What's Up with Martha's Feathers?

[3bird]

Hi, Everyone.

We have seven silver Appleyard ducks going into their first winter here on the coast of Maine. It's been a warm fall with the first hard freeze last night. We've noticed over the past couple weeks that Martha's feathers look markedly different from the other ducks in the morning. Here's a picture:

By the evening, her feathers look mostly like the other ducks (although she's always been a little darker). Does anybody know what's up with this? Is it something about which we should be concerned? Our major worry is that she may not be able to properly fluff up for those cold winter nights.

What else do you need to know? They have an elevated 4'x8' duckhouse with a deep litter, cedar shavings bed and some straw. They have 24-hour access to a 16'x8' covered run with a small (8-gallon-ish) pool, their food, shells and their waterer. They are let out to forage a couple hours in the morning and again in the evening. The get mealworm treats when they come in .

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Has she had a molt yet? My ducks tend to look like Martha before molt feathers aren't as water repellent just don't look very good then they molt out all the old and grow in the new and all is well again.

cedar shaving aren't healthy for poultry something about the oils cause respiratory issues.

 

[3bird]

Perfect!!

I put it in the run, and you'd think it was the biggest, baddest predator in all of Maine from the way they responded.

 

[3bird]

Has she had a molt yet? My ducks tend to look like Martha before molt feathers aren't as water repellent just don't look very good then they molt out all the old and grow in the new and all is well again.

cedar shaving aren't healthy for poultry something about the oils cause respiratory issues.

Sorry. Pine shavings. NOT cedar.

Being new duck parents, we're still a little confused by the whole molt thing. She does seem to always want to be in the water...well, she is a duck.

 

[CarleeAnn]

Done. Any luck?

Perfect! Yes, looks like may be getting ready for molt? Another thought; does she bath before bed? If so, allow her time to preen. Sometimes my ducks will bath and go straight to bed, if I allow them to do this it doesn’t seem as though they clean themselves in the coop and they wake up with feathers similar to Martha’s. I encourage them to come out of the coop after bathing at night and they usually start preening, once they are done I shoo them back in for bedtime.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'd not let them sit in the pool over night now that your below freezing too easy to get frozen in the water over night and get frost bite.

 

[3bird]

Here they are headed out for frosty foraging this morning...I can't believe it's 9 November, and we just got our first hard frost!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I use a piece of scrap wood and screw it to the lip of the bucket on both sides.

My Runners and Buffs hardly had any feathers laying around when they went through molt just recently boy when my geese and Muscovy's go through feathers every where.
My Runner drake is still missing his drake feather.

 

[3bird]

They will get use to it give them a few days. My large 5 gal heated bucket I have a thick piece of scrap 8X8 in front as a step up so they can dunk their heads but still not climb inside.

They were using it like champs over night last night and this morning.

 

[3bird]

I just stumbled across this and wanted to let everyone know that Martha is doing great! She had her first real adult molt this past summer (at almost 2.5 years old!), and her feathers came back in gorgeous with blue bars and all. She is 1000% more confident. Here she is tonight jumping in joy for warm soup on a cold day: