I love BYC. It really helped me when I started raising chickens 5 years ago. I got great ideas for coop design and was really well informed when I brought my little fluffy chicks home. This year I wanted to add ducks to our garden and while I bought Storey‘s book on raising ducks I just really could not believe the difference between ducklings and chicks.
Ducklings vs Chicks
Chicks grow so fast - Ducklings grow at super speed. I could not believe how fast. They were almost full size at 4 weeks. The next few weeks were about developing feathers. That means they only spent about 2 - 3 weeks in the brooder. Wow!
Chicks ran in all directions when I would reach in the brooder. - Ducks ran to me. They imprinted really quickly and would call out in alarm when I left.
Chicks are messy. - Ducks give that word new meaning. I did the water and food on hardware cloth over a paint tray thing which kept 80% of the poop contained, but cleaning that tray... whew that was a new kind of smell. Straight to the compost bin! The rest of the poop ended up in their baby pond I gave them in the brooder, only during they day. They would splash and make their wood chips wet which I would replace each night. Again, straight to the compost bin.
The Brooder
I was able to modify my chick brooder for the ducklings which was great. I had built my chick brooder of designs I found on BYC. But it had a solid front and I wanted to change that so the ducklings could see out and I removed the top section since the ducklings wouldn’t need to fly up to a roost. I put the food and water on a paint tray covered in coated hardware cloth. I took one of the heating pads I use in my chicken coop and made a heat station they could crawl under. Ya, they hated that, wouldn’t go under it. So I flipped it, just put the heat on the bottom of the brooder with wood chips and a towel and they loved that. At a few days old, I added a shallow Tupperware tray I haven’t used in a decade, for some supervised splashing. I would added a bit more water each day until they were swimming. They out grew that really fast and I replaced it with a Rubbermaid bin with a stepping stone at one end so they could rest or get out easily. Again I would add a bit more water every day. They would really dive around and splash water several feet.
chicken brooder
Modified for ducklings
their heater flipped upside down.
Ducklings on their feeding station. Our Vizsla saying hello.
Here is their first little pool.
Here is the larger Rubbermaid pool with canine supervision.
The Coop
I really couldn’t find much information on coop design for ducks. When we started designing our garden, we built a greenhouse so I could start plants from seed and foolishly I thought I could leave plants in there year round with a heater. Not happening in Montana. There was no way I could heat the greenhouse enough to keep my plants above freezing. So I basically use it for 3 months for seed starting and that’s it. We built the chickens a beautiful coop from scratch designed for their needs. I know that you can house chickens and ducks together, but it Is not set up for ducks and I wanted them to have a pond so... Repurposing the greenhouse was my plan. It’s a large greenhouse 9’x14’ so I had plenty of room for a few ducks. I knew I wanted them to have a pond year round so my plans left room in the greenhouse for that. I also had some artificial turf left over from our dog run project that I wanted to use. I did modify my plans after I saw how messy the brooder was so I installed some drain piping to the corner of the greenhouse and installed ”shark drain” plastic sheeting for turf underneath so that when I wash down the mess it will be carried out to my melon patch. I also added a catch pan for the food and water station like I had in the brooder, it also washes out the drain piping. I also knew that I had to address the high heat in summer so I used shade paint on the greenhouse and shade cloth above it and above the lawn and pond areas.
Here is where I started. Pond on the right, food and water at the back, nest boxes on the left. They would not go near their nest boxes So I needed to modify that too.
Here is the modification to the food and water station which I can wash down through that hole on the left side.
I did modify the nest box and added some more turf. I also had to add pond liner around the stock tank because my sweet angels were using their bills to dig down next to the tank and grab dirt and sand and putting it in the pond. They really do love mud puddles. Here is the latest though I am planning to add a second bog filter at the far end to winterize the plants from the large pond outside.
I installed a pullet-shut chicken pop door in the side on the greenhouse and built a covered ramp on the outside so the door won’t get blocked by snow in winter. Kiwi and Coco love the turf and no they don’t try to eat it. I was very careful to watch for any loose threads on the edges though.
