This is my first winter with 5 ducks. They are in with the chickens.
I don't give them any water to climb in. Just their drinking water.
So far, so good.
If I was you, I would not give them the kiddie pool. If their butts are
frozen, then yes, their poo is not going to pass out of their bodies correctly.

 

The pool is all that is keeping them clean. They get in the water, soak their rear ends and peck the poop off. If I'm too busy to fill the pool, they all have daggy butts the next day, but fortunately they can usually clean it off.

A chicken that escaped the chopping block was found in the bin yard dragging a chunk of poop around half his own size, so it's not the water that's doing it. It's so cold that if a bit gets stuck to their feathers, it will then freeze more to it immediately, causing a chain reaction.

The geese seem immune as they eject the goose poop with such force :yuck:

 

How can I help my ducks stay clean in the cold?

Provide them a space where the temperature is warmer.
When you see ice building up, confine them.

 

My birds have a coop with a wood floor, shavings down, that I clean about every 4 days. The second room has a dirt floor, and gets a buid up till spring. It is very dry in that room. Then they have the kennel yard / run that is dry dirt for the biggest area due to the roof being tarped. The one corner has lot of hay in it where they sit a lot when outside. So they stay dry for the most part. Key is to keep their feet and belly as dry as possible because they have so much contact with the ground. They don't roost higher up like the chickens do. Winter is harsh here in central NY.

 

They need clean, dry bedding all day, every day. The pool is not your friend. Just give them enough water surface space to drink and nothing else.

Waterfowl are a royal PAIN to winter over in cold climates. That's why I quit doing it years ago,

 

Looks like I'll have to move them in to the barn and give them some straw bedding. Right now they just have the run of the yard and some old sheds like they did in the summer i.e. no bedding, only dirt and snow. Then I have to butcher the lot on a day that's warm enough to use the chicken plucker!

I agree Alder I won't be doing this again. I intend to keep the geese for years but at least they seem to have no problems out in the snow.

 

Your best bet would be to give the ducks AND the geese a space
in the barn, during the winter. They need shelter. How do you
protect them from predators ?
I wish I lived closer. I would be making you a offer on the ducks.
How many of them do you have and what breed ?

 

Yep, all the waterfowl live together and have been moved together into the barn. They did have shelter before, they had a couple old sheds that they had the run of. However, none of them had any doors so there was no way to keep them from going out in the snow, which they love to do even though it's bad for them. Now they are penned in the barn and can't get out in the snow.

I have a big LGD who guards my sheep and he seems to provide enough protection that nothing comes on the home quarter at all.

6 Pekin ducks left (of 9) and it looks like it's going to come above zero next week. That'll be time to spin up the chicken plucker and make some roast duck

 

We used to provide open water for our ducks all year round in Michigan. We used to free range and though they had access to barns and shelters galore they preferred to sleep outdoors or under our porch or shrubs most nights even through the winter. Snow is not 'bad' for them. If they're outside by choice, that's not a problem IMO. I'd rather have them outside than in housing that is poorly ventilated and hard to keep clean through the winter - ducks and geese are MESSY and not only would an owner not find it fun to confine them indoors in most situations, it probably wouldn't be conducive to a healthy indoor environment either. Even in the bitterest of cold, our birds would have liquid water provided and they would always hop right in. We would give them a lot more water than a couple inches - they would submerge, flap, dive in and out, zoom around, have a mating frenzy - they loved it. We used to keep mainly muscovies (known for less oil/waterproofing as a species) as well as mallard derived species (Welsh Harlequins) and had a group of geese for a few years as well. Wild ducks will stay in open water in frigid temps too. The water helps keep the plumage clean, and thus well groomed and easy to distribute oil through. A clean, well groomed duck is a warm duck. The only reason we stopped providing open water is because I moved out and my dad can't be bothered especially since we now have just two when we used to winter around 30-40 or so if I had to guess. ( we usually culled hard just prior to winter to get down to this number from probably around 80 some years). And trust me, we wintered ducks through some ungodly cold winters. So personally, I find it a bit difficult to believe that they are having JUST a problem with the water freezing to their hind ends.

