Some pictures of my feed/waterer setup for my messy birds

I am new to this, and was really not prepared for the unholy mess ducks and geese make in the brooder. I have been desperately trying to find a better way to deal with it, and after several BAD ideas, have developed a few methods that seem to be helping. Since I have seen alot of other people with the same issue, thought I would share them and maybe some might work for you as well. [/img] This is the system I developed for the ducks. It is a combination dog feed/waterer. Because the feeder sits up a bit higher than teh water, they dont soak the food. The foil pan around the feeder helps keep the dropped food from being wasted as well. Even after a whole day, the food is relatively dry, and the majority of the brooder is dry-ish.

[/img] This what I came up with for the geese. Because they crap on EVERYTHING, it seemed a good idea to keep their dishes in one small area, and maybe, possibly, they could avoid pooping in it. I have since elevated the feeder a bit since i took this picture though, raised it above butt height. They are happy to have the food and water right by eachother, and because of the foil pan, they do NOT soak the food, beleive it or not. I tried this with the ducks however, and they managed to turn the food into a moat, so it doesnt work for everybody. Initially I had the waterer covered with a round chick feeder lid, but the geese have gotten too big to really submerge their beaks in that, so I took it off.

[/img] I love my turkeys! They are so CLEAN compared to the others! They aren't real bright though, and were getting too cold in the big wading pool as they didn't know enough to stay under the heat lamp. I had to put them in a rubber tote so they couldnt get so far away from the light. This cut down on space, so i decided needed to use a smaller area for feeders and waterer. I tried the goose method, but the turkeys got their food wet and didnt like that. I tried the red waterer, but they kept pooping in it as they liked to roost on top of the bottle. Now the new bottle is too narrow and wobbly for them to balance on, and the cover on the waterer keeps the doody out.

Very interesting! I was trying to visualize it but couldn't quite get there....is there any way you could make the pics a little bigger? It's kind of hard (for me) to see exactly what is what....

I tried, but these are the first pics I have posted and couldn't really figure it out. If you like I could email you bigger photos though.

Those are some great ideas. Geese and ducks are so precious, but they are definately the messiest birds of all. They really make us work hard, but it is worth it!

Yeah...focusing on that precious part tonight-came in the basement and the stench almost knocked me over. Those geese poop SO much! 12 in a wading pool is too many-I swear they have tripled in size this last week. Tomorrow they are heading out to the barn, not a moment too soon! Lovin my tiny-poopin turkeys more and more every day, lol! At least the ducks keep themselves clean-they are constantly bathing and preening. The geese could care less, they just climb on eachother and crap on their heads!

Hey, I would love it if you'd email pics since I am really interested in your set-up. If you;d like I can try to post them bigger one here for you? My email addy is:

[email protected]

Thanks for the ideas...... this is my first time too and I have tried so many types of bedding and waterers that i think I am going crazy. The turkeys are much cleaner!!! I think the chicks fall somewhere in between the two. I seems like my ducks want to lay at the waterer and empty it no matter what size it is. I can't wait until they are fully feathered so they can go out to their own pen and pond.

Ok, I just emailed them+ some others so you can see better what I did if it helps. If you can post them bigger, that would be great, thank you! Now if somebody can just figure out how to get them to poop in one spot...anybody ever litter train ducks and geese you think?

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I hope they didn't go in my bulk cause I just checked my mail before coming here and dumped my bulk (without checking) and didn't see them in my reg mail... :|

I just re-sent them then cause for some reason my emails often DO end up in bulk or junk mail boxes. I must look like a spammer...