We’ve had ducks for a few years now. We’ve tried a variety of water methods for bathing & playing. Some ideas have worked better than others.

KIDDIE POOL IN A DUG OUT HOLE = THUMBS DOWN

PLASTIC BARREL ABOVE GROUND = THUMBS DOWN

BACK YARD PONDS = THUMBS UP

What I Like: The back yard ponds make the ducks happy. They swim & frolic & bathe. I would guess this is their favorite water method.
What I Don’t Like: Ducks are filthy, filthy pooping machines which is not good for the water quality of the pond. The ducks also devour my pond plants & fish.

KIDDIE POOL ABOVE GROUND = 2 THUMBS UP

What I Like: Being above ground makes it possible to dump out the water and easily refill it as often as needed. This is my favorite method.

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I didn’t name this winter weather event. The media has dubbed these last few days as Snowpocalypse 2014. Geesh.

Why? Because throughout the Willamette Valley down to Salem, and even parts of the coast got 6+ inches of snow & freezing rain. That’s rare. We will get that much at our house usually a couple times a year. But, we are at a higher elevation. All the schools were closed on Friday. An alert was sent out to people’s phones this morning about not driving because of the icy conditions. And, most schools are staying closed tomorrow. I have heard the roads have been treacherous. Personally, I haven’t gone anywhere to find out for myself. All our weekend activities were canceled, so we’ve been chillin’ at home. And, I’m loving it!

Thursday morning started like this:

Saturday afternoon looked like this.
Although this is plenty of snow, it’s not as much as I would have expected for it snowing most of the last 3 days. We ended up with a little over a foot. We were getting itty-bitty snowflakes. This made for fabulously powdery snow that didn’t accumulate too fast. Our high on Thursday was 16°. I’m guessing the colder weather caused smaller snowflakes.

Left: Our chocolate lab didn’t seem to mind the snow.
Right: Looking out a downstairs window. I dumped bird seed on our front porch railing. There have been 20-30 birds hanging out here most of the weekend.

Feeding ducks & chickens needs done in snow, too.

Top Left: The coops all nestled in their blanket of snow.
Top Right: The chickens staying as far away from the white stuff as they can.
Middle Left: Friday’s eggs. I’m happy the cold hasn’t turned off their egg production.
Bottom Right: The ducks didn’t seem to mind the snow.

Chicken coops at the break of dawn this morning.

It got above freezing this afternoon & the snow started to melt. It slid off the coop roof in such a cool way. Somehow it stayed in this curved position all by itself.

Left: Of course we played in the snow.
Right: Only on good snow days do we sled down this hill. We went both yesterday & today. The sledding was great!

Left: I asked my daughter if she wanted to dress up, wear makeup & I’d take her picture. She said yes, both today & yesterday. This girl likes dressing up, looks for any excuse to wear makeup & is a ham for the camera. This group of photos was her as a fairy under the alder arches Farmer John made a couple years ago.
Right: Another group of pics was her in my wedding dress out in the snow.

Warmer weather is here to stay, so the snow should melt fairly quickly & we will have to resume our never ending duties of work, school & kid activities.

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We have tried a variety of watering methods & the thing that has worked best for us are the use of waterer nipples. Farmer John attaches 2, 3 or 4 nipples in a bucket or similar container then hangs the bucket in the coop or brooder. Sometimes he adds 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the water, as well. This keeps the water clear & free from algae type growth. It also acts as a natural dewormer for the chickens.

THE NIPPLE

The nipple we use is a push in style, as opposed to screw in. Farmer John drills a small hole in a container and the nipples attach easily.

There are many places to get the nipples, and as they are becoming more popular the farm stores are starting to carry them, but Farmer John orders ours from QC Supply. We’ve had them a number of years, and they haven’t needed replacing.

HOW WE USE THEM

The nipples are attached to a 5 gallon bucket (or something similar). The bucket hangs right at chicken height & water doesn’t drip out of the nipple until a bird pushes against it.
A definite advantage to this type of system is the ease of refilling the waterer. I don’t have to fight with an annoying plastic container that doesn’t want to unscrew. I just put a hose in the bucket.

My other favorite thing about this set up is that it keeps the brooder clean! Chicks can’t step in, poop in or drop food in this waterer. They learn very quickly how to get a drink.

Waterers hanging in a chicken tractor, duck pen & brooder. We adjust the height of the bucket as needed.

Our friends at Sain Creek Poultry & Hobby Farm don’t use buckets, but have quite a system of pipe through much of their coop with the nipples attached.

We use this watering method for all our feathered friends.

Here’s to Happy Chickens/Turkeys/Quail/Ducks & Clean Waterers!

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