It's a good thing ducklings are cute because they can muck up a brooder in 37 seconds flat .
This design might have been discovered by others already, I don't get to the forums as often as I should, but this is what I have found that really honestly keeps a brooder almost completely muck free.
We have 14 ducklings in a large kiddie swimming pool that is fairly "deep litter" with shavings (this helps the muck from the back end). I have discovered that the top layer of shavings might get damp and compacted, but a quick turn over with a shovel reveals clean and often completely dry shavings underneath.
But the problem isn't usually the back end as much as it is their spitting and dibbling and dripping from the front whilst drinking.
I was watching the ducklings and realized they drink two ways: dip their bill then raise their heads to swallow. This causes a few drops out of their mouths but not bad.
The other is dibbling where they put their bill in and forcibly squirt water up and back with their heads down. This can empty a gallon waterer in a few minutes.
We first had a round waterer sitting on a 3" deep rectangular oil drip pan that we had put a screen over. The pan extended approx 5" from the edge of the waterer, so they would stand on the screen and drink over the pan, so to speak. This helped keep water out of the shavings but they emptied the gallon waterer within minutes. This left a LOT of mucky water (both water and poop as they often pooped while standing on the wire) that needed to be vveeerrryyyy cccaaarreefffulllyy hefted out of the brooder and dumped. It also meant filling the waterer several times a day, which was expensive as we use probiotic and electrolytes in their water.
After seeing that the main water loss was from dibbling, I set the gallon waterer in a 3" tall plastic box that was about 1-2" wider than the waterer on all sides.
So now I have waterer in box on wire covered pan. The high, close sides of the box keep squirted dibbled water from going into the pan below (or the shavings) and the ducks can still drink it. The screened pan catches any extra drops of water from when they drink and run
. The box holding the waterer is just barely larger that the waterer to prevent ducklings trying to swim in it (though make sure very new ducklings can get to the water and not get trapped. Mine are 2-3 weeks old.)
I now only need to refill the waterer about 2-3x a day and it is MUCH easier to dump the pan. Cleaning the shavings is more about just getting the really glumpy areas out and turning over the other shavings to dry.
I will try to post an actual pic but let me see if I can WYSIWYG a diagram of sorts:
( ). Waterer top
[ <___> ]. Box w/waterer in
|#########|. Screened pan
Ok the WYSIWYG isn't perfect, but you can get the idea. Set waterer in box, set box on wire.
This design might have been discovered by others already, I don't get to the forums as often as I should, but this is what I have found that really honestly keeps a brooder almost completely muck free.
We have 14 ducklings in a large kiddie swimming pool that is fairly "deep litter" with shavings (this helps the muck from the back end). I have discovered that the top layer of shavings might get damp and compacted, but a quick turn over with a shovel reveals clean and often completely dry shavings underneath.
But the problem isn't usually the back end as much as it is their spitting and dibbling and dripping from the front whilst drinking.
I was watching the ducklings and realized they drink two ways: dip their bill then raise their heads to swallow. This causes a few drops out of their mouths but not bad.
The other is dibbling where they put their bill in and forcibly squirt water up and back with their heads down. This can empty a gallon waterer in a few minutes.
We first had a round waterer sitting on a 3" deep rectangular oil drip pan that we had put a screen over. The pan extended approx 5" from the edge of the waterer, so they would stand on the screen and drink over the pan, so to speak. This helped keep water out of the shavings but they emptied the gallon waterer within minutes. This left a LOT of mucky water (both water and poop as they often pooped while standing on the wire) that needed to be vveeerrryyyy cccaaarreefffulllyy hefted out of the brooder and dumped. It also meant filling the waterer several times a day, which was expensive as we use probiotic and electrolytes in their water.
After seeing that the main water loss was from dibbling, I set the gallon waterer in a 3" tall plastic box that was about 1-2" wider than the waterer on all sides.
So now I have waterer in box on wire covered pan. The high, close sides of the box keep squirted dibbled water from going into the pan below (or the shavings) and the ducks can still drink it. The screened pan catches any extra drops of water from when they drink and run
. The box holding the waterer is just barely larger that the waterer to prevent ducklings trying to swim in it (though make sure very new ducklings can get to the water and not get trapped. Mine are 2-3 weeks old.)I now only need to refill the waterer about 2-3x a day and it is MUCH easier to dump the pan. Cleaning the shavings is more about just getting the really glumpy areas out and turning over the other shavings to dry.
I will try to post an actual pic but let me see if I can WYSIWYG a diagram of sorts:
( ). Waterer top
[ <___> ]. Box w/waterer in
|#########|. Screened pan
Ok the WYSIWYG isn't perfect, but you can get the idea. Set waterer in box, set box on wire.