Algae turned out to be a much bigger issue than I expected so I had to add another layer of shade paint and add a bog filter to the existing filter to handle the waste. That did the trick. The water is really clear now. Yes, I had to fence off the plants. Twice actually because they pulled it apart once. Oh ya, we also had to cement around the edges of the pond (stock tank) because they were digging down through the pea gravel to the dirt underneath and trying to make a mud pond. I have since found them a nice dirt patch and given them a bowl that hey can turn into their own private mud hole far away from the ponds.
The filter I built is in the rain barrel behind the pond. It has Matala biomedia pads in the bottom, black and then green, then K1 media and hydroponic clay balls and then a final layer of grey Matala media on top. Then some of it goes to the bog and the rest drains back to the pond. I also use Microbe-lift bacteria for waste conversion and barley extract for algae control. It has only been running for about two months so the bacteria is really just getting up to speed but it looks like it is finally controlling it and staying clean. I do use a pool skimmer with a silt net to remove excess debris and waste about every other day. But I’m a bit obsessive.
Yep I had to teach them to use the indoor pond. They would not go in without me. Now they won’t get out of the thing.
The Pond
I really wanted a nice exterior pond that we could sit around and enjoy. A relatively large pond and I didn’t want to dumy the thing out all the time to keep the water nice. I’m an engineer so I was excited to design a filtration system for both the inside and outside ponds. I also wanted to make sure they didn’t have anyway to drag mud into the pond, which they love to do.
The pond is completely surrounded by retaining wall blocks. Along the right side I planted some ornamental grasses to block the wind and some blooming onion. I am happy to say they have completely ignored all these plants!
I tried adding some lizards tail and some horsetail reeds to the pond in grow bags, but the assault was too much for the plants. I moved them to the bog filter at the back of the pond, but the ducks noticed and tore it all up. Oh well. By the way, runner ducks dive. I was a little worried they wouldn’t swim much, preferring to forage on the lawn, but they are fantastic swimmers. Coco in particular likes to swim underwater for a long time and then surface right underneath her sister.
Similar to the indoor pond, the filter is a partially buried 50 gal stock tank. There are Matala biomedia pads on the bottom, black and green, and hydroponic clay balls on top with the plants in grow bags. I have recently tested some plants with no bags at all and it seems to work better so I will be rinsing off all the soil and putting them straight into the balls. The outlet flows down a small slope the girls love to stand in. The larger pond has required far less maintenance. Air lines goes to the bottom of each filter so I can air rumble the filter beds for cleaning. After letting it settle I can drain the muck off the bottom. The drain for the filter goes directly to the melon patch, which has been amazing.
The Lawn
The pop door leads to a fenced in lawn that is made up of chicken forage grass. But the ducks think the best part is the grasshoppers that come into the yard.
This was the first time our dog Bailey was allowed to come into the ducks area. She is such a sweetheart she just laid down and let them come over. Of course since then she tried to sniff them and Coco bit her on her nose. Bailey ran away.
My spoiled girls on grasshopper patrol.
Here they are enjoying the ornamental grasses.
Unlike the chickens, the ducks are happy to come out and roam the garden even in the snow. Though they did hide out when the snow was 2ft deep.
UPDATE***
In spring of 2021 I ordered 2 new ducklings, Welsh Harlequins. I went through the same process as I did with the runners, but the experience was much different. The Harlequins are much more independent and did not imprint like the runners. They are beautiful ducks and are very fun to watch in the pond, but I do not have the same bond with them. It also took well over a month to integrate the ducks. They are still not friends but at least they not longer shake and attack each other.
I also discovered that my coop and pond could not handle the poop created by 2 adult ducks and 2 growing ducks. Seriously the amount of poop, insane. I added a Matala Bio-Steps filter and UV clarifier to both ponds and added poultry flooring to the coop and I have been so happy with the changes. Everything is so much easier to clean and it smells so much better.
Here are some pics of the new ducks and my modifications.
White poultry flooring panels at the back and drain mat near the pond. Underneath is a product called shark drain which is made to go under turf. It drains water and poop out of the coop through landscape drains.
Here is the new Matala filter with UV light.
Here is Coco enjoying her pond with the new ducks hanging out watching.
Honey and Hazel enjoying the outdoor pond.
All four ducks enjoying the outdoor pond.
Kiwi and the new ducks foraging together.
