Managing Pekin Ducks in Winter - shared coop with chickens

[Whatthecheep]

Hello everyone - looking for some advice to ease my anxiety about the upcoming winter . I have a shared coop/run that houses 2 pekin ducks and 18 chickens of various breeds. I do not keep water in the coop as the ducks are extremely messy, although I do keep the feed in it. They all free range in the evening hours. I have a small kiddie pool in the run for the ducks, along with two deep water bowls and a regular chicken water canister (I keep that up high on a roost so the messy ducks leave it alone). I have a heated chicken waterer, but how do I manage water for the ducks with freezing Temps? I have anxiety over this . Thank you! I live in NE PA, and if our winter is anything like last winter with the snow, well... Will deal with it when the time comes
- to add, I have a small garden pond - can I use a heater in that so they always have swimming access?

 

[Isadora]

Hello everyone - looking for some advice to ease my anxiety about the upcoming winter . I have a shared coop/run that houses 2 pekin ducks and 18 chickens of various breeds. I do not keep water in the coop as the ducks are extremely messy, although I do keep the feed in it. They all free range in the evening hours. I have a small kiddie pool in the run for the ducks, along with two deep water bowls and a regular chicken water canister (I keep that up high on a roost so the messy ducks leave it alone). I have a heated chicken waterer, but how do I manage water for the ducks with freezing Temps? I have anxiety over this . Thank you! I live in NE PA, and if our winter is anything like last winter with the snow, well... Will deal with it when the time comes
- to add, I have a small garden pond - can I use a heater in that so they always have swimming access?

Hi there, and welcome to BYC!
I live in Indiana, so a much milder climate than yours, but I can share with you what we did here with our pekin and runner ducks.
We have a small creek that the ducks had access to, but it would often freeze over. My husband would go into it with a heavy shovel or pitchfork and break it in the morning so they could at least swim. Otherwise, we had two cement mixing trays that we got at Lowe's for their water.

We kept all the water outside and it really helped keep the mess down. I would fill up the cement trays twice a day, due to how dirty they can make the water.

I would be hesitant to let them into the garden pond. There are very few filters that I know of that can handle duck waste, and if it's a small pond, it won't be able to keep up.

 

[Whatthecheep]

Thank you for the reply , I will look into the same cement mixers as I believe they are rubber? Yes, the pond is built in and has a drain so I can refill, but that's not feasible during winter. I know they will be fine, just looking at all options to keep them happy

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have heated buckets and my ducks chickens and geese all use them.

 

[Whatthecheep]

I have heated buckets and my ducks chickens and geese all use them.

Where would I fins the heated buckets? The chickens also prefer the duck bowls over their poultry waterer - I guess they like mud as well - granted with the amount of rain we have had - they really have no choice!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I bought mine at TSC I’ve seen them online too. I had to place a piece of scrap wood over mine to keep a few of my ducks from using this one as their private hot tub