Completely new and no idea what we are getting into lol

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Ah, that will be a challenge. Personally I never water inside, bcz of the mess associated with that. When I do offer inside water, like during a blizzard lock up, I just go back to the 1 gal bell waterer, Altho really that's not appropriate for adult ducks. Outside is easy, you can do a rubber pan or bowl, and you can make some really cool waterers.

Also. On a side note, my barn is concrete floored. It is no problem. If you choose deep litter, then begin with 6" pine needles, then add shavings or straw atop that, to a depth of 18" or so. I use straw except I did have a water issue during a quick thaw and I used Pelletized bedding (unwet) and it worked great.

 

[BooBoo45]

My ducks have a metal dogs food bowl by the side of a washing up bowl of water, they just help themselves and I refill it up daily - they'd never totally emptied it but that was just two duck - more ducks = more food. They have the full run of my garden and in the most part happily look for food as a wild duck would, slugs are a thing of the past! They help themselves to the pellets when passing or if they are hungry - I've not had a fat duck or had a duck over indulge

I don't weigh their food either, they feed freely and gauge how much needs topping up when I wander past in the later afternoon. Often there is still some food left so I don't need to add more.

If they have treats of cabbage and lettuce (that's a sight to behold - ducks eating a head of lettuce is like a piranha attack! It's torn to pieces and gone in seconds) they won't eat so much of the pellets. You just have to be careful with treats as they will only want that and won't eat the pellets if you aren't careful. Ducks are not daft, they soon have you wrapped around their beaks.

Although I had a Pekin that thought lettuces and cabbages were evil things and flatly refused to ever have anything to do with them, just like us ducks have their own preferences.

As Holly stated ducks and water are messy but they will happily climb into a washing up bowl for a swim and that is easy enough to clean out until they can get outside.

 

[Djcoak]

Ok I am confused. I though ducks had to have a water bowl to clean their nostrils or something to that effect. So you just use a metal bowl for food and water?

 

[foothillsco]

I'm pretty new with ducks myself and my surprise has been how much poop they churn out. It's like they poop every 5 minutes. I would make your decisions based on how easy it is to clean up after them. They stink in enclosed places.

Concrete sounds good. Dirt floor doesn't.

You have a pretty sweet setup compared to me. I live in the suburbs and have a large tractor style house that I lift and move around. I don't keep water near it. You probably should feed and water them in their home for a few weeks so they bond to it. Let them see where the food comes from: you. They learn where home is. I have to move my waterer everyday because they have this habit of drilling a small hole in the ground for who knows what reason. The hole is about 3" round, 3" deep.

I have one of those flashing red lights that is anti-predator. My sister, who is a farmer, swears by it. With me, so far so good. There are lots of predators here and they stay away. I check the snow for prints every morning and since I put it out, I haven't seen anything yet.

With water inside, pine shavings won't last a week. With water outside, pine shavings have lasted one month so far for me. I haven't had them longer than that.

I tried dry leaves but they seem to look more cluttered and dirty than yellow pine shavings.

After a few weeks, I would start moving the water away. I use a 5 gal tin waterer I bought from a store for the main water supply. I also have a smaller backup that I keep in the house when it freezes overnight. They poop in the waterers though.

Ducks are fun to watch. They are hypnotic to me. I have three ducks and it's easy to call them "chickens" for how skittish they are. One walks in one direction and the other two blindly walk close by. One walks into the side of the fence, the other two bump into the first. They aren't the brightest animals.

 

[BooBoo45]

No, I obviously wasn't very clear in my reply

The metal bowl has the pellets it. I have a large plastic washing up bowl for water by the side of that. They often take the pellets and dibble them in the bowl or depending on their mood they have been known to sit in it. I'm afraid I'm a tad old and come from the time 20 years ago that you didn't get all the fancy containers for ducks, to be honest I'm not that keen on some that I've seen anyway and a washing up bowl is easy to empty and fill a couple of times a day, as well as enough water for them to have a bath if they can't get into the pool. They also have their paddling pool full of water too, but my one little pekin actually preferred a washing up bowl to sit in.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Ok I am confused. I though ducks had to have a water bowl to clean their nostrils or something to that effect. So you just use a metal bowl for food and water?

I use a rubber bowl, it holds I believe 8 gallons. I also use a heated 6.5 gal bucket with a board over half the opening during the freezing temps. I have also used a 5 gal bucket inverted into a plastic container (same principle as a bell waterer). None of these amounts of liquid I would want inside my barn, bcz ducks will get in and splash. Yes they do need deeper water to wash their bills, that's why I would only use the one gal in cases of weather emergency.

Going Quackers made a great waterer a short time back, she posted pics. Try a search. I'm sorry but no link to offer. You have lots of options.

 

[Going Quackers]

Here this waterer found it one day on a blog, totally random lol


http://frankiemakes.blogspot.ca/2012/06/watering-solution-for-ducks.html

It works and well.. keeps the water from freezing till quite cold too... This is a pic off the blog, i don't have a pic of mine.. i guess i could but the idea is there.. my waterer is round and my bowl rubber but again.. bestest idea ever! i water a lot of ducks out there and we've been very cold, massively cut back on my hauling water... and bashing it open too.

 

[Djcoak]

So my inside pen is 5 x 10. Is that enough room for 3 Pekins and two rouens? I can't afford to give up much more space but I guess I will if I need to.

 

[foothillsco]

5x10 is a big space for 3 ducks.

If it's indoors, it will smell.
if it's outdoors, it will still smell but you won't be smelling it all the time.

My ducks sleep in a 3x5 space, my auto door opens and they can walk into a 4x5 space. When I get up in the morning, I open the door and let them free range in my yard. They have learned to go back into the pen, and then the house at dusk. Auto door closes to house, I close door to pen.

 

[Richb353]

Welcome Aboard,
Just my two cents, a 5' kiddie pool at about $16 is money well spent. Twice I've used mine as a brooder for the ducklings first few weeks, then it becomes a pool when they are a little bigger. I am keeping an eye on the thrift stores to see if I can find a couple more of them.