how to deal with dirty Ducks

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jtbuck

jtbuck

Songster
14 Years
Mar 29, 2009
106
7
226
Florahome
HELP__
We got 10 Indian Runners and they have turned into quite alot of work.
Do they need water all the time-to swim in,especially at night as their pen stinks to high heaven..
They are out all day and have a couple pools for them.
Do they always have dirty eggs , even after puttin hay in they still look dirty.
I know you aren't supposed to wash Chicken eggs , but what about the Duck eggs?

Sorry for all the questions, but I got to do something to get them under control , like my Chickens...

Thanks
 
My ducks free range my backyard all day. They have a swimming stock tank during the day and food and water buckets. At night they go in their house with no food or water. I could never imagine having a swimming area for them at night! That would be a huge mess!!! Since there is no water in their house their shavings are dry and clean. Relatively, they are ducks and are messy in general. If I keep their shavings clean their eggs stay pretty clean.

I don't wash my eggs but they aren't that dirty. If you do wash them use warm water and then refrigerate them after.

They need water if they have food and they need to be able to dunk their heads to blow out their nares. They do not need swimming water all the time. Usually in winter most people have a swimming pan that they will fill up a few times a week and dump after they all have all swam and cleaned off a bit.
 
Last edited:
My ducks also free range during the day and go into a pen at night. I give them food and water via a bucket and nipples and it is working out great for me. The nipples have very little leakage and the ducks seem content to drink from them during the night.
 
for the eggs you can rinse them if they are really bad but a little dirt is fine.also they are ducks they'll make messes they're animals not people.by the way this is the cold hard truth,ducks are going to smell,the best you cane do is just make sure they have clean water. ducks will be ducks!
 
hugs.gif


I must say, we don't have odor problems, which is good, as the fourteen ducks have a pen in our walkout basement. Sometimes someone does have a stinky poo, but the pen is not nasty.

Here are some tips.

I use three watering station - a big one and smaller one for the large (11) flock, and a smaller one for the small (3) flock.







These catch over 90% of the splash, keeping the bedding from getting wet. I daily spot-pick the bedding. Takes about 15 minutes.

Water management was the trickiest part for me. Once I started figuring it out, things were less labor-intensive. Even brooding the ducklings in the house for 3 months, the house never had a bad aroma. But I was cleaning the brooder two or three times a day. Now I know it will be much less effort if I have ducklings again.

Here are some other links.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641902/created-a-water-saver-for-my-duck-brooder

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/679433/water-water-everywhere/10

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/858161/feed-water-solution-for-brooder#post_12901321

http://frankiemakes.blogspot.ca/2012/06/watering-solution-for-ducks.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/259876/do-your-ducks-have-water-at-night/10#post_13568197

post number 8 from this
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/959603/ducklings-getting-stuck-on-their-backs#post_14939819

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/969751/help-baby-ducklings#post_15125952
 

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