Not looking forward to winter :( .......How do you do things??

[Roxy1989]

Last winter was really aweful, the ducks pond (plastic kiddie pool) kept freezing over really bad! their water bowl which was kept in their house overnight was frozen in the morning (the little bit of water that was left in it anyway), i gave them a flexibucket of warm water and kept changing it all day as it was really cold again within an hour! had to lose the hosepipe obviously so changing their water was like 40 trips up and down the garden

but i cudnt take their pool away!! the outside tap was completley frozen so had to use the indoor one!
The ducks seemed happy enough all winter tho wich is brilliant

Just me that suffered! they are so worth it tho

even the combination lock to their run was frozen and wouldnt spin

im really looking forward to decorating the run for xmas again tho

 

[chicmom]

Aww cute duckies in the bucket......Love the decorations! I don't have any ducks YET but my chicken's water bucket always froze. One thing I did was I bought those black rubbery buckets for water, that way I could just lay the bucket on it's side and smoosh it with my boot and the water chunk would come out. I kept one bucket in the garage, and one in the coop and I would exchange them daily--sometimes twice a day.

Do ducks have to have a place to swim even in the winter?

 

[Roxy1989]

thanks

ill have a look for some, could be alot easier!
They have their pool all year round, its just a nightmare trying to break the really thick layer of ice ontop of it and try to not crack the actual pool

last winter was a really cold one and expecting this year to be the same

 

[annie3001]

cute pics.

i am going to decorate our coop more this year too. no lights outdoors on the coop, just with wreaths and stuff. it will be our third year with the chickens and first year with the ducks. i usually get their water from the house when the hose freezes up. i have to go outside with hot water just to open up the door. been used to that. other than that, i expect to be changing out the water daily as usual.

 

[Roxy1989]

ive been told a tennis ball in the pool overnight would stop it freezing

but im not so sure

 

[mandelyn]

Last winter I had a light on the chicken water. I'm looking into heated options for the ducks indoor water and the chickens too since we have electric out there. I'm taking their pool away and providing a plastic flower box for nose cleaning and head dunking, plenty deep enough, but not wide enough for them to get into it. On freak warm days I'll give them their pool. Won't be hosing off the run anymore.. will instead throw pine straw on it, in small amounts as needed then clean it all out come Spring or a freak warm day.

We'll get through it with frozen toes and gritted teeth! Figures today is all cold and rainy and reminding me that it's not long now until winter gloom. Not looking forward to carrying buckets back and forth from the house when the spigot freezes. Maybe it won't freeze and I'll be REALLY good about draining the hose after use. I'm not wrestling the frozen hose into the basement to thaw it out again this year.

 

[EmAbTo48]

I agree I am so dreading winter, were in northern wisconsin and its already been freezing here. I already am hating draining the hose everyday!

There are heated buckets you can buy, I have a 5 gallon one in the ducks coop and it works fine during the winter. For a pond I still haven't figured it out, probably will have to use the rubber buckets and just keep breaking it everyday....

Our chickens use a heated dog bowl works GREAT! And I have collected milk cartons and fill them before I go out there and use that for them, wish I could just do that for the ducks instead of the hose, but that take forever

 

[Going Quackers]

So cute! love your decorating!

This is my first winter with ducks but i have horses so i'm familiar with the 'fun' of frigid temps and frozen this and that. I have hydro to my duck barn so i plan to get a heated waterer. Not sure how to handle a pool? i know i could get a floating heater but i worry they'd freeze their feet after getting out?

I am lucky that my horse trough is barely a distance from the ducks and it's heated so i can 'steal' water from it.. i usually just bucket water from the house to the barn, i did look into a heated hose but they were awfully pricey and no where near long enough.

 

[Amiga]

My runners would splash in a stew pot in the morning, then I'd change out the water midmorning and they'd drink from it.

Sometimes I'd fill a concrete mixing pan - on warm days - for them to get into.

I got a trough warmer and it worked okay - more fun for the ducks was putting the swim pan under the downspout on days when the roof would thaw a little bit.

I cheated, though, last winter. Sieben and Funf are not very robust, so everybody spent nights and a few days in the walkout basement pen. That greatly reduced shoveling and toting water.

 

[veronicasmom]

Heated dog bowl in a larger rubber tub, with board across the middle to stop them from bathing in it, bird bath heater in pool. Works for us in Maine winters and has for almost 10 years.