Chickens and Ducks in Winter

We have five Cayuga ducks which live on my Koi Garden which once was clear as crystal but is now always churned up and murky, and eleven bantam chickens who live in a cozy chicken house with thermostat controlled heat, small heater comes on automatically when temp drops below 35 degrees and shuts off when temp reaches 45 degrees.

Today the outside temperature is 19 degrees. The chickens are happy, cozy and content but the ducks refuse to go in a confined space and love floating around on the water garden, even in these temperatures.

We made them a duck blind with fresh dry hay close to the pond, actually right on the lip of the pond. However, with snow and ice on their black feathers, all five of them are asleep right now, heads tucked under the wing, on the edge of the pond laying directly on the cold hard earth.

I then realized that there were also birds in the trees, coming in no and then to eat the sunflower seeds I'd strewn out over the snowing ground. They also appeared to be basically comforable in this cold weather.