Just Ducky

Look at these beautiful balls of fluff – VERY happy with their free ranging days – sleeping the afternoons away with the rest of the flerd.

I’m glad I figured out how to move them out into the back paddock. They will be able to enjoy the winter sunshine. Once I had that figured out my thinking turned to managing their night quarters on freezing days. They DO love to splash – and they DO need their water … ALL … NIGHT … LONG. Last February I found they were sleeping on a two foot thick frozen slab of water and wood chips. Ugh! I wasn’t able to get that out of there for another month! So … I’ve been thinking and thinking and thinking …

This! I moved their wind shelter right up against the duck house. They won’t need to hang out in their north run this winter… Now it can be their ‘water room’!

Their water …

… is just two steps up (to the left) from their sleeping quarters. The two pop doors now lead to the water room. I kept the divider and used it to build a wind break from the north. There will likely be some drafts from the addition. 😉

During the day I keep the door to their water room open. When I need to clean it out I have a tray from our large ‘broody hen’ crate as the floor. I can slide that out – take out the wet – replace with dry fresh wood chips – and it’s good to go.

AND there is a night light in there so they can find their way up to the buckets. They are a smart little group. Figured it all out pronto the first night.

Added a flake of straw … and it is all just ducky!