Well, these days it's much better, but we had two instances this year with -40 windchills consistently over several days. One of the days during the first instance, we hit in the negative 50's My duck pens are in a protected spot that's on the southern facing side of my home so that really helped. But also, the snow got so deep this year that they couldn't really get around except in paths. My indian runner drake for several weeks didn't even want to take his feet out of his feathers- he'd waddle a bit to food, then sit and bring up his feet and eat/drink right away. Taken out, they'd all just sit and bring up their feet. It's been a hard winter here in Minnesota.
There have been four days this year where I literally brought everyone in the house and they sat in the bathtub until they went back outside. They got to swim (although crowded) in the tub, thaw out and preen which they loved.
All of my ducks have survived this winter which has been one of the coldest on record... top 5 in my area I think.
