Winter VS chickens and ducks

[Anonymous]

hello everyone, this is going to be my first winter keeping ducks and chickens..I live in Atlantic Canada, so our winters can be a little rough. Is there any advice for keeping chickens in the cold months and also my ducks are free range and live in a big pond, they dont even come home at night,,they spend the night on a floating dock that i made for them,,they just come home to eat and then leave again..what will they do when the pond freezes and do i need to put the inside for the winter??

 

[foxy]

Hi i expect your rough winters are a lot rougher than ours! Saying that we did have a hard winter last year, I don't really know how that would compare to yours.
In the winter, the chickens fare quite well, as long as they have access to dry shelter. I do give them a little mixed corn late afternoon to help keep them warm, other than checking their housing is in good condition, no leaks etc I don't do much else. I do keep hardy breeds though as we are quite exposed here.
The ducks I use smaller trugs when their big pond freezes. I also keep them restricted in a sheltered area with a thick layer of chipped bark and use straw bales to keep them out of the wind, I do this to stop their tail and wing feathers dragging in the mud as this can cause "wet feather" which means they will lose their waterproofing and general condition. I feed them 50:50 wheat to laying pellets and add cod liver oil to their feed once a week in the winter months.