Our Vizsla, Bailey investigating the new ducks.
Hazel and Honey enjoying their indoor pond.
My sweet little Honey.
Ducklings vs Chicks
Chicks grow so fast - Ducklings grow at super speed. I could not believe how fast. They were almost full size at 4 weeks. The next few weeks were about developing feathers. That means they only spent about 2 - 3 weeks in the brooder. Wow!
Chicks ran in all directions when I would reach in the brooder. - Ducks ran to me. They imprinted really quickly and would call out in alarm when I left.
Chicks are messy. - Ducks give that word new meaning. I did the water and food on hardware cloth over a paint tray thing which kept 80% of the poop contained, but cleaning that tray... whew that was a new kind of smell. Straight to the compost bin! The rest of the poop ended up in their baby pond I gave them in the brooder, only during they day. They would splash and make their wood chips wet which I would replace each night. Again, straight to the compost bin.
The Brooder
I was able to modify my chick brooder for the ducklings which was great. I had built my chick brooder of designs I found on BYC. But it had a solid front and I wanted to change that so the ducklings could see out and I removed the top section since the ducklings wouldn’t need to fly up to a roost. I put the food and water on a paint tray covered in coated hardware cloth. I took one of the heating pads I use in my chicken coop and made a heat station they could crawl under. Ya, they hated that, wouldn’t go under it. So I flipped it, just put the heat on the bottom of the brooder with wood chips and a towel and they loved that. At a few days old, I added a shallow Tupperware tray I haven’t used in a decade, for some supervised splashing. I would added a bit more water each day until they were swimming. They out grew that really fast and I replaced it with a Rubbermaid bin with a stepping stone at one end so they could rest or get out easily. Again I would add a bit more water every day. They would really dive around and splash water several feet.
chicken brooder
Modified for ducklings
their heater flipped upside down.
Ducklings on their feeding station. Our Vizsla saying hello.
Here is their first little pool.
Here is the larger Rubbermaid pool with canine supervision.
The Coop
I really couldn’t find much information on coop design for ducks. When we started designing our garden, we built a greenhouse so I could start plants from seed and foolishly I thought I could leave plants in there year round with a heater. Not happening in Montana. There was no way I could heat the greenhouse enough to keep my plants above freezing. So I basically use it for 3 months for seed starting and that’s it. We built the chickens a beautiful coop from scratch designed for their needs. I know that you can house chickens and ducks together, but it Is not set up for ducks and I wanted them to have a pond so... Repurposing the greenhouse was my plan. It’s a large greenhouse 9’x14’ so I had plenty of room for a few ducks. I knew I wanted them to have a pond year round so my plans left room in the greenhouse for that. I also had some artificial turf left over from our dog run project that I wanted to use. I did modify my plans after I saw how messy the brooder was so I installed some drain piping to the corner of the greenhouse and installed ”shark drain” plastic sheeting for turf underneath so that when I wash down the mess it will be carried out to my melon patch. I also added a catch pan for the food and water station like I had in the brooder, it also washes out the drain piping. I also knew that I had to address the high heat in summer so I used shade paint on the greenhouse and shade cloth above it and above the lawn and pond areas.
Here is where I started. Pond on the right, food and water at the back, nest boxes on the left. They would not go near their nest boxes So I needed to modify that too.
Here is the modification to the food and water station which I can wash down through that hole on the left side.
I did modify the nest box and added some more turf. I also had to add pond liner around the stock tank because my sweet angels were using their bills to dig down next to the tank and grab dirt and sand and putting it in the pond. They really do love mud puddles. Here is the latest though I am planning to add a second bog filter at the far end to winterize the plants from the large pond outside.
I installed a pullet-shut chicken pop door in the side on the greenhouse and built a covered ramp on the outside so the door won’t get blocked by snow in winter. Kiwi and Coco love the turf and no they don’t try to eat it. I was very careful to watch for any loose threads on the edges though.
Algae turned out to be a much bigger issue than I expected so I had to add another layer of shade paint and add a bog filter to the existing filter to handle the waste. That did the trick. The water is really clear now. Yes, I had to fence off the plants. Twice actually because they pulled it apart once. Oh ya, we also had to cement around the edges of the pond (stock tank) because they were digging down through the pea gravel to the dirt underneath and trying to make a mud pond. I have since found them a nice dirt patch and given them a bowl that hey can turn into their own private mud hole far away from the ponds.
