Disgusting brooder

TroyerGal

Crowing
5 Years
Mar 17, 2016
1,381
750
256
The Coal State
Does anyone else have duckie brooder cleanliness issues?! Or is it just me?... Anyway, my brooder is constantly a nasty-stinky-wet-gross pile of bedding and duck poop. does anyone have any tips for brooder cleaning? I have a hard time believing that you need to clean it multiple times a week... that's just NOT sustainable... right?!
my brooder is an old crib in my basement...
and i use pine shavings from TSC...
and i have a water setup kinda like this:

is there anything else i can do?!!
 
My brooders need cleaned once a day at least and as they get bigger it can be multiple times. If it is not a soaking wet mess I freshen it with new bedding, but that is generally only do-able for us the first day or two of their lives. Ducks are professional mess makers and if the brooder isn't kept clean and dry they can get sick easily. Its a pain but it is a must, messy buggers :)
 
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Okay, thank you! my neighbors said they clean theirs out a lot as well.. but i assumed it was 'cause they had previously used straw. the ducklings are almost 4 weeks old! I CAN. NOT. WAIT until they can move on out to the coop :)
BTW, do you know if ducks can co-exist with chickens in the coop when they are old enough?
 
Okay, thank you! my neighbors said they clean theirs out a lot as well.. but i assumed it was 'cause they had previously used straw. the ducklings are almost 4 weeks old! I CAN. NOT. WAIT until they can move on out to the coop :)
BTW, do you know if ducks can co-exist with chickens in the coop when they are old enough?

Depending upon the breeds of ducks and chickens, some folks manage it but I feel sorry for the chickens if they're forced to live with such messy things.

I like Muscovy ducks and have more coming this year but I would never allow them to live in the same area, much less force them to. We're getting especially bred whites for butchering at 10 to 12 weeks, only planning to keep a couple trios for breeding.
 
I know how how you feel! You change out the brooder and the next day you look in and go
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! What I'm doing now is I'm letting them out in an outdoor pen during the day, it's warm and they're more then a month old, and just putting them in the brooder during the night.
 
I have started doing that now too! My duck coop is gonna be done soon... so hopefully i can keep them outside FOREVER! i love them a lot :) but i don't like my basement smelling like a barn!
 

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