What Are Your Winter Woes?

[PotatoWaffles]

Okay, I seriously did not see this one coming. My ducks hate the snow. They refuse to go outside if there's snow on the ground. I thought ducks weren't supposed to care so much about snow. I understand that it might be difficult waddling around in deep snow, especially for pigeon-toed Waffles, so I tried shoveling the snow out of their outside pen but do they care? Nope! They just want to stay in their nice warm stall. Earlier this fall, the never wanted to come inside, and now they never want to go outside. These ducks are nuts!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Okay, I seriously did not see this one coming. My ducks hate the snow. They refuse to go outside if there's snow on the ground. I thought ducks weren't supposed to care so much about snow. I understand that it might be difficult waddling around in deep snow, especially for pigeon-toed Waffles, so I tried shoveling the snow out of their outside pen but do they care? Nope! They just want to stay in their nice warm stall. Earlier this fall, the never wanted to come inside, and now they never want to go outside. These ducks are nuts!

Sounds perfectly normal to me, now would you want to walk around out side in your bare feet? but we expect our ducks too. I think they have more sense than we give them credit for.

lol

 

[Sfraker]

My issue in North Carolina has been the rain. It rained for so long on our claylike soil that it started to wash right through the duck coop. It soaked the straw and mad the dirt underneath mucky thick mud. Of course the ducks all thought it was great and started digging holes in the mud. So many holes the dirt started to look like swiss cheese!

I bought eight 50 pound bags of sand and eight 50 pound bags of pea gravel. Spread down the sand then the gravel to fill it all in. Then I put a good 6" layer of straw on top. It's all fixed but it was a muddy mucky back breaking mess to fix.

One good thing is that my eggs are much cleaner now. They used to move all the straw out of the way and lay their eggs on dirt. Now they are on the pea gravel.

 

[PotatoWaffles]

Well I managed to coax them out with some treats, so I can finally clean their inside pen without them flapping around. They seemed nervous at first but now they're waddling all around their pen, happy as pie. I think they might have just been scared of the scary new white stuff in their pen.



@Sfraker : Oh bummer, that sounds like quite the mess! My ducks love making mud holes in their pen when it rains; it's a pain. Glad you could get it fixed though =]

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Here in Colorado, the weather fluctuates so dramatically. We get big snow storms, followed by beautiful 50 degree temps. My biggest woe is when the snow starts to melt on a beautiful day, then the top layer of dirt thaws out, but not the soil below that... leads to yucky mucky mud that sticks around for way too long because the water can't drain through the frozen layers below! At least the ducks love it, though. Ha!

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

Has anyone noticed their ducks are grumpier in the winter, picking on each other more because they have shorter tempers?

Mine are also a little more skittish and fearful of me, as if they think I'm the one controlling the freezing temps.

 

[allergymama]

Winter woes! It's all about the darn water here! 3 times a day busting the ice out of the water dishes (we have 9 ducks) and even the heated bowl that needs to be cleaned and rinsed, which you have to take inside to do, because really! who wants to work in water when it's 8 below. And their mom wasn't very smart when the really cold weather set in because she thought "hey, I don't want to walk all the way into their pen to change out the water 3 times a day. I will put it right over here by the door." And guess what, folks? You guessed it, door frozen solid with ice. Won't close anymore due to the 3 inches of ice all around it from the bathers and we are living in coyote-ville. I have so many bricks, rocks, etc., piled against that door that it takes me 5 minutes just to get in.

stupid, stupid, stupid

And, of course, because they are ducks they insist on getting their food bowls all full of water, too. I spent 5 minutes trying to chip that expensive organic feed out of the bowl this morning.

Frozen food, frozen water, frozen fingers, frozen eggs...it's a good thing they are so cute!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Here in Colorado, the weather fluctuates so dramatically. We get big snow storms, followed by beautiful 50 degree temps. My biggest woe is when the snow starts to melt on a beautiful day, then the top layer of dirt thaws out, but not the soil below that... leads to yucky mucky mud that sticks around for way too long because the water can't drain through the frozen layers below! At least the ducks love it, though. Ha!

Makes for hard walking to, I tend to slip down in that stuff.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Winter woes! It's all about the darn water here! 3 times a day busting the ice out of the water dishes (we have 9 ducks) and even the heated bowl that needs to be cleaned and rinsed, which you have to take inside to do, because really! who wants to work in water when it's 8 below. And their mom wasn't very smart when the really cold weather set in because she thought "hey, I don't want to walk all the way into their pen to change out the water 3 times a day. I will put it right over here by the door." And guess what, folks? You guessed it, door frozen solid with ice. Won't close anymore due to the 3 inches of ice all around it from the bathers and we are living in coyote-ville. I have so many bricks, rocks, etc., piled against that door that it takes me 5 minutes just to get in.

stupid, stupid, stupid

And, of course, because they are ducks they insist on getting their food bowls all full of water, too. I spent 5 minutes trying to chip that expensive organic feed out of the bowl this morning.

Frozen food, frozen water, frozen fingers, frozen eggs...it's a good thing they are so cute!

you need more heated buckets.

 

[allergymama]

LOL, yes, Miss Lydia...yes, I do! Alternatively, if I could talk DH into running electricity out there so I don't have to be tripping over the 150' extension cord that we are using now...hmmmm...

And, as far as frozen duck poo...no cleaning here. We just throw more straw on top, it's like walking on rock otherwise. lol