Any number of things can work. This year, since we had such frequent hatches (we hatched a couple times a week for most of Spring and half Summer, rather than 1-2 times a month that we typically do). Because we needed so many different brooders due to size differences (also have Calls, Bantam ducks, and Large Fowl ducks which vary tremendously in size), we used rubbermaid containers pretty extensively with usually 8-10 brooders going at once. In some of them we used wire floors and in some we used towels or various beddings (wood chips, shredded paper, etc...).
You can use several different things for heat as well. We use some incandescent bulbs, fairly frequently use heat bulbs, and this year also tried ceramic heat bulbs. All work and have pluses and minuses. As the other poster shows, we do also use water porches. Definitely though, you should never use flat newspapers in the brooder. That can cause spraddle leg because it is too slick for the ducklings to stand as upright as optimal. Some will do fine on newspaper, others won't. You can use shredded paper or pelleted paper though. Anyway, it is all just personal preference. As you can see, we have raised ducks several years and don't always use the same thing. It just depends on how many ducklings we have and where we are brooding them. One of my favorite things to use though when we have just a few ducklings is towels, which have to be changed at least once daily (twice as they get older). They are pretty easy to use and keep the ducklings dry. We just use those in rubbermaid containers with water porches and heat lights of some sort hung well above the cages. Works great! HTH.
