It kept snowing to the depth of 8 inches this morning. The ducks' coop actually acted a bit like an igloo and they stayed pretty warm. The reason I know this it the fact that the water warmers got unplugged at some point last night or this morning. An animal may have bumped/tripped on the cord and it was pulled out of the outlet on the house. The chickens' water was totally frozen in the trough (but not inside the fount). I checked on the duck's bucket of water, and it was starting to get some ice crystals, but not frozen at about 10 this morning. The air temps are about 25F but with the wind chill, the temps feel like they are in the teens.
I covered the chicken's wire door because snow was getting inside a little last night. The ground is frozen inside their pen at this point, so I have spread out some grass hay for them to be able to get to their feed and to their waterer (that is now warmed). They did lay three eggs today, but I will be surprised if they lay tomorrow considering how cold it is.
The ducks are playing in their pool, but we are checking on them hourly because the temps are freezing. They are not venturing into the snow today since it is too deep for them to navigate. There is a path beat from their coop to their pool, and so they are traveling only to those two locations inside their pen today. I also spread some grass hay inside their coop, but only close to the walls since they don't like to walk on it and it interferes in their ability to drill holes in the ground in their coop.
Ducks have a different circulation system in their bodies, feet and legs. They stay warmer and even in freezing temps, their feet are less likely to experience frost bite, like chickens can develop by walking on frozen ground.
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