How to water ducks and chickens in the winter easily?

[Chicken_girl33]

Hi I have 12 chickens and 5 ducks. They are all girls except one duck. The ducks mess up all the shavings if we leave water in the coop. But when we leave the waterers outside it freezes really quickly. This is our first year having ducks and the years before we have been using a heated water. Some advice would be really nice.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. I’d suggest asking on the duck forum - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/ducks.42/

This is a useful link of BYC guides to take a look at announcements-feedback-issues-guides.3 I’d suggest including your location using the guide in that link. You can use this link to contact members in your area - Find your State's thread.

Best wishes

Pork Pie

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome back to BYC! Glad you joined.
As @Pork Pie suggests, you should try asking your question on the Duck forum. Or the Manage Your Flock forum: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/managing-your-flock.2/
Lots of folks here keep both chickens and ducks.
Good luck!

 

[Chicken_girl33]

Thanks to you both this was really helpful

 

[N F C]

It's nice to have you here with us! I agree, the Duck forum folks can give you some tips on how to keep your ducks watered in the winter.

Best of luck!

 

[PirateGirl]

Do you have a photo of the waterer you use for your chickens and for your ducks? A web link to something similar would work. Honestly, this winter I'm trying to go without heating water. I find it's pretty easy for the ducks (my chickens are in a separate coop/run). With a relatively deep bucket/lager volume of water, it takes longer to freeze. The ducks are in and out of the water so frequently that they are constantly breaking any surface ice and have water access virtually all day even when it's really cold. I would say that in my climate it is below freezing 24 hours a day for several months of the year. I just give the 6 ducks a 3 gallon bucket of fresh water each morning and that's it. I have two buckets, so I keep one bucket in the human house so it's thawed, fill it and bring it outside in the morning for the ducks, grab the nearly empty/frozen water bucket from their run and put it in my human house, by the next morning that bucket is thawed and ready to refill with fresh and I bring it outside and swap them again, so there's always a bucket in my house melting and always one in the run freezing and I can just swap them at any time, usually just once a day for the ducks is sufficient.

 

[Chicken_girl33]

Thanks if the way we are going to try doesn’t work I think this would work good too.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Chicken_girl33]

Thanks! I’m very happy to be here!

 

[alexa009]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens! We are glad you joined the flock! BYC is a helpful site providing all of the information you need to know about poultry. There is always space for members on the BYC roost! Could you possibly put the waterer on something elevated to prevent pine shavings from getting kicked in? Hope you enjoy it here as much as we all do!