I'm sick of cleanin duck house daily. What do you do?

I have a pair of Welsh Halequin ducklings.. Got them when they were about a week old. Now, I suppose they're 5wks, and my do they grow so fast. I could no longer keep them caged in the house, so now they spend the night inside a large dog house outside and free range in the fenced off section during the day.

At night, I close the wire cage door that I put on the dog house so they're not outside at night to become food to any would be predators, but I'm sick of having to clean it daily.. they're messy and always make the shavings or straw so soaking wet.. Is it always gonna be like this? My call duck has her own little house, but she gets to come out at night of her own free will cause her house has a small fence around it.. cause she's blind and I don't want her to get lost.. I was gonna house these 2 with her, but they attack her...

When they grow more, I'm hoping I can keep their water outside and not have to lock them in the doghouse. Building a closed up run is not an option.. I have 2 chicken coops, 2 duck houses and the barn for the goats all fenced off together and these animals all free range together during the day.. at night, everyone goes into their homes and the doors shut, but once the goats grow more and are fully weaned, I'm gonna allow them free range at night so they can keep the ducks company.. I'd do that now, but my wife keeps putting them inside cause she says they bleat earlier in the morning when they can come outside on their own..

Anyway, what do you use for duckling bedding? How often do you clean their house and change bedding? My call duck's bedding is never wet.. hardly no waste in there at all either.. I cleaned it once in the last few weeks.. I think she goes outside to poop, lol.. plus her water bowl is outside near the entrance.

How old would my ducklings have to be before they can free range at night, or sleep wherever they want? I've not once seen them go into their house on their own, so don't know if they would at night or not.. I know my call duck on several occasions has slept outside near her little house, but she does go inside when she wants to.

Anyway, it's not such a bother to have to rake out the wet poopy straw every day and shovel it over the fence then pick it up and carry it to the compost pile, but shavings and straw cost money and the ducks use up so much of it..... actually, yes it can be inconvenient at times.. but I can't let the ducks lay and sleep in a wet environment, which kind of makes me wonder.. don't ducks in the wild live in wet conditions, or not? I'm dreading when I dig up the hole for the kiddie pool to make them a pond.. I bet that's gonna be a pain to clean all the time.

At about 6 weeks I started keeping my 4 peking ducks in a 4x4 16 square foot night house. I stopped giving them water at night and the bedding at two weeks was still dry. Keep in mind I live in the derst and any moisture drys right up. I rake the bedding every other day and and today I cleaned it out after ab out two weeks and replaced it with some new hay. Advantage to the desert I guesse is that duck poop dries out in one day. I suggest you try deep litter and if they are 6-7 weeks and it is less than 80 degrees at night keeping them in a predator proof duck house always at night.

Actually, it is less than 80 at night. Are they too young to be without their heat lamp?

At five weeks of age, I would not have them much less than 70 degrees F, in or out, especially outside, where it is often damp.

Try to bear with it another week, then keep their water and feed outside their night shelter. That will help quite a bit. Some ducklings are just a bit of work at first, it is not forever.

I did have my pekin ducklings on shavings for the first 2 weeks... but I just moved them to a bunny cage 4x3 with a wire floor so the droppings fall right through... I did however put a piece of plywood w/ shavings in the corner under the heat lamp for them to sleep on and a spot to get off the caged floor.. seems to be working good, and not much poop on little bed either... I wish I would have done this from the beginning, I could have saved a whole bag of shavings!..

At five weeks old, they are definitely old enough to not have food and water at night.

Clean out the dog crate, bed it with fresh pine shavings, put their food and water out in the run, and breathe a sigh of relief. Your life just got MUCH easier, and your ducklings will be just fine!

If it's me, I would also remove the heat lamp at this point. In a small house like a dog crate, if it's well bedded, they'll do just fine with nighttime temps in the 70's.

when you put them in at night just do not give them water! they will be fine as long as you dont put them in at like 4PM and not let them out till like 10 AM the next day! Or you could put a wire front on the dog house and latch them in and have a bowl of water outside so they can just reach out and drink, but not slop it all over! We just put our call duck babies on our new raised pens we made! They are great and I recomend them to anyone raising call ducks.

No food and water at night - my coop has wood floors and it would be destroyed in 6 months if I put water in there.

If you're worried about them getting cold at night, hang a lamp in there and only turn it on at night. They're probably fine with temps in the 70s, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

In the coop, I use the deep litter method. I put 4 to 6 inches of wood shavings in the coop and stir it around every day to dry up the wetness. Every 3 weeks or so I add about 2 cups of DE (diatomaceous earth) to the shavings and stir it around, it helps to kill bugs and dry things up. Once a month I add another inch or 2 of shavings. I only completely clean the coop twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring.

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ChickenToes, what is this DE that you speak of and where can we find it? I definitely love that idea...

I agree with the above... remove the food and water. I have 8 (7 weeks now) birds outside and I moved them outside at about 5-6 weeks. They are fine... the heat is actually making them drop some of their inner feathers (which they just grew in a couple weeks ago!).

Taking away the food and water makes for a FAR cleaner hut - I have to clean mine out weekly. I also don't feed grain food after about 6-7pm (give them a load when I get home from work, and no more) to perhaps reduce some of the waste stream while they are locked up as well.

Especially if they are free ranging your yard, they will be perfectly fine without a continuous supply of food/water.