I just thought I would share the project I've been working for the duck area of my chicken run. I've kept chickens for 9 years and this year I talked my husband into letting me add a couple of ducks to my flock. As I know from reading and now from personal experience that ducks are very messy (oh my are they messy) I tried to devise a way to keep their mess away from most of the run so the chickens will be healthy and happy. I have my run going the length of my part of my privacy fence in the corner of my backyard. It is also a sort of run off that goes the length of my backyard as well. I put my duck house and "pond" at the very end of the run away from the chicken coop half of my shed as well as the majority of the run. I built a short two block high retaining wall so that the sand which I use in my run will stay out and not mix with the river rock I used as well as keep the chickens from scratching out around the rock and creating holes. I used cheap pavers for the area that the currently 15 gal. stock tank (will be getting a bigger one) sits on and I surrounded that as well as the front of the duck house with medium sized river rock. This is all on a bed of sand that has been compacted down. Their water bucket will sit on their "front porch". My hope is that I can hose the area down and their splashing and water mess will not cause puddles and a huge mess. I also plan to add some potted plants of Sweet grass on the wall as well as behind the stock pond. Also this year we tore down the old run and rebuilt it and then I built a pergola style roof that will be protection from Hawks as well as provide shade with my roses and honeysuckle to grow up over. The good thing too with having them down at the end is I can drain the pond and any water run off will just run out to the run off along the property or I can drain the tank with a hose right to all the plants I have that surround the run.
So that's that. I have a few finishing touches and ran out of two more blocks for the wall. I need to build a new outside door for the coop you see all the way at the other end. I really hope this will help keep things as clean as one possibly can with ducks and that the ducks will be happy. They will have access to the entire run if things go well when I introduce them to the chickens. The plastic poultry fence you see is what I used to separate my new younger hens from the old ones and what I will use to separate the ducks for awhile at first till I introduce them to the chickens. Fingers crossed it all works and everyone lives happily ever after!
~Meghan
So that's that. I have a few finishing touches and ran out of two more blocks for the wall. I need to build a new outside door for the coop you see all the way at the other end. I really hope this will help keep things as clean as one possibly can with ducks and that the ducks will be happy. They will have access to the entire run if things go well when I introduce them to the chickens. The plastic poultry fence you see is what I used to separate my new younger hens from the old ones and what I will use to separate the ducks for awhile at first till I introduce them to the chickens. Fingers crossed it all works and everyone lives happily ever after!
~Meghan
