Thanks for all the nice comments . . . I got ducks and geese last year, and I feel a little bad, but my liking for chickens is really falling by the wayside. The ducks are so funny, and the geese have such great personalities that the chickens suffer by comparison. Poor things. I'm going to get some Easter Eggers this spring and see if they'll help make chickens interesting again, but if not, we'll sell all the chickens and stay with ducks and geese. My Welshies are laying better than the chickens anyway, and here in Washington State our weather is so ideal for anything webfooted (the snow was a temporary, once a winter thing . . . now we are back to rain, rain, rain . . . )
Duckadia - My ducks didn't care for the snow -- they stayed under the trees mostly, especially when it got more than a few degrees past freezing. But they were totally willing to go foraging in it, more than my geese. The geese didn't like poking their beaks into it, But the ducks dove into it and must have found something . . . .They aren't cold at all - they sat in the snow and rested and walked in it without seeming to care. I minded more than they did I think. But we don't get extreme cold here -- not like the central states. I think if we did they'd go and hide. I still had eggs laid every day on top of the snow - they'd promptly freeze, but apparently it wasn't enough for them to stop laying.
Everyone has lovely ducks -- wish I could have some of every breed!
