Muscovy keepers share your pics!

[Julie Birb]

Probably a good thing they are out main reason if you have an open waterer and the water is warm your ducklings will be in it in a heart beat, they will get out and chill and most likely die. Sorry to be so harsh but ducklings cannot chill. You need to put something in there they cannot get into this is the worst time of year to have babies, and I'm not belittling you it is just going to take alot more effort on your part to keep them safe and warm. You'll need to go out many times a day with warm water and top off their waterer, and make sure they are dry and the bedding is dry too. I'l lget you a few pics of waterers that can be used safely with ducklings ..

make a hole on both sides just large enough for them to safely stick their heads into you can make it larger as they grow, I make one for mom and put it up on bricks so babies can't get to it.

another example.

main thing is keeping them dry so be sure what ever you use they cannot climb inside of.

oh my word, that duckling inside the water bottle is so cute and his facial expression is priceless.

 

[Miss Lydia]

oh my word, that duckling inside the water bottle is so cute and his facial expression is priceless.

It actually looks proud of it self. lol like lookey what I did. NOW get me out of here.

 

[Julie Birb]

It actually looks proud of it self. lol like lookey what I did. NOW get me out of here.

Funny you'd say that Miss Lydia, because that was my 1st impression, that the little tyke was proud of himself.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Disaster on the coldest day of the year. The outlet that runs my water buckets, keeps my pipes from freezing, and provides a head warmer for my drake failed tonight. By the time I saw everything was off, his caruncle was completely frostbitten. Not just the knob, the whole thing. I can't replace the outlet until tomorrow at the earliest, as I have to get an exterior outlet assembly, and since there is no fuse for that line to shut it off, need daylight as I would be working on a live outlet. The lines to everything are buried under over a foot of ice and snow, so I can't move them. I am maxed out in terms of indoor ducks, with the Saxony pair living in my bathroom while mom is down on eggs, but feel terrible with him outside. He has his shed for shelter from the wind and snow, but the windchill is so bitter he flash freezes the moment he goes to get a drink.
I feel terrible. If I brought him in it would result in an instant battle as the saxony drake is very protective of his family. He goes after the other birds through the glass of the back door when his hen comes out to bathe in the cats' water dish (because as we all know, the water that comes out of the tap for them is way better than what goes into her bowl) It is also way too warm for him inside while he has his full winter feathering. He would have a sore face, be overheated, and harassed by another drake. I am fighting the urge to scoop him up and cuddle him and drag him indoors. This is absolutely breaking my heart!

Oh no! That's too bad. My RIR rooster got a bad case of frost bite the other day even with the Vaseline, I suspect he got wet.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Hopefully he'll heal but it is heart breaking to see them this way. even spreading the vaseline it doesn't help much because they are constantly dunking their heads. Hope you can get it all taken care of today, we're bracing for snow and ice on top so getting generator ready in case of power outages. I have heated buckets and dog bowls going outside I'm worried more about them than us inside we have wood stove and generator but I'll have no way to keep water from freezing. Everyone stay safe.

We still have several more days of weather below -10 forecast, but this morning he was out in the sun dominating the water bucket for his bath and hitting on the ladies (He loves the ladies...) I felt a lot better seeing that the frostbite bothered him way less than it is bothering me! I don't know if he hung out with the geese last night like he usually does when it's cold, because all the lighting that I usually have illuminating the game bird pen and the run in shed was out as well. Usually he has a territory truce with the Toulouse when the weather gets cold, but this morning even the bigger geese were inside instead of peering into the back door of the house like they usually are this time of day. I know he is usually dominant over everyone, including the geese, so I wouldn't be surprised if he just shoved them over and sat down in his usual cold weather spot in the shed. Most of the pecking order seems to have been suspended due to the weather though, leading to a power vacuum which was surprisingly filled by my shy little muscovy girls, who have taken the coveted spot by the back door and have defended it all morning. Going to have to carry fresh water out to all the buckets for the first time this winter with all the bucket heaters off... Never a dull moment!

We have the water trickling in the bathtub since all my heat tape on the water lines is also not functioning - it was still flowing this morning - which was quite surprising! Going to have to do a Home Depot run for a new exterior outlet, and hopefully the weather will improve enough for us to get out there to fix it. My hubby is grabbing extension cords that we can run through the garage window to feed the lines served by the exterior outlet in the meantime...

Spring needs to hurry up and arrive!

 

[Miss Lydia]

We still have several more days of weather below -10 forecast, but this morning he was out in the sun dominating the water bucket for his bath and hitting on the ladies (He loves the ladies...) I felt a lot better seeing that the frostbite bothered him way less than it is bothering me! I don't know if he hung out with the geese last night like he usually does when it's cold, because all the lighting that I usually have illuminating the game bird pen and the run in shed was out as well. Usually he has a territory truce with the Toulouse when the weather gets cold, but this morning even the bigger geese were inside instead of peering into the back door of the house like they usually are this time of day. I know he is usually dominant over everyone, including the geese, so I wouldn't be surprised if he just shoved them over and sat down in his usual cold weather spot in the shed. Most of the pecking order seems to have been suspended due to the weather though, leading to a power vacuum which was surprisingly filled by my shy little muscovy girls, who have taken the coveted spot by the back door and have defended it all morning. Going to have to carry fresh water out to all the buckets for the first time this winter with all the bucket heaters off... Never a dull moment!

We have the water trickling in the bathtub since all my heat tape on the water lines is also not functioning - it was still flowing this morning - which was quite surprising! Going to have to do a Home Depot run for a new exterior outlet, and hopefully the weather will improve enough for us to get out there to fix it. My hubby is grabbing extension cords that we can run through the garage window to feed the lines served by the exterior outlet in the meantime...

Spring needs to hurry up and arrive!

Boy ain't that the truth. This is brutal for us can't imagine what ya'll are going through. We have -4 with highs 8F this is NOT normal for us here in mid America[south]. and this isn't with wind chill.

 

[Starstuff969]

Nice pics of ya'lls ducks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How's everyone doing this morning? we have snow with a topping of ice. Temps are only going to get worse high thursday 4F Spring can't get here soon enough, everyones Muscovy's handling the weather okay? so far mine are doing pretty good not sure what will be going on when we hit minus 9 for lows Thursday and friday THIS is not normal lol

Stay safe everyone and warm.

 

[mymilliefleur]

How's everyone doing this morning? we have snow with a topping of ice. Temps are only going to get worse high thursday 4F Spring can't get here soon enough, everyones Muscovy's handling the weather okay? so far mine are doing pretty good not sure what will be going on when we hit minus 9 for lows Thursday and friday THIS is not normal lol

Stay safe everyone and warm.

We had freezing rain all day yesterday, so every thing is covered in a sheet of ice, than we had a dusting of snow in the night. It is not supposed to get above freezing today. I'm heading out the door to check on everyone and get them some hot water and mash.

 

[Buck Oakes]

same the trees started to even have a sheet of ice last night for me, no freezing rain but undeniably cold and wet, i had to put in new pine straw and make sure everybody had shelter