Watering ducks in winter

[DuckyBoys]

I am going to get a tall stock tank and a heater for my donkeys and then my birds will have their own waterers. They poop waaaaaay too much for the donkeys to share water holes like they do in the summer.

My aviary which houses my calls and wild ducks will probably end up with a large dog waterer but the geese and runners will have heated horse buckets. Probably just two until I absolutely have to seperate them for breeding.

I dread thinking about winter.

Freezing water is such a pain. There will absolutely be NO swimming at my farm!! I need to outfit the buckets with wire to keep their fat patooties out. You'd be amazed at the creativity a well determined American Buff can manage when her only option for swimming is a one gallon bucket. I've caught them in there more than once.

Sometimes two of them make a go for it at the same time.

 

[Mini Coop]

All my poultry eat snow in the winter, without any ill effect. I never, in 14 years in my current locale, lost any poultry in winter. I will open a bag of grain, let them gorge themselves, and I don't bother to water them when there is snow on the ground, which is 4 months out of the year, generally. I also give them plenty of hay to supplement their diet.

 

[Their Other Mother]

Just had to pop in and say how nice it is to live in Arizona for the winter! Only have to worry about freezing water 2 or 3 times a year.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
So they never have access to drinking water during that time?

 

[mom4morecritters]

Quote:
I don't have the time to fill water buckets more than once a day!

For our two geese and 6 ducks we keep a hose running (at a trickle) into a stock tank. Certain times during the winter the hose freezes up. When that happens we dump snow in the tank. We also have a submergible deicer in the tank. The overflow from the stock tank runs into the pond we made for them. This has worked for us for several years now. We've tried other things but nothing has worked as well, and been easy!

 

[Mini Coop]

Quote:
So they never have access to drinking water during that time?

Correct. It works. I live in the mountains of Washington State. The only time I've have poultry drop dead, which has been rare, is in the warmer months, not the winter.

It sounds weird I know, but it works and it saves a lot of labor!