How Our Duck Nearly Died Freezing in a Blizzard
Ducks are crazy. They are just built different. Truly. Being a farmer in the Midwest, I know that they are cold hardy birds, but our Khaki Campbell drake Mr. Quackers showed me this week just how dang hardy they can be! This duck was FROZEN in a water dish and survived just fine.
Last week, I was cleaning up breakfast and getting ready to play a game with my middle child when Rich came barging through the front door carrying a frozen water dish and yelling for towels. I quickly grabbed what I could find and ran to the door to help. Quite honestly, knowing Rich, I was expecting a half severed finger or something ridiculous. What I saw instead was somehow even more shocking…
In the dish was one of our ducks, completely frozen to the side and covered in ice. And yet even MORE shocking – the duck was alive and moving his head.
How did this duck freeze?!
The night before, we had a blizzard with heavy winds and a windchill of -30°F. As usual we did our nightly check to make sure everyone made it into the coop where they would be warm and safe for the night. This poor guy clearly never made it in. My best guess is that he was hiding in the grove and there was no way of seeing him. With 180 birds it’s nearly impossible to tell if one is missing.
At some point in the night, he decided to hop into the heated water dish for a drink, and literally froze his chest to the side of the rubber dish! The more he splashed, the more he froze. Our heated waterers should prevent this from happening, but with the strong winds and extreme cold his wet feathers froze instantly.
As animal caretakers we are always doing our best to prevent harm – yet somehow they manage to get themselves into predicaments regardless. We have found some crazy things over the years, but this was definitely a first!
Ducks are truly amazing animals. We were able to slowly thaw him from the dish as to not shock his system, and then begin to dry and warm him back up. Within 24 hours he was up, moving and eating as normal.
How do you thaw out a duck?
The key to bringing any living creature back up to temp is to do so SLOWLY. It’s essential that you don’t go too quickly or you will shock their system. Like when you are out in the cold for a long time and your fingers or toes are freezing cold – imagine sticking them in hot water. It HURTS! So don’t do that to your duck.
We placed the entire dish in the bathtub and decided it was really important to get him unstuck first. We ran cold water from the tap to help melt the ice around his chest. Once we were able to get him out of the bowl, we raised the temperature of the water slightly and continued to run it until all the chunks of ice were off his body. At that point we drained the water and made him a little nest of towels.
After about an hour, Mr. Quackers was starting to stand up. A little wobbly on his legs but I was super impressed with his progress.
From there, we brought a large pet carrier into our entryway – which has heated floors. We put a blanket on the bottom, and gave him a freshly fluffed warm towel from the dryer to snuggle up with. Which is where he lived for the next few days.
How long did he live in the house?
Mr Quackers the duck lived in our entryway for about 8 days. He had some frostbite we wanted to heal up before sending him back outside, and we were still in the middle of a cold snap so we wanted to make sure he was strong enough to handle it.
While living in the house he enjoyed gourmet meals of scrambled eggs and veggies with his feed to strengthen him up! As well as constant chit chats with the boys who were elated to have a house duck for a week.
What can we do differently?
While we are certain this was a fluke scenario, we still use each mishap as a learning moment on our farm. The heating element in the water dish should prevent this from happening in most cases. We believe that the heavy winds accompanied by frigid temps made any water he splashed freeze instantly. Once a feather or two stuck to the bowl it was over.
The tricky thing about ducks is that they do need open water to be able to dunk their heads into in order to clean their bills and help with eating. Heated nipple waterers work great for the chickens, but for ducks they aren’t an option in most cases. A friend of ours suggested cutting holes in the side of a bucket just big enough to get their heads into. This would prevent them from hopping in – which sounds like a really great option to try! What other water options have you used in cold climates for ducks?
Crazy enough, since sharing Mr Quackers story on Instagram, I’ve heard some similar stories of ducks freezing and people chopping them out of frozen ponds! Have you ever experienced anything like this before?
