Cleaning your night time pen....

[bayyjayy]

This has probably been asked a million times, I know I have read a few things about it, but can't remember specific answers.

When you have a pen that you put your ducks in each night, do you clean it out every single morning? I think I read somewhere that someone put hay or straw down, and only cleaned it completely out every few weeks, that they just added clean straw to the top??? What I worry about is how gross it gets around the pen from spraying it out every single day.

I wish there was a book that had answers to questions like the ones that are always asked on here.....about cleaning pens, how to feed, different pens, stuff like this. I would love if everything from this forum was in a book....just a modgepodge of ideas of what work for people, all nice and neat in a book with a table of contents!!! Doesn anyone have a favorite book they refer to over and over about the every day things. I have Storey's guide, which I LOVE, but I want a book that is less encyclopedia like, and more everyday like.

My biggest things I need to learn more about is feeding and cleaning. My feeding post got good answers to, so I am hoping for the same thing for this question, even though I KNOW it has been answered sooo many times.....I am slowly going thru this whole forum, but I am only on about page 215 right now, and once I read so many things, I think I forget a lot of what I have read.

Thanks so much everyone!!

 

[bayyjayy]

I just found a post about this with some great answers.....


If I knew how to delete this post, I would!

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I don't clean every day but... I keep my birds in a big barn, in the winter I close areas so they are forced to be in a smaller area. In the summer they get full barn access. I clean when needed. For the winter I chose the deep litter method, stack more bedding on top of the old, this spring I cleaned the barn for a week and it was HARD work. For the warmer months I clean once a month, or if we get a big rain and have extra water in the barn I clean extra.

In short you are going to have to look at your space and see what works for you. I can't stand bad smells so if my birds smell I am not happy, surprisingly unless we get water in the barn they don't smell. (or they smell but it isn't too bad)

 

[duckyfromoz]

I wish there was a book that had answers to questions like the ones that are always asked on here

One of the best things about a forum- is that new people join all the time and can add their ideas and experiences...a book once published cant have new pages added by the readers - and the author may not always have the best answers from their own experience. Im sure there are many different ways people deal with the mess in the night pens- and it can be a matter of trying a few different things until you find one that works for you .

I have mine in a shed at night and in bad weather. I clean the whole area every two weeks- but top up the hay and shavings as needed in between, as well as cleaning around the water container every second day. Depending on if the pen has a solid or just a dirt floor- there are different way to contend with the mess. Also what works in Summer may not work over winter. It can also depend on how many ducks you have - 2 ducks can be easier to clean for than 30.​

 

[BallardDuck]

If you found a post that answers your questions, by all means post a link to it!

 

[FenDruadin]

I'm one of those that just tosses fresh straw down every few days. It's not necessarily the best way, but it works fine for me. I've thought about putting down rubber stall mats and washing it out regularly, but stall mats are expensive. If you have time and want to go to the trouble, you can dig out and lay down rocks and then smooth pebbles and it will stay cleaner, but it's a lot of upfront trouble.

Of course, the more space they have the less often you have to clean.

Some people lock them in a vinyl-lined doghouse or similar at night and just wash it out in the morning.

The straw thing works fine, and the best benefit to me is that when I clean it out (once a year or so), the bedding makes amazing mulch for the gardens, fruit trees, etc. In fact, I periodically take bedding out of their pen to use around the yard as fertilizer/mulch, even when I'm not ready to clean the whole thing. It's amazing stuff.

But if you're not a gardener, that may not appeal. Plus, you have to keep buying straw, which is a pain.

Good luck whatever you decide to do. You'll figure out something that works for you one way or another.

And oh, hey, what about a cheap black & white newsletter people could file away & refer to from time to time? I wonder if anyone would subscribe to something like that, filled with tid-bits about day-to-day duck ownership. Sorta like an off-line forum, but with answers and content sort of boiled down to the essential points (as opposed to the wonderful, but rambling, nature of a live forum). Thoughts?

 

[Chicky Monkey]

I have seven chickens that are in a converted horse tack room/stalls. I clean the inside coop everyday of their poop, especially under their roosts: I just scoop up their poop and add it to my compost pile. Then, I totally clean out the inside of newspapers and pine shavings and add new once or twice weekly. If they stay outside, including at night, I clean that about every two days. I lay straw under their outside roosts to help absorb the excess poop. Then once or twice weekly, I scoop all the straw out and add it to my compost pile. I add fresh straw. I can't stand ANY bad smells! So far, the only time it smells is when the chickens have fresh poop...man, that stuff is BAD! I agree, that you need to clean according to how YOU feel and what works best for you & your ducks!

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Quote:
those sorts of publications are being weeded out by forums such as this, people are demanding with their information-they wan t it now, and though the internet doesn't really provide tried and tested, publication worthy material most of the time, most people are content with that. I am the type that likes having tangible reading material, but fewer people these days go for that...I mean, even newspapers that have been around for hundreds of years are dying out because of the internet...

as for the bedding, I use straw and dried grass, my coop stands a foot above ground and the floor is slatted to allow for air flow, I leave the roof open during the day and stir the bedding, this process dries the beding out and fluffs it up, I change it out about every 7-10 days and use it for mulching and compost. When I clean my coop out I empty it completely and hose it all down, spray windex on the wet wood (it deters ant and flies) let the wood dry out and then add fresh hay and whatever other bedding thats handy. I like this process, it rarely smells and aside from the flies which love duck poop, its rather cozy and nice to look at.

 

[RunnerWhisperer]

I have an outdoor pen that is filled with sand. Not fine sand but like dirt sand with small grit. I chose to clean at night, they seem to like that better since they are let out to be in the yard all day. They really don't go back into the pen until it's bed time.

Anyway, I rake the floor to get all the poo out and sift it with a catbox scoop. In their house, which is just an old insulated dog house, I have a generous amount of straw for them to bed down in. They do some time in the night go in there, but they sit in their pool a lot too. I rinse out thier pool and fill it back up. I also give them thier food then and a fresh pan of drinking water. As soon as I get it done, they both go in and have a bath. It's become a routine!

 

[tbitt]

Quote:
Might as well post the link to that thread here just in case anyone else is looking!