Ducks are highly motivated to access open water for bathing, preening, and drinking, yet most commercially farmed ducks are kept in systems that provide no open water access. This fundamental mismatch between natural behaviour and housing conditions is a central duck welfare challenge.
Denying ducks access to water for bathing is one of the clearest examples of a fundamental natural behaviour being prevented by commercial housing design. Ducks demonstrate strong frustration when water access is withheld, and physical health consequences including eye infections and bill abnormalities confirm the welfare cost. The technical and economic barriers to providing water access have been overstated - shower systems, drinking troughs, and dip pools provide meaningful welfare improvements at modest cost.