Bugs and pests

[chicklover 1998]

that is a good Idea I would use lime too but can't seem to find it around me and i don't want to pay shipping to get it here

 

[Wild Hair]

I'm also reading that some people put lime in their stalls and pens because it makes for a hard surface. It might bond with the sand and almost form a concrete. It might just be something you mix into already moistened and soiled sand to removed odors.

 

[tmorgan46]

Lime is used primarily to lower the acid level in soil. So, that's its popular in use around animals which do not move away from their primary quarters to relieve themselves. There are other uses for it, for example where we live, the soil is made up primarily of clay and lime is a great introduction to break up the clay and get it back into a more lose soil mixture. I have seen some reports that it's also used to keep the smell down, but I think that's just a benefit from the pH lowering capabilities of it rather than anything else. Good drainage, and a good solution to bedding will do more than adding lime or DE. @Amiga builds her bedding up on a basic compost base (please correct me if I'm wrong on that account, pulling from memory here). I've seen numerous threads here which address coop floor composition and whether to provide food and water at night. I know from our own experience that once I stopped putting feed and water in the coop at night, the mess inside the coop went drastically down. Just a few thoughts.

Troy & Tina

 

[Amiga]

Morning, all.

I'll review what I have done and what I do.

Initially, the food and water stayed in the Veranda, a porch surrounded with half inch metal 16 gauge hardware cloth, top, bottom, sides. I put sand in the bottom and had sawdust and-or straw on top of that. That kept the water out of the sleeping area. Worked great.

When I learned some of my Runners are not cold hardy under 35F, they moved into the walkout basement pen. And I came up with the Watering Station, the bottom half of a large plastic dog crate, with a few inches of sawdust pellets in the bottom, and a 2 gallon flat-bottomed, straight-sided stew pot for the water. Works very very well. Daily, I scrape the top inch or two of damp sawdust and poo out, and scoop up four inches around the entrance. Done. Keeps the rest of the bedding pretty dry.

I spot pick poop in the rest of the bedding, and fluff with a cultivator. Depending on the season and the weather, every week or two I do a Big Cleanout and replace the bedding. Once old bedding is pulled out, I put DE around the edges of the pen, into all the cracks, and sprinkle either Sweet PDZ or peat moss to reduce the formation of ammonia. (Geek note - nitrogen in a high-pH (that's alkaline) environment tends to form ammonia pretty quickly, so the peat moss lowers the pH.) I used to do Big Cleanup all at once - then I changed to doing about a third of the pen each time. Less effort, on a daily scale.

In the Day Pen, we have a nice compost base. It smells like fertile earth, and the ducks can forage for soil critters. Under the swim pans we have a mix of smooth pea gravel, sand, and oak leaves (as well as whatever else gets brought in, like grasses and green leaves). That gets scraped off and replenished on an as-needed basis, once or twice a year.

 

[Wild Hair]

Thanks tmorgan and Amiga. I love the idea of a compost base. That's something I'd like to try when/if we ever sell our house and move out of town. Right now I'm fixing up an old garage/lean-to with a nice 4-6" layer of pea gravel in the lean-to area (where their locked, predator-proof night box will be) and about 16-18" under an old johnboat I'm fashioning into their pond. I plan on landscapers cloth between my gravel and a 4-6" layer of sand. I'll have and area in the lean-to by their lockbox (which will be accessible during the day) in which I'll lay pine shavings on top of the sand. I'm going to soon have 2 geese as well so I've fenced off and made secure so my geese can stay there during the night. Aside from some sideoats and wildflowers, that's the jist of my run. I know I rambled there for a bit but I thought I'd give you all an idea of what I'm working with.

I thank you for your time and patience. I'm new to ducks but I've gathered so much useful info on here.