The filter I built is in the rain barrel behind the pond. It has Matala biomedia pads in the bottom, black and then green, then K1 media and hydroponic clay balls and then a final layer of grey Matala media on top. Then some of it goes to the bog and the rest drains back to the pond. I also use Microbe-lift bacteria for waste conversion and barley extract for algae control. It has only been running for about two months so the bacteria is really just getting up to speed but it looks like it is finally controlling it and staying clean. I do use a pool skimmer with a silt net to remove excess debris and waste about every other day. But I’m a bit obsessive.
Yep I had to teach them to use the indoor pond. They would not go in without me. Now they won’t get out of the thing.
The Pond
I really wanted a nice exterior pond that we could sit around and enjoy. A relatively large pond and I didn’t want to dumy the thing out all the time to keep the water nice. I’m an engineer so I was excited to design a filtration system for both the inside and outside ponds. I also wanted to make sure they didn’t have anyway to drag mud into the pond, which they love to do.
The pond is completely surrounded by retaining wall blocks. Along the right side I planted some ornamental grasses to block the wind and some blooming onion. I am happy to say they have completely ignored all these plants!
I tried adding some lizards tail and some horsetail reeds to the pond in grow bags, but the assault was too much for the plants. I moved them to the bog filter at the back of the pond, but the ducks noticed and tore it all up. Oh well. By the way, runner ducks dive. I was a little worried they wouldn’t swim much, preferring to forage on the lawn, but they are fantastic swimmers. Coco in particular likes to swim underwater for a long time and then surface right underneath her sister.
Similar to the indoor pond, the filter is a partially buried 50 gal stock tank. There are Matala biomedia pads on the bottom, black and green, and hydroponic clay balls on top with the plants in grow bags. I have recently tested some plants with no bags at all and it seems to work better so I will be rinsing off all the soil and putting them straight into the balls. The outlet flows down a small slope the girls love to stand in. The larger pond has required far less maintenance. Air lines goes to the bottom of each filter so I can air rumble the filter beds for cleaning. After letting it settle I can drain the muck off the bottom. The drain for the filter goes directly to the melon patch, which has been amazing.
The Lawn
The pop door leads to a fenced in lawn that is made up of chicken forage grass. But the ducks think the best part is the grasshoppers that come into the yard.
This was the first time our dog Bailey was allowed to come into the ducks area. She is such a sweetheart she just laid down and let them come over. Of course since then she tried to sniff them and Coco bit her on her nose. Bailey ran away.
My spoiled girls on grasshopper patrol.
Here they are enjoying the ornamental grasses.
Unlike the chickens, the ducks are happy to come out and roam the garden even in the snow. Though they did hide out when the snow was 2ft deep.
UPDATE***
In spring of 2021 I ordered 2 new ducklings, Welsh Harlequins. I went through the same process as I did with the runners, but the experience was much different. The Harlequins are much more independent and did not imprint like the runners. They are beautiful ducks and are very fun to watch in the pond, but I do not have the same bond with them. It also took well over a month to integrate the ducks. They are still not friends but at least they not longer shake and attack each other.
I also discovered that my coop and pond could not handle the poop created by 2 adult ducks and 2 growing ducks. Seriously the amount of poop, insane. I added a Matala Bio-Steps filter and UV clarifier to both ponds and added poultry flooring to the coop and I have been so happy with the changes. Everything is so much easier to clean and it smells so much better.
Here are some pics of the new ducks and my modifications.
White poultry flooring panels at the back and drain mat near the pond. Underneath is a product called shark drain which is made to go under turf. It drains water and poop out of the coop through landscape drains.
Here is the new Matala filter with UV light.
Here is Coco enjoying her pond with the new ducks hanging out watching.
Honey and Hazel enjoying the outdoor pond.
All four ducks enjoying the outdoor pond.
Kiwi and the new ducks foraging together.
Our Vizsla, Bailey investigating the new ducks.
Hazel and Honey enjoying their indoor pond.
My sweet little Honey.
