CRAZY water slurping- spitting Runners!

[PriceFamilyFarms]

Those runners sure do love to play in the water!

I've been building breeding pens and a large play area for runners complete with their own filtered pond. In the pens I cut out a 16 inch diameter hole in the floor and put hardware cloth down to let the water fall through onto pea gravel with a runoff drain.

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
I have a tarp over the top of them and they are about 10' from the fronch porch on the lawn....... makes for good scenery in my neighborhood.

 

[happydog]

I just logged on to ask this same question! My runners are only a few days old. They've completely soaked their brooder box (which they're sharing with chicks) to the point where water's running out the bottom. Yuck. Their bedding and poop is all soaked and getting the chicks soaked too. I'll have to find something like a roasting pan, I guess.

 

[NoseyChickens]

I put a cookie sheet over a cake pan and set the waterer on that. The water stays in the pan and not on the floor. It helped with the soggy mess a but. Luckily it's already hot out here in the desert and mine are outside full time. (I keep a heat lamp on them at night). I just cant get over how fast they grow!!! Mine are almost 4 weeks old. I just love them.

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

Nosey - they grow faster than weeds at that point - sometimes I swore that mine grew an inch overnight!!

 

[chickboss]

So far this year, I have brooded Muscovies, Kahkis, Pekin, and now Bantams and Runners. You were spoiled with the Muscovies

They are by far neater with water than any of the other breeds have been so far IMO. The ten Muscovies made by far less mess than the four Kahkis I had in the brooder just before them.

 

[Rosecomb-Ryan]

Lol I truley dont get it lol I put a red waterer in with 3 day old Cayuga ducklings before I went to bed I woke up and ther were standing water and the waterer was bone dry! Is this kinda the issue your having I guess thats the way it is lol


Ryan

 

[Mom2Munchkins]

Mine are 2 weeks old and I'm having the same problem. Crazy how they can make such a mess!! I can't wait til they can go out with the big ducks! LOL

 

[ultasol]

Don't brood them with chicks! Wet chicks easily leads to chilled chicks, which leads to dead chicks. Not to mention the wetness simply begs for coccidiosis, and the ducks will grow faster than the chicks but have the coordination of a drunken toddler and will run into/over the chicks, stressing them.

 

[Mom2Munchkins]

LOL @ drunken toddler!!!