This is my 4th winter with ducks, and it's easily been the very worst we've had to deal with for numerous reasons. We started the winter with more birds, which seemed like a good thing since they'd all help insulate each other warmth-wise and we're in NH where we've been getting a ton of snow and a lot of icy, very cold nights.
Winter started fine. Then we had waterer issues, so we'd be bringing out water a couple times a day and de-icing the bowls they drink out of, which led to some birds definitely eating snow, which I know isn't great. But they had water. They just apparently decided snow was easier. We didn't put in a heat lamp initially either, because we typically don't and it hasn't been substantially colder than other years, so we figured we wouldn't need to.
Beginning of this year, I wake up to 4 dead birds--3 were favorites we've had at least a few years now, and I'm just devastated. They all died in their sleep overnight, on a not particularly horribly cold night. I'm freaking out, we double down on waterer problems and get heated waterers again, and we watch the birds more carefully and feed them more. Fast forward to this week, and we've lost another 3 birds over 4 days. And this now with a heating lamp. What the HECK is going on?!?!
Any helpful suggestions would be awesome, I cannot figure out what we're doing wrong, and why it took 4 years to have these nightmare issues. I'm just beyond sad over the loss of these ducks, since a lot of the ones we lost were favorites and not just egg birds etc.
Winter started fine. Then we had waterer issues, so we'd be bringing out water a couple times a day and de-icing the bowls they drink out of, which led to some birds definitely eating snow, which I know isn't great. But they had water. They just apparently decided snow was easier. We didn't put in a heat lamp initially either, because we typically don't and it hasn't been substantially colder than other years, so we figured we wouldn't need to.
Beginning of this year, I wake up to 4 dead birds--3 were favorites we've had at least a few years now, and I'm just devastated. They all died in their sleep overnight, on a not particularly horribly cold night. I'm freaking out, we double down on waterer problems and get heated waterers again, and we watch the birds more carefully and feed them more. Fast forward to this week, and we've lost another 3 birds over 4 days. And this now with a heating lamp. What the HECK is going on?!?!
Any helpful suggestions would be awesome, I cannot figure out what we're doing wrong, and why it took 4 years to have these nightmare issues. I'm just beyond sad over the loss of these ducks, since a lot of the ones we lost were favorites and not just egg birds etc.
