Who keeps waterfowl outside all winter?

I'm starting to think I'd like to keep the geese and maybe even the ducks outside for the winter. Who has done this? I could make them a straw bale shelter but we can see temps as cold as minus 45. I don't want them to suffer.

I think we get the same weather, I leave me geese out all winter. They have a straw bale shelter (3walls)and a truck canopy on top with lots of bedding to keep them up off the ground. They do really well all winter. I keep my ducks in a duck house with a lamp, they seem to appreciate it. The geese hated being locked in a building.

I don't have geese but my ducks almost HAVE to go outside all winter. They make too much of a mess otherwise.

I don't think cold temps would bother ducks too much except maybe Muscovies (which are a different kettle of fi... uh duck). The others are all are derived from mallards and they can hang around the coastline all winter long up here. The Atlantic Ocean in February doesn't sound terribly inviting to me but go figure.

Geese might depend on the breed. I've heard some like Africans can have the knob on the bill freeze. I'm sure someone else would know more.

Thanks for the responses. My ducks are Saxonies and I have one chinese and 4 mixed geese (chinese, toulouse and embden I think). I just don't relish the thought of the mess they make with water. The ducks were bad enough last year, but they may still get to stay in the barn.

I shut mine in at night and try to let them out each day and put the water outside.

I do leave them shut in during the really bad weather (almost more for the chickens than the ducks). A couple days here and there isn't too bad for the mess.

I kept my ducks with the chickens last winter. . . never again. They go through all the water and get the whole coop a soggy mess. I built a 5x4 foot duck house (basically a big box) with a duck door to an outside pen where there water will be.

Whenever I use to give the domestic ducks and geese the option to go inside, heated, indoor pool, or go outside and sit on the ice, they would stay outside all winter. So thats what they get, the domestic (African, Chinese, Tolouse, Pilgrim, Buff, Embden, Romans) Geese and all the domestic ducks (except muskovies) stay outside, usually I give them a calf shelter filled with straw, but they dont use it.

How cold do you get Ty ? Maybe I don't need to bother with a heat lamp ?

Remember ducks and geese have down, the stuff we put in our blankets to keep us warm...
My ducks/geese have a house to go into with lots of straw, they have thier feed in there as well. Their water is outside, a larger rubber tub with a sinking deicer in it. I put a grate over the top so only their heads can get in to drink, no bathing. They do very well.
Lanaire showed me last year that if you put a bale of green feed in their run they will nibble at it all winter as well, bed down in the left over straw, and they do very well. So I am adding that this year as well. The biggest thing to remember is that they have somewhere to go if they want to, when the wind gets up here and it is cold they are very happy to go into their building out of the wind, but most days/nights they will stay outside on the snowbanks.

I do tend to give my bantam ducks more, they get a heat lamp if it gets really cold, they are kept seperate now from the larger ducks as well, and we are hoping to have their outside run done with a roof as well to keep most of the snow out of their run. Lots of straw to snuggle into as well.

They also have waterproof feathers. We lose heat by having water evaporate off our skin. Waterfowl don't contend with that.

It gets cold here, its not uncommon for us to have a couple of -50 days (with windchill) but -30 is fairly regular. Yes if you have bantam ducks, give them any help you can - heated building, heat lamp, etc.

i have read on some of these post that muscovies are different than the other ducks! do they need more heat than other ducks??

It would depend on the types of muscovies you have Steve. If they are just production birds they should be fine, but any show birds with the heavy cronicling (sp?) the red skin on their faces, especially mature males, they are prone to frost bite.
My muscovy ducks hang out with all my other ducks for winter, I had one large 3 year old male with slight frost bite last year on skin just above his beak but he got over it and never had any issues.

Our ducks insisted that they were outside, we insisted they were outside, they made a heck of a mess indoors.
We had a straw bale shelter for them, same thing as mentioned above, lots of bedding. I don't use a heat lamp or anything, as long as they have fresh water to clean their nostrils. They have wintered rather well.

When I had my muscovies, they spent the days outside and nights in the coop. I had a red bottomed chicken waterer on blocks for them in the coop,they never made a mess with it.
If it's really cold out, couldn't you put vaseline on their caruncles. I read on a site that if it's really cold, to put vaseline on the chickens combs and wattles, it's supposed to prevent frostbite.

Hidden River wrote: cronicling (sp?) the red skin on their faces.

Information is good, that red part/apparatus on the muscovy duck is called "caruncles", what an odd name eh? But that is what the terminology is, hope you don't mind me helping you out here? Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

DebbieJ, I think a carbunkle is something like a boil on a human's rear end, smiling. The term is

caruncle

When I kept ducks they used to try and swim through the snow, it was so cute

CynthiaM wrote:

Hidden River wrote: cronicling (sp?) the red skin on their faces.

Information is good, that red part/apparatus on the muscovy duck is called "caruncles", what an odd name eh? But that is what the terminology is, hope you don't mind me helping you out here? Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

DebbieJ, I think a carbunkle is something like a boil on a human's rear end, smiling. The term is
b]caruncle[/b]

that's awful, bad time for a spelling mistake

,

Fowler wrote:Geese might depend on the breed. I've heard some like Africans can have the knob on the bill freeze. I'm sure someone else would know more.

This is what I have learned as well. I believe it's just the breeds with knobs you would have to worry about in those temperatures, as others have stated, they have down, and are quite tolerant of the cold.

I have a couple different breeds, including Africans, and although I have never had temps even remotely close to that (-12 here for a couple weeks), the geese didn't go in the mini barn I built for them with hay inside. They much preferred to be outside in the snow 24/7.

Also, their circulation to their feet is very interesting, so they can deal with standing on ice and snow. Ducks have the same system.

Duck’s feet have capillaries with a lace-like structure that weave among one another. This creates a counter current heat exchange mechanism. Warm blood flows down the legs from the body and meets the colder blood coming back up and heat is exchanged in the close capillaries. The warm arterial blood exchanges heat with the cooled blood, preserving the core temperature of the foot.