WINTER COOP CARE!

[RebinNH]

So speaking of cold winter, do any of you use "shoes"? If so what kind worked? I am thinking of buying some leather and trying to sew them myself. The main issue is trying to get them to stand still long enough for me to measure.

 

[DukesDucks]

Are you thinking they need shoes to keep their feet warm?

This information might help:
Biology professor Erica Nol from Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., says ducks and other water birds adapt to cold weather by using a counter-current heat exchange system between the arteries and veins in their legs. It differs from how mammals keep their body temperature about the same throughout the body.

In ducks, veins that take blood from the extremities back to the heart, surround the arteries that take blood from the heart and pump it away to the extremities.

As the warm blood comes from the heart, it goes through the body and to the extremities, particularly the legs, and encounters veins. The warmth from the blood passes through to the surrounding vein and brings warm blood back to the body cavity.

As the blood enters the legs, it cools quite significantly. The feathered part of bird can be 25 C while the legs dip to 1 C, Nol says. The bird therefore doesn't lose much heat to the environment.

The birds' legs also have tendons and bones instead of muscles and nerves like in mammals, which need more oxygenated blood.

 

[Imataken]

I have 2 drake pekin ducks in a coop with predator run attached I painted the entire coops and run floor with a very good weatherproof paint then I put vinyl floor tiles from 2 ft of the bottom of the walls and 2 feet around the flooring then put a horse stall mat in and half a bale of hemp bedding to make a nice thick layer after trying many different bedding options hemp is my favorite love being able to use a kitty litter scooper to take out the daily droppings I add a new layer of hemp when needed then every 6 months take it all out toss in garden I'm in NJ and I don't leave any water or food in the coop have it in the enclosed run and they have 2 pools in the fenced in section attached to the run I leave the coop door open most of the time in spring and summer in winter I close it but I have a auto door for the winter I use to let them out at 7am when I let chickens out till I got the auto door

 

[Imataken]

I forgot I also have a heater large dog bowl that I use in winter so I don't have to keep going outside every few hours to empty frozen bowl of water I love it got it last winter I also use 1 for the chickens

 

[RebinNH]

I forgot I also have a heater large dog bowl that I use in winter so I don't have to keep going outside every few hours to empty frozen bowl of water I love it got it last winter I also use 1 for the chickens

You found one that is deep enough and does not have an element that is inside the bowl and therefore can get clogged from their feed?
I guess your auto door is big enough for the ducks. Not sure my muscovies would fit through one! They are getting SO big!
I'll check out hemp. Thanks