well. They seem to do just fine generally.

 

[thumper650]

I built my entire setup around the premise of being able to disappear for 2 weeks on a trip without outside assistance. .

I'd love to learn more about how you did this.

 

[Doc7]

I'd love to learn more about how you did this.

Set up is hardware cloth wrapped so there is no gap anywhere greater than 1/2” (mesh size of the HC, so that was also my tolerance on doors etc). This means the coop to run door is permanently open.

2 5 gallon buckets are the waterers although in the winter I go down to 1 to only use one light bulb in a cinderblock to keep it thawed. I replace the water weekly.

The food bucket is 3 x 3” PVC elbows in a TidyCat cat litter box and I refill it every 3 weeks or so (seems to hold about 20-25 lbs of crumbled Flock raiser food).

This August I was out of town for 2 weeks, got home at midnight and flew out again at 6 AM for another week. I dumped and filled water buckets only during that stop off.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Doc7 How many ducks do you have?

 

[Doc7]

No ducks.