Chicks and ducks together...WATER PROBLEM

[ChickenJill]

My chicks and ducks are about 4 weeks old I have 8 Maran chicks and 5 indian runner ducks. The darn ducks keep splashing out the water. I have tried raising it higher and higher so they can not get into it, but how do they mess it up so much!
What is a good kind of waterer for ducks?

 

[donnavee]

I use buckets for my ducks so they can dip their whole head in and clear their nostrils. First year with ducks so it's been a learning experience, but it seems they muddy up any water they use. Thankfully, they don't bother the chickens water so much since they prefer the buckets. This is during the day, I don't even try to keep the chickens & ducks together at night.

 

[jaketheeggman]

We had this problem too, but learned that ducks are unable to drink the same way as the chickens, so our ducks were really havinng a difficult time getting a drink! Before we do it again, if we do, we would look up what ducks require for being able to drink satisfactorly.
Good luck!

 

[mshuey1]

The only thing u can do is seprate them. If u end up putting a pool later make sure Ur maran chicks don't get close to the pool. I've had a chick drown becuz the chick was trying to get a drink.

 

[wbruder17]

The way I did it with my ducklings was....

I put a large rectangular tupperware into the pen. Then I put a smaller square tupperware filled wwith water into the larger tuupperware. They still splashed water all over, but the water stayed in the other tupperware and didn't soak the beddiing too much. But the ducks also then wanted to go swim in the water tupperware. They are a HUGE mess, no matter what, as they need too snarffle their water with the food when they eatt it. So the food was wet and smelled terrible. I got the ducks outside asap.

 

[donnavee]

Quote:
We got our first ducklings in the Spring and I had them outside with heat at night at 2 weeks. I just couldn't keep their bedding dry, no matter what. I love them, but I have to agree with another BYCer who described them as "pigs with feathers".

 

[wbruder17]

Yes. I only have 2 ducks and they are an absolute riot. I really love having them, but they are seriously the biggest pains in the butt. They make an absoolute mess out of all watering containers. No matter how many buckets they have (2 5 gallon buckets to collect rain water, as well as a large, plastiic pond liner that gets changed 2x a week) they still feel the need to eat a bunch of poopy mud and then shove theiir faces in the chicken water.

Agan, endlless amusement, but also endless work trying to keep up with them and keeping things "clean".

 

[stevesoileau]

I have 16 chickens and 4 mallards in the same pen. I have a small kiddy pool for the ducks to use and I put 6 of the "Avian Aqua Miser" watering nipples on a length of 2" pvc connected to a 55 gal drum. This is working good for me.

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
I think it's called a pond...

Yeah, I've had ducklings, I know how mucky and annoying and cute they are.