Mallard ducks..winter?

[ozark hen]

take your time and shop around to find the cheapest place for these buckets/tubs. Let me tell you there is no way I would pay a lot for these. This summer I put a gal. milk container filled with water and then frozen into the middle of the tub and it kept their water cool all night. I froze small pop bottles with water for the smaller ones. I am thinking about $20 maybe for a nice sized one and I think I got them from MFA or the feed store. Try any big hardware or look on line and see who sells them cheap.

 

[Katy]

That's what I use for both my ducks and chickens. We have cold weather too, but even when they freeze solid the ice pops right out.

 

[chickenlisa]

OK- I got a 6 1/2 gal black rubber tub (Little Giant Duraflex) at Agway for $15 but I get a 10% discount there so it was more like 13.50...and an 8 qt one for about $6. So I'm happy now. Thanks and my ducks will thank you too in the cold winter when they have water to drink.
Lisa

 

[ozark hen]

so glad you found some. I went to the MFA today and they had them from $4.25-$17.95 for the extra large size. They are really cheap. I surround mine with packed hay and it insulates them. Like I said, if you put a water filled gallon milk jug in the middle then the ducks can duck their heads but can't crawl into them and make a huge mess.

 

[jkcove08]

I also think for about 10.00 you can get a bucket warmer. I will use it in one of my kiddie pools this winter since I have so many large birds on one pasture. I have about 6 different shelters so everyone can find what they want. I also have a sheep in the group with ducks, geese, turkeys and the guineas usually go back there to roost at night. It is quite a group to watch out the kitchen window when I am doing dishes. We keep a heat light going in the coop with the chickens so that thier water doesnt freeze up and they dont have to group together so much for warmth. Jenn

 

[chickenlisa]

Thanks Carrie- I'll do that with the hay and milk jug. My front pen has 45 chickens in it and in the winter I use a heater base under the waterer and it keeps the water from freezing, but in the winter I plan to have my ducks (including the 4 new Mandarins I'll be getting in the next few weeks) in the back pen with no electricity. They have shelter-2 different wooden structures and I'll load them up with hay and pine shavings then. But the water was a problem I had to figure out. Also, by then, I may open the door between the 2 mens and if the ducks and chickens all get along, then they can all sleep wherever they wnat. The front coop has a lightbulb on 17 hrs of the day then + that wataer heater base. Hopefully, all will be getting along great by then.

Thanks again.
Lisa

 

[ozark hen]

You are most welcome Lisa, but tell me about your heater- base. I didn't have chickens last year...just an outside dog that I used the big rubber tub for watering him. I think with the light in the coop rooms the water should be fine but I am wondering about where the new ducks will stay in their pen since there is no electric there. Is there a place I can look on line at this heater-base? thanks, Carrie
Or JK-can you tell me where you got yours so I can go on line and check them out? thanks again

 

[chickenlisa]

Carrie- here is the link...I did get mine at agway, but if you put in electric heater base in google-it should give you more than this link also...
http://www.meyerhatchery.com/get_item_aeb_automatic-electric-heater-base.htm

Hope that lights up and works for you or just copy and paste it . I have a 2 plug outlet in my chicken coop. Right now the light timer is plugged into 1 of the receptacles and it covers the other one, but in the winter I can joggle things around and plug the heater base in also. I sit it on some 2X4s to keep it from sitting in any muck they make or water that gets spilled. Then the galvanized waterer (that just rusted and leaked water out thru a little hole-I found it this a.m.!) sits on top of the base. No water ever freezes. All winter long. I swear by it. So that is why I had to find something else for my ducks, as they won't have a lightbulb or outlet in their pen. But like I said, I hope to be able to open the door and have them all mingle and maybe get the ducks into the lit up coop over the winter with all of the chickens. We'll see...
Any other questions-just ask. you've helped me too.
Lisa

 

[ozark hen]

thank you so much. I just picked out a Great Pyr puppy mix this evening and am researching their training, too.

I appreciate your advice.

 

[chickenlisa]

Oh how exciting! A year ago I was looking for a puppy for my son (13) and initially wanted a Gr Pyr mix...but it was a rescue group of puppies and the woman discouraged me. They end up huge (which I love) but need a tall fenced in yard which we don't have. I agree with her now-it would have been too much dog for my son. He ended up with a black lab/bernese mt dog mix, but the parents were both smaller and he is also. He's long and lanky and very thin. Looks like a long haired black lab.
Ok-enough off topic from me. Sorry.
When I get my black plastic tubs in use, I'll send a photo of them and the ducks using them hopefully.

Lisa