Winter Watering Ideas

[TicTac]

Hi All, Wondering if anybody has come up with a semi-clean watering idea for there ducks in the winter. I'm going to winter over my 6 ducks down in my hay shed. It does not have a pump so I was thinking I would fill a half barrel with water and heat it. I would keep that separate away from them and give them what they need during am and pm chores. They don't need free reign to the water all the time do they? I know some people make a hole in wood or plastic so they can just get there heads in and cant dabble. I plan to do this too. Any ideas? Just trying to find a way to conserve the water a bit. We live in Mn so it gets a little nippy in the winter!

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I am going to be watching this thread as this is our first year with the ducks....

My plan (and you can tell me if this is a bad idea) Is to try and water outside in the run. The food will be inside their coop.

 

[DylanB]

I was just going to ask the same question. We live in Minnesota and this will be our first winter with the ducks. We have two ducks and 7 hens. Right now, they've all been sharing a henhouse and run and roaming free in the yard. We've had chickens in past winters and kept them watered by using heated bowls. But we know the ducks will splash that water around and get it everywhere. We're worried that if the coop gets all wet, it will get gross and moldy and it will be bad for the chickens. Anybody have a similar experience? Any tips on how to keep both the chickens and ducks watered without the henhouse getting all wet?

 

[katharinad]

I'm getting two of those:

One for inside and one for outside the duck house. I don't plan on heating the duck house, so I want to make sure they water stays defrosted. I was thinking of a bucket heater first, but then I though it will make the food they mix into the water go foul really fast.

 

[jellybean]

I use a heated 3 gallon or so bucket. It works great until the power goes out. But so far it hasn't broken from icing up. My only problem is they dump all their crumbles (it's tough to get pellets here) in the water. When I clean it it's half nasty crumbles in the bottom. It wastes a lot of food. I'm thinking of maybe putting their feed inside their coop, and water outside several feet away. Maybe they won't carry so much over there then.

 

[TicTac]

Well I think Im going to get a big heated water bowl and put a cover over it with holes just big enough to get there head thru and will fill that in the am and pm and they are just going to have to deal with not going crazy with the water. Im thinking I will still have to have a heater in my big storage barrel of water. I hate having to have all these heaters plugged in. One for the dog,horse,chickens,ducks. Yikes not so cheap anymore.

Oh and yes I do keep the food and water far apart so they dont dabble. How long does a Pekin take to lay?

 

[10ducks]

Quote:
Hi Katharinad,
Do you have a link for where to get those dishes? My feed store has heated bowls but none with the wires on top to keep the ducks out of it. I was thinking I'd have to make something like that, but I'd prefer to find some ready-made ones like yours. I want them to be able to dunk their heads. Thanks!

 

[jellybean]

Only once last winter I had a duck get into the bucket. They could have, don't know why they didn't other than that once. Came home late after snowmobiling all day. My female was in the bucket, drenched, freezing, and exhausted from trying to get out. She got in and splashed a bunch of water out, then couldn't get out when she wanted to. I brought her in by the fire and dried her for about 45 minutes. She's not that tame, but was so exhausted she could hardly stand up and didn't care what I did to her. I need to fashion some wires like that over my bucket.

 

[katharinad]

I found that one on ebay and was going to check our feed store for it. Search for "heated waterer" and it should come up.

 

[Julie08]

I bought heated waterers for my ducks and chickens last year, BEST money I ever spent! has to be cleaned out at least once a day but its fantastic, and yes keeping the food and water on opposite sides of the pen does help.