Duck House floor question

[GeoGreyWolf]

Hello everyone, I am going to be moving my duck house to the other side of my backyard to help with the fly problem which is also becoming a nuisance for my neighbors on that side. I want to see what I can do as a ground for the house maybe like a layered effect. The materials i plan on using are; chicken wire, pea gravel (currently in the house), DE and Sand. The question i have is what should the layer look like for this combination? I was thinking rock, chicken wire, DE and then Sand. Not sure if the DE will do anything to the ducks and should be in a different layer? Or if the DE will even help at that layer?

 

[CntryBoy777]

The problem with using DE as a layer is, it would be a waste of your $$.....it is rendered useless as soon as it becomes wet and would do about as much good as the sand ya use. If it were me I'd use either hay or straw, even leaves on the ground and clean it once a week. This would disrupt the life cycle of the flies and allow the ducks to eat what is there....since ya are in FL ya won't be seeing an cold temps that the ducks can't handle....and, if ya were to build a box styled hut that is about 3'x6' and about 3' high it would be fairly easy to move around to a new area so the areas could rest....it would also be much easier to clean out with a rake.....cut a hole in the harware cloth for their access and hinge the roof. That way ya can lift the roof and rake each end to the middle door...or from one end to the other and out the door onto a scoop to the compost pile or garden.....

 

[GeoGreyWolf]

Ah i already have the house built, and planned it to be stationary. I actually have to dig the posts back up i have just to be able to move it. Thank you for the advice on the DE i probably will just return it to the store then since it isn't open and use the rock and sand as a natural filtration maybe.