Duck nesting bed?

[DucknChicken]

Hi,

I am just about to remove the water and food from my ducks sleeping enclosure (cause it's getting way tooooo messy!!!) but wondered about their nesting box - I usually have hay in there, will they eat this and then need water to wash it down? I was going to put wood shavings on their floor (was grass but now just dirt) but keep the hay in their bed……what do you think?

thanks in advance
Deb

 

[Amiga]

Deb, how old are they, now?

Would you consider adding a water or water and food station, similar to this?







They might try eating the hay, or straw - I keep water with my ducks 24/7 - the watering station keeps the bedding dry (of course their poop moistens it a bit, but I spot pick it daily so the bedding stays pretty dry).

 

[DucknChicken]

thanks so much Amiga for replying - that's a great idea! They are all different ages - ranging from 1 1/2 right down to 1 month…..I have 11 of them all living together. I think I would need a bigger drink station…….do your jump in the station? I'm worried mine will and tip it all over???

Deb

 

[Amiga]

I use a two gallon flat-bottomed stew pot, and even when, in winter, a Runner decides to hop in, all she does is splash water into the sawdust. No tipping.

If you have one-month-olds, I'd put a cleaned stone in the pot so that the baby won't drown should it be able to hop in. I would not put a board across part of the top, as I have heard of an adult Runner drowning herself in that kind of setup. You could also just go with a more shallow, but flat-bottomed, straight-sided pot. Or two or three. It's not that they don't splash, it's that the sawdust pellets suck up so much of the water that all I have to do is change out sawdust, not the whole blessed pen bedding.

 

[DucknChicken]

thanks Amiga - I'm not overly worried about the little ones drowning, they are actually quite big and they splash around all day in the pond with the big ones….it's the mess that is driving me crazy. I haven't got sawdust pellets, where do I get them from? I have just put the wood shavings down but don't know what to put down for their nesting boxes.

I did have water in their pen before but they jump in it and walked all over it……I think it's because there are 12 of them in there at the moment. How many do you have in your pen at night? Do you just have the pellets in the water area?

 

[Amiga]

thanks Amiga - I'm not overly worried about the little ones drowning, they are actually quite big and they splash around all day in the pond with the big ones….it's the mess that is driving me crazy. I haven't got sawdust pellets, where do I get them from? I have just put the wood shavings down but don't know what to put down for their nesting boxes.

I did have water in their pen before but they jump in it and walked all over it……I think it's because there are 12 of them in there at the moment. How many do you have in your pen at night? Do you just have the pellets in the water area?

I have eleven in one pen, three in the other.

I can get sawdust pellets at the feed store - horse people use them quite a bit around here - and at some hardware stores. I think that they may be the same thing as some kinds of pellet stove fuel - be sure to read the label carefully. It's just compressed sawdust.