Hi! My name is Sinay. I live in North Eastern Washington state. We have had chickens for many years, even when we lived in Spokane. Now we are very rural and have 14 older hens and 8 spring pullets. We have started with ducks this year, with more difficulties than we ever had with chickens. They are kind of nuts! They have eaten something a couple of times (they free range) that makes them catatonic and now one of them has some walking issue. I haven't caught her yet to do a closer inspection. We enjoy them enough that we will learn to adapt to their quirks. Trying to plan for winter water. Any suggestions for that? We have pretty cold winters... Sub zero for a couple months. Drinking water can be kept liquid by using a warmer like we do for the chickens, but do ducks need a pond in the winter? Anyway, nice to join this forum as it is my "go to" for poultry answers! Thanks!
Hey there @Sinay and above all I would like to say ! I am so happy you joined us here at BYC! I have answers for both of your questions so I am excited i can help. First for chickens you should yes a warmer to make sure the water does not freeze. That is the solution for the chickens and it is pretty simple and low cost, but ducks winter water is free! Yes I am sure you are very excited! Yes in Winter ducks take snow on the ground and melt it in their mouth. Ducks do not need any water source in Winter, but for some reason if the ducks are refusing to do that for reasons then let them have the chickens water. I will leave some helpful links for you to research and learn more about chickens and ducks. https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/42/ducks https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/12/feeding-watering-your-flock https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/2/managing-your-flock Also if you have any free time I would love to see pics of your cvhickens. So to post pics and tell us how you are doing post that here https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/40/family-life-stories-pictures-updates I hope you and your flock are successful this Winter and stay warm! Justin
Welcome to BYC, Sinay!! Ducks don't necessarily require a pond, but it's nice to have it for them. What breed are they? Some ducks like swimming more than others. Definitely check out the links that @Jucodeo has provided for you
Hi Sinay and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already so I'll just say hello! All the best CT
Thanks so much for the warm welcome and great information! For ducks, we have one Blue Swedish, two Khaki Campbells, and two Indian Runners. They are fun to watch and we are hoping that these will be laying soon! The silly things act like they are terrified of us but on two occasions have let us know when one of them was in distress by coming to our door and raising a rukus. For chickens, our older hens are Rhode Island Reds, Wyndottes, Barred Rocks, Black Sex Link, and one or two others that I am forgetting. Our rooster is a fiesty little silkie. We did have a sweet RR Roo (which was suppose to be a pullet when we bought them) but he recently got caught by some critter. :-(. We rarely lose any chickens to critters, so it was sad we lost him. We chose to believe he was protecting his ladies. Of the new pullets, we have four barred rock, two Deleware and two black sex link. They haven't started laying yet and we don't have them in th hen house... We keep them in a chicken tractor up by the main house. We have noticed a substantial reduction in bugs since having the small flock of chickens and ducks near the house. Thanks again for the warm welcome!
