This is my 1st year having ducks(Welsh Harlequin). I have 7. We started with one of those chick waterers that are nearly impossible for me to open( you have to turn it over & take the bottom off to fill it. At 1st 1 gallon would last all day, eventually I had to fill it twice a day & now at 7 weeks, its 3x's or more a day( exhausting). So I got one of those automatic watering bowls from tractor supply ( a little over$30). Its not very deep ( definitely not for horses!) But thats okay because there's alot less mess! My husband installed it a good 12 inches off the ground( from very top of unit to floor of pen. They don't like to roost on it , so that's a win- Win too! I might install some sort of drain to be able to rinse it out periodically & maybe something below it to catch those dribbles? BUT for now, I have a stump below it that was cut on an angle so some of the Watergate diverted out of the pen & they can't go under the water bowl. So far, I LOVE IT! Now I'm looking for the perfect substrate for my uncovered ( only has netting on top) duck yard. I'm thinking a 4 inch base of pea gravel (for a water catch) with a 3 inch topping of sand that I can use a cat scooper on every so often. Their house has one side 12in wide × 4 long openings on one side covered with 1 in vinyl covered metal mesh with a large over hange outside to prevent snow/rain from entering. It also has a vinyl floor that i cover with cardboard & a long shallow under the bed type box w/o a lid that I fill with pine shavings for them to nest in. This makes their house super easy to keep clean. I've been taking the wood shavings out once a month & dumping them into their duckyard to keep the mud mess down at present.
I could still plumb the bottom to empty it easily/getting rid of the mud each day.
. I've been taking the wood shavings out once a month & dumping them into their duckyard to keep the mud mess down at present.
