Brooding 10 ducklings at once in the house?

Our eleven runners spent their first three months in the house due to an early arrival and a late spring. Actually, when the weather was mild enough, we took them outside during the day. But nights were spent in the spare bedroom in a brooder setup.

What we ended up with was Brooder III - two puppy playpens, 6 mil plastic on the bottom and a foot up the sides, plastic poultry fence lining the puppy playpen panels to keep ducklings from first escaping, then getting caught trying to squeeze through the playpen panels (coated wire, 2"x3" squares.

And If I knew then what I know now, I would have had a watering station like this one that I finally came up with for their night pen. It's what they use now.

 

My experience...the last time I decided I was going to brood the ducklings in the house was because we wanted them to get more handling. We had 14 in a 200 gallon stock tank in the living room. Buy the time they were 2 weeks old I was having to strip the tank daily & they were STILL managing to get spatter out of it. I tripled the space, put their water in isolated trays, & still couldn't take it. I adapted my coop to allow for a heat lamp & reflector & moved them outside by week 4 even though it was getting down to about 20 degrees at night. Needless to say, they didn't end up the friendly sweet ducks we'd hoped but I don't think I'll ever try to brood in the house again. Maybe if I was only doing 2 or 3, but we don't ever seem to do ducks in that small of a quantity. A big circular area might have worked better but we have indoor/outdoor cats that were quite serious about trying to eat the ducklings (they're terrified of my adult birds...I think they looked on this as a chance for vengeance!) so I had to have something that I could put a wire top on strong enough to keep the cats out.

 

This is our set up...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/845195/keeping-ducklings-indoors-yuck/0_100#post_12552101

I have two 1.5 month old ducklings in a zip tied particle board crate we made in a few hours. It was super simple to construct and if you don't need the wheels and such it should be easier.

Ours has a space underneath and a pan that collects any spilled water or food under it. Their eating area has hardware cloth so any splatter falls into the pan for me to dump.... Flea thee than make a big sloppy mess! It's really helpful! I lined the flooring with a tarp, and then pine shavings, and then rubber counter liners in top. I change the liners as they get cruddy.

I soak the liners in a giant tub outside and then my husband uses the poopy water in the garden!

 

they can go out side at 6 weeks old i took my ducks out at that age