You may be seeing the end result of another underlying illness. To me, it sounds like the birds are NOT grooming themselves to distribute the oil that would keep them protected and also to remove excess water in the plumage after their swims. The main reason is likely because they are ill for some other reason. A healthy bird should vigorously groom often. Stopping normal maintenance behaviours like grooming is a common first sign of illness in many species. In ducks, it's absolutely essential for them to distribute that oil through their feathers from a gland found at the base of their tail. Without it, they lose waterproofing, plumage quality etc. If it's been cold/wet/snowy where you're at, it is also quite possible that your sick birds aren't going swimming at all and are instead getting a giant snow/moisture dingleberry simply from moving around in the environment without proper oil coverage and grooming. Sick birds that aren't moving and exposed (which is what ducks honestly choose to do in some pretty bitter temps despite having housing available) then they could get a dingleberry this way as well.

The underlying illness would need to be determined to fix the problem.. It is helpful that they are found on their back as that can indicate certain diseases. If you're sincerely concerned, I would take a representative bird or two to your local state veterinary diagnostic lab for your state and have a pathologist do a pooled gross necropsy. I'd personally suggest if the symptoms found are not pathognomonic for a particular disease (often times a gross necropsy can be diagnostic), that they do a full necropsy including diagnostics. You can request to talk to the pathologist about this so that a full necropsy is only done if needed. Most states have farm animal necropsies subsidized and you can get a pathologist report and gross necropsy done for less than 100.00, and a full necropsy for less than 200. Here at DCPAH a gross is 95.00 and a full is 180.00 - this includes any pathologist requested virology, bacteriology, histology - all diagnostics except toxicology (which if the pathologist suspects, may be suggested for an additional fee). If you're losing lots of birds and want to continue raising them in the future, it is often worth it.

Otherwise you could depopulate and start fresh and hope your other poultry aren't asymptomatic carriers of the disease, and that a thorough environmental cleaning prevents further losses. In a prolonged depopulation, the infective organism in the environment will decrease due to dilution effect without it's host provided cleaning is done regularly and that other species are not asymptomatic carriers and depending on the infective agent's livability in various situations (cold, hot, dry, wet, UV exposure etc)

 

Thanks for the great response, Caprice Acres. I'm glad that I don't have to keep ducks indoors or take their water away. This is a good explanation why it only ever seems to be one duck at a time that goes downhill, gets daggy and then expires - it was a sick duck anyways. After all, when it gets really cold and they all get a bit dirty, they all still manage to clean it off in the water.

Our local vets around here are clueless in matters not cattle or pet dogs, so I won't waste my money by giving it to them. The dog has chowed down all of the dead stock anyways, and the remaining ducks are healthy and vigorous, as are the geese.

However, I am going to depopulate just by the nature of my operation. I don't like wintering anything I don't have to, so I don't keep layers and butcher all my chickens every year. These ducks were all slated for meat anyways, and it's going to be +8C in the next couple days. Perfect for scalding and plucking birds. Then, other than the 3 geese, we will be completely poultry free until spring chicken season starts in mid-April.

As the birds ran almost entirely outside, the snow, cold, UV, and spring runoff should get everything pretty cleaned up by then, I hope. The cold sterilizes all the pastures of sheep parasites, so it should do the same for poultry disease with any luck.

 

I wouldn't expect an average local veterinarian to be an expert in poultry either. BUT that is not to say that they don't know who does. The veterinary community is rather small and we talk alot - Calling around to vets and asking for contacts - or contacting your area's veterinary college is a great way to find someone or something you're looking for. Most areas have a diagnostic laboratory with pathologists that local veterinarians send samples and necropsies to, where bacteriologists and virologists, pathologists etc can do various testing. Most testing for disease is not done 'in house' for veterinarians. Even small animal veterinarians should have a diagnostic laboratory that they know of or use themselves that would be of help to you. These more local laboratories should have poultry pathologists should you want to pursue if the disease is still persisting next year. Some species of poultry are susceptible to diseases that is carried by other species without symptoms. A common example is blackhead in turkeys - Chickens aren't susceptible to disease most of the time and are carriers, but turkeys have extremely high mortality. Depopulating just one species MAY not cure the problem UNLESS it is a species specific disease that doesn't persist long in the environment.

 

What are you feeding them? I've overwintered muscovies and geese with no swimming pool to bathe in down to -30 F and never had that problem.

 

They get fed grain screenings from my screenings bin, much like every other critter here. It's a blend of everything that right now is biased towards lentils, flax and flax bolls, with wild oats and the occasional wheat and rye.

I slaughtered all the ducks today as well as my final escaped chicken, no poultry left except geese now until spring! The geese will have only drinking water.

We'll see what happens next year as I plan to slaughter all my poultry before it gets cold, and there were no problems with waterfowl until it got really cold. We got caught this year with a rapid freeze.