Winter Care 🙄

[Thelfrich]

Ok ya’ll, I need help. My 5 khaki campbells have me worried. This is my first winter with them. They have a coop and an attached run. Everything has a layer of straw. The coop is big enough for them to lay together but not big enough to shut them up in overnight. Their run is tarped on one end, they have a horse trough turned on it’s side in the run for more (3 sided) wind protection AND the other end of the run has bales of straw around it to block wind. There is literally one small section of the run in the middle that doesn’t have full wind protection. We are at 19 degree temps tonight with wind blowing and tomorrow night will be 15 degrees with wind. I look at the camera and with all these options they are all laying in the ONLY spot in the entire place that doesn’t have protection. And yet they are laying down a lot, appearing to me like their feet are cold, tucking their heads etc. Should I turn on a heat lamp in their coop to encourage them to lay in there?

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[Nyhillbillies]

@aart

 

[Isadora]

Can we see pics of your set up?
Ducks are pretty cold hardy, but they may need a bit more.
Is their run predator proof? It concerns me that you consider their coop too small to lock them in.

 

[Thelfrich]

I have added more tarp, more straw and the bales of straw around the back half since the colored pics were taken. The coop is plenty big for the 5 of them to walk and lay down, it’s just not a huge coop.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Depending how cold your winters get
I’m in Alberta Canada and my ducks have a garage that’s insulated with a small duck door in the man door I leave open all day so they can go in to warm up
At -20 or colder my ducks only come out to eat and drink and go back into the duck house
They put their feet up within mins of being out in that cold
I close the little door at night and put on a plug in heater for them
But we get really cold here so I had to be prepared

 

[Thelfrich]

Depending how cold your winters get
I’m in Alberta Canada and my ducks have a garage that’s insulated with a small duck door in the man door I leave open all day so they can go in to warm up
At -20 or colder my ducks only come out to eat and drink and go back into the duck house
They put their feet up within mins of being out in that cold
I close the little door at night and put on a plug in heater for them
But we get really cold here so I had to be prepared

Is that -20 Celsius? Just curious

 

[Thelfrich]

Can we see pics of your set up?
Ducks are pretty cold hardy, but they may need a bit more.
Is their run predator proof? It concerns me that you consider their coop too small to lock them in.

I added pictures below. And yes it is all predator proof, coop and run.

 

[Isadora]

I have added more tarp, more straw and the bales of straw around the back half since the colored pics were taken. The coop is plenty big for the 5 of them to walk and lay down, it’s just not a huge coop.

What are your coldest Temps for the season?
I see that the coop is large enough for them to all fit but I wondered if they were avoiding using it because they're too crowded and might pick on each other a bit.
I'm wondering about the lowest Temps because, if they're not too low, your set up would probably be all right with deep bedding and the wind breaks you mentioned you added.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Is that -20 Celsius? Just curious

Yes
We get to -40 at times out here

 

[Isadora]

Yes
We get to -40 at times out here