Duck Pen Flooring

jynxster

Songster
8 Years
Dec 8, 2011
169
11
106
San Diego CA east county (Alpine)
So my 10' x 6' x 6' dog kennel became the nighttime pen for my ducks, and the dogloo in there is their roost warm spot nightly. In the mornig I turn them out to the yard that has a 7' tall fence on three sided and the back of the house is the forth side, a good size are with a pond now too. The question is; the flloor of the dog run has now all turned to mud and dirt along with duck poop. Raking it out everyday is a real pain. What about gravel on the ground in there so I could just hose the duck poop down. Anyone else try this? The gravvel I have is rounded smooth edges about 1/2". So????? Also when I cleaned out the pen today I noted there was a fairly fresh groundhog hole in the pen underneath the dogloo. Im thinking maybe fine metal mesh underneath the gravel. I dont thing the groundhogs would go after the ducks but they do leave a deep hole the might could fall in or something?????Ideas???
 
I would think even with gravel it would likely build up over time since it can only wash down so far. If it were me, I would probably make some pannels for slats, probably several small removable panels with wood frames with heavy duty plastic mesh or plastic coated wire (plastic so it will be easier of their feet) and build the panels so they can fit together and cover the entire floor and be raised up 4-6 inches off the ground so all the poop and slashed water falls through and they can't play in it. And then about once a week or so, you could pull the panels up and rake out from under them and compost it and replace the panels on the clean ground. Maybe even use some type of absorbant material under the panels too to make cleaning easier. But this would at least keep them from playing in the mud and would cut down on how often you would need to clean since they aren't directly on it.
 
A lot of folks have had success building an elevated (4-6") 'sub-floor' that can be washed down. This allows the birds to walk on something solid, poo gets washed down thru wire or slats, and the ground should be a sand-pit with gravel thats 1/2 to 1' crushed. This will allow water to run off or soak in, ans ad long as the dirt and gravel is not being stirred up by little web feet, it will stay decent. You'll learn to use the min water to hose down the floor, and folks seem to like pine mulch/shavings to absorb order and keep the wet off the ducks. That can be changed as needed, usually a week to 10 days depending on how many ducks in a given space.

Sloping ground is an advantage as well.

Dig the ground out (few inches )and lay down mesh, fill with sand then gravel up to grade, place elevated floor over that.
 
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My ducks used to spend a lot of time in their fenced area by our deck. It is about 3" of peastone. I just hosed that down.
Still do around their food/water where they still poop tons.
Their duck house is sitting on top of a small deck that is next to their duck yard. House gets hosed out too.

The only mud problem I have is cleaning their water dish, aka mud puddle dish.
 
Regarding the water dish,


Yes, I know what you're saying. Mine will muddy up their water to the point that they will wait to soak their head until I clean the bowl. When I check to see how well they ate, I see the food bowl empty. I later find half the feed in the water bowl...mud or soup depending on your perspective.

I gotta tell ya though, the second they see fresh water its head dunking time...once the heads soaked, nose clean, then they'll drink. Duck priorities ya know..
I guess I'd hesitate to soak my head in a bowl of soup if I had to walk around with rice stuck in my hair...
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So I appreciate all the response but now looks like I will use stone pavers in the pen and lay straw on the floor that way I can just hose it out. Their dogloo in there is filled with hay and is changed every other day stays dry. and only a smaller bowel for drinking in there. That will also prevent gophers from coming up in the pen too.
 
So went to home depot and my cash flow at this time is a little short, the holidays and all, the cheepest pavers would have been near or over a hundred and twenty dollars, may be that will happen later. So I bought 6 bags of screened playground sand and a role of 8'x15' linoleum. I lifted the entire pen up and poured and leveled the pen floor with sand with a slight slant downhill. I put the linoleum in there and curled the extra up on the outside of the pen. Now the coop has a nice linoleum floor, I can hose it out daily and all for half the price. Necessity is the mother of invention, appears to be workin well for now. pavers down the road are probably a good idea but now they are not gonna be standing is their own poop and mud.
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Are they slipping on the linoleum ? They may need something to give them more traction. Like the plastic mesh stff that I mentioned just laid on top of it should work. Other than slipping though, I would think that should work great .
 

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