So I've got 5 ducklings in a box for a brooder... and no matter how many times I clean it PER DAY within 10 minutes they have it sopping wet from their gallon waterer. I mean, dripping wet, the whole thing. There's never no where dry in there. I know this can't be good for the ducklings. What do you do to keep your brooder DRY?
Short answer: nothing. Longer answer: ducks will make a huge mess with water; the bedding will get wet. You can minimize the mess but never get rid of it. Make sure the waterer is not big enough for the ducklings to get into (although, even if it is too small for them to fit into, they will still try). Raise the waterer onto a wire-covered platform. This will at least contain most of the mess. Also, make sure you give them a nice deep bed of some absorbent material. Stir the bedding often, add more when necessary, and change it out completely when it gets too stinky. Also, as soon as the weather allows, let them outside as much as possible.
I got the idea from someone on here, use a milk jug or the sort. Cut small holes in it about head level, so they can stick their head in but that's it. Put that in a pan or dish. It will still get a bit messy, but it's much much better.
You can't. Keep chicks out of the same brooder as the ducks and just get them outside ASAP. Ducks are "waterfowl" for a good reason!
get a plastic tub from walmart and make a elevated hardware cloth bottom.....keeps them dry as a bone.
Here is what I use, a empty pop bottle with hole about the size of a quarter cut in so they can just stick there heads in and drink. (the picture shows a longer cut until I figured it out), this keeps the excess water to a minimum..
I keep ducks in the same brooder with chickens, peafowl and turkeys but i had to adjust to them. I built a brooder with a heat box and a wire bottom run. I put the drinkers out on the wire so all of the water falls thru. I put the food as far away from the water as possible. There is no water in the heat box so they just go in there to get warm. I try not to keep all of them together but sometimes when you have 2 ducks . 4 chicks, 2 peafowl and a turkey it's the only decent option.
