GcandJdinMe
Hatching
- Apr 7, 2020
- 7
- 1
- 8
Hello friendly community! Back again seeking your help:
I have 6 chickens and 3 ducks all living together in a large coop (playhouse we converted).
I am having trouble keeping the coop clean and dry bc the ducks make an ungodly mess. I have contraptions for their water that I learned from this community: bucket with a hole in the side, sitting inside a large plastic bin to catch drips. We dump out the spill over daily. We use the pelletized wood bedding as it seems more absorbent that others. Every week we “till” the coop and add a layer of the wood pellets on top. It’s really a huge square footage coop so it’s not feasible to fully remove and replace the bedding regularly ($$$). There are lots of roosts for the chickens to escape the duck muck. Still, it gets wet.
anyone have a co-living set up and willing to share some tips? What bedding do you use? Is deep liter method possible? Can I take the water out at night without harming them for lack of access? Will ducks be happy and healthy even if they are kinda damp all the time? Where do ducks sleep in the wild?
THANK YOU to all for helping this newbie figure it out and be a good keeper
added info: we do not have a run yet. We plan to build one in the spring when the ground thaws. We free range all the birds during the day to limit coop time. Of course, that has its risks too.
I have 6 chickens and 3 ducks all living together in a large coop (playhouse we converted).
I am having trouble keeping the coop clean and dry bc the ducks make an ungodly mess. I have contraptions for their water that I learned from this community: bucket with a hole in the side, sitting inside a large plastic bin to catch drips. We dump out the spill over daily. We use the pelletized wood bedding as it seems more absorbent that others. Every week we “till” the coop and add a layer of the wood pellets on top. It’s really a huge square footage coop so it’s not feasible to fully remove and replace the bedding regularly ($$$). There are lots of roosts for the chickens to escape the duck muck. Still, it gets wet.
anyone have a co-living set up and willing to share some tips? What bedding do you use? Is deep liter method possible? Can I take the water out at night without harming them for lack of access? Will ducks be happy and healthy even if they are kinda damp all the time? Where do ducks sleep in the wild?
THANK YOU to all for helping this newbie figure it out and be a good keeper
added info: we do not have a run yet. We plan to build one in the spring when the ground thaws. We free range all the birds during the day to limit coop time. Of course, that has its risks too.
