Woodies, Mandarins, Pintails & BEI's - winter set-up?

[happyhensny]

We have a pair each of Wood Ducks, Mandarins, American Pintails and East Indies. Is a dog house inside a chain-link dog run, totally enclosed in plastic with a tin roof sufficient? Our winter nights get into the negative temps. Thanks!

 

[chickenloverwill]

Put a heat lamp in side there house. You will also need a water heater.

 

[StevenW.]

Ducks are basically winter proof with their down coats.
I just put down a lot of fluffy bedding (straw and sometimes hay) in the shed so they can snuggle in it if they ever decide to come in.

 

[kuecker1]

Quote:
Don't put a light in the house. The light on 24 hours a day will cause them to start laying during the winter months and I doubt you want that. Give them a well bedded pen out of the wind and snow and they will be just fine.

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
Don't put a light in the house. The light on 24 hours a day will cause them to start laying during the winter months and I doubt you want that. Give them a well bedded pen out of the wind and snow and they will be just fine.

X2
I'm takeing out the light in my ducks shed and putting up a string of christmas lights in there so they can see a little during the night.
I try not to have any lights in the coops since they need the energy keeping warm not laying eggs.

But I wouldn't worry about the Woods, Mandarins, and Pintails laying eggs though since they are seasonal layers.

 

[happyhensny]

Thank you all for your ideas! I will have some heavy bedding-straw, inside the house and have some on the ground also to keep down any mud. They are just so sweet I wouldn't want them too cold.

 

[waterdog]

Any artifical lights can cause changes in them they may lay and in the spring as soon as you turn them off the wild ducks will more than likely not lay but go into an early moult. They respond to daylight light hours for laying, moulting ect. We have tried red heat bulbs and had this happen. They can with stand pretty extreme temps with either lots of dry bedding or the biggest thing is open water 24/7. We keep all of our birds right outside no bedding just plenty of open water and we get pretty cold here in Michigan. The biggest concern with ducks is frostbite on the feet with open water there feathers keep them warm and the water prevents frostbite.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

Quote:
Don't put a light in the house. The light on 24 hours a day will cause them to start laying during the winter months and I doubt you want that. Give them a well bedded pen out of the wind and snow and they will be just fine.

I think when chickenloverwill said put a heat lamp in. he ment a red light. The ducks cant see those, and it doesnt mess with their laying cycle. When I mqke my ducklings new coop im gonna have to heat it.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

Quote:
The red light NEVER messed up my ducks laying. They cant even see the red light. so it shouldnt mess them up...

 

[waterdog]

Quote:
The red light NEVER messed up my ducks laying. They cant even see the red light. so it shouldnt mess them up...

Have you tried this with the breeds of waterfowl mentioned or domestics it has never affected our call ducks but it has affected some of the wild breeds. Just trying to give advice from our experiences, the breeds mentioned are totally different than raising domestic ducks I'm glad to hear the red light works for you. but we did not have good success with them.