Duck pen ground cover / duck house bedding

[SLH]

We use the deep litter method in our 4x8 duckhouse (no food or water in the house). We start with a couple bags of shavings and then add straw and shavings throughout the winter based on any ammonia smell or how it looks (e.g., are they able to make their nests). We spot clean 2x daily and just toss the biggest most obvious poops. We will clean out in the late spring after we empty our compost bins to the garden. The deep litter is not fully composed and will become the starter for next years compost.

In the run, we have a dirt run with the cobbles on the end by their water buckets. We add shavings periodically and then clean out in the spring.

Thanks! This is really helpful!

 

[3bird]

Thanks! This is really helpful!

You bet. Feel free to follow-up with any questions.

 

[Flockincrazy]

My ducks and chickens share a coop and run I have wood shavings in the coop and pea gravel and sand in my run that way everyone stays dry

 

[quackin duck lady]

I’m reading that a lot of people are liking pea gravel on the ground of their duck pens. For my 3 ducks, I’m currently using pine shavings, which is proving to be a little smelly and a fair amount of work. I was hoping I could deep litter method the ground of the pen, but it’s not composting quite fast enough. Once a week I rake it to fluff it up, and add a layer of pine shavings. It’s getting so thick though that I had to haul a bunch of it out to the compost pile. I definitely don’t want to keep having to do that very often! Does anyone else use pine shavings in their pens and have suggestions?

I’m also using pine shavings inside the ducks house. That’s working pretty well, stirring it and adding fresh shavings once a week. But it’s not breaking down and composting at all, which I thought it would from what I read about deep litter method. The ammonia smell builds up really quickly too. Am I missing something?

I use sand. I rake it daily, it only takes about 10 minutes if done daily, that also fluffs it up. It’s easy on their feet & doesn’t smell. In their “homes” where they actually sleep I put pine shavings down. But I’ve tried everything in the pen and sand is the best.

 

[SLH]

I use sand. I rake it daily, it only takes about 10 minutes if done daily, that also fluffs it up. It’s easy on their feet & doesn’t smell. In their “homes” where they actually sleep I put pine shavings down. But I’ve tried everything in the pen and sand is the best.

Thank you! Sand sounds like a great option. Do you find it drains pretty well? We live in a very rainy climate.

 

[CoriM]

I also live in the PNW and have tried straw, sand, pea gravel, and wood shavings. A lot depends on the run/coop you have. My run is on bare ground and covered with a tin roof, and it has a tiny pond insert. My attached "coop" where they sleep has a plywood floor and is enclosed with a couple small windows. My original intention was to try the deep litter method because I read so many positive things about it prior to getting my ducks (I have 5 right now, started with 6). So I started with straw inside and straw outside, with pea gravel going around the pond. It was hard to keep the straw dry, and I was concerned about aspergillosis due to mold in the straw, plus the ammonia smell building in their sleeping area - which is 4x12. I started trying to remove wet and poopy straw and replace with dry straw. Meanwhile, I had a duck with a skin issue (which turned out to be feather-pulling) and my vet suggested she might be allergic to the bedding, so we switched out to wood shavings. I found the shavings way easier to keep clean because you easily scoop out the poopy and wet areas without long pieces of straw clinging every which way. A couple months later I had a couple of ducks get bumblefoot at the same time and I started to get worried it was from the pea gravel, so I switched to sand around their pond. For me that was a mess. It was winter and the sand did not drain at all. So hosing poops off was a mess because I would get standing water. My other option was shoveling off the poop and replacing with fresh sand, which was cumbersome. It also smelled so bad! I got rid of it early last summer and threw it in my yard and it still kind of stinks when I walk by that area. I know it works well for some people but not for my setup. I went back to pea gravel that is very deep and now I hose it down everyday and though it stays wet in the winter, it's still pretty clean. Except for where they have drug wood shavings into it. Like an above poster, I try to every few months shovel it into a wheel barrow and clean it. It's laborious, but works pretty well. I've only had one case of bumblefoot since I took the sand out, and I don't think that was caused by the pea gravel, which I don't have much of, since that duck doesn't spend much time over there. So for now I am sticking with the combination of shavings and pea gravel, though I haul out a lot of shavings to my compost pile every week. Every morning I scoop out the wet and poopy areas and replace with a fresh sprinkle of clean shavings and I don't have any odor issues. Hope you come up with something that works well for you. Everyone's situation is so individual, and ducks are just messy no matter what.

 

[SLH]

I also live in the PNW and have tried straw, sand, pea gravel, and wood shavings. A lot depends on the run/coop you have. My run is on bare ground and covered with a tin roof, and it has a tiny pond insert. My attached "coop" where they sleep has a plywood floor and is enclosed with a couple small windows. My original intention was to try the deep litter method because I read so many positive things about it prior to getting my ducks (I have 5 right now, started with 6). So I started with straw inside and straw outside, with pea gravel going around the pond. It was hard to keep the straw dry, and I was concerned about aspergillosis due to mold in the straw, plus the ammonia smell building in their sleeping area - which is 4x12. I started trying to remove wet and poopy straw and replace with dry straw. Meanwhile, I had a duck with a skin issue (which turned out to be feather-pulling) and my vet suggested she might be allergic to the bedding, so we switched out to wood shavings. I found the shavings way easier to keep clean because you easily scoop out the poopy and wet areas without long pieces of straw clinging every which way. A couple months later I had a couple of ducks get bumblefoot at the same time and I started to get worried it was from the pea gravel, so I switched to sand around their pond. For me that was a mess. It was winter and the sand did not drain at all. So hosing poops off was a mess because I would get standing water. My other option was shoveling off the poop and replacing with fresh sand, which was cumbersome. It also smelled so bad! I got rid of it early last summer and threw it in my yard and it still kind of stinks when I walk by that area. I know it works well for some people but not for my setup. I went back to pea gravel that is very deep and now I hose it down everyday and though it stays wet in the winter, it's still pretty clean. Except for where they have drug wood shavings into it. Like an above poster, I try to every few months shovel it into a wheel barrow and clean it. It's laborious, but works pretty well. I've only had one case of bumblefoot since I took the sand out, and I don't think that was caused by the pea gravel, which I don't have much of, since that duck doesn't spend much time over there. So for now I am sticking with the combination of shavings and pea gravel, though I haul out a lot of shavings to my compost pile every week. Every morning I scoop out the wet and poopy areas and replace with a fresh sprinkle of clean shavings and I don't have any odor issues. Hope you come up with something that works well for you. Everyone's situation is so individual, and ducks are just messy no matter what.

Thank you for all this info!

 

[jellymoose]

Just wondered upon this thread and would love to know what you went with! I'm setting up my coop with half sand half pea gravel mixed together for drainage (I live in Oregon and anything that has dirt turns into mushy mud in the fall and winter). My ducks get foraging time outside of their coop at least a few times a week as well so they won't be on the pebbles/sand all of the time.

 

[RSTinWA]

Also in PNW, and trying to understand what deep litter looks like in our climate.

My 6 girls, now almost 3 months, are in a 10 x 10 dog kennel run with a tarp over half to keep rain off. I've been using straw in the run, but wood shavings in their shelter which they pretty much only use at night or when it's chilly. Right now the straw is just sodden from rain. I fork it over daily while they are out foraging in the larger (fenced) backyard, but it's really not drying out. Doesn't smell all too bad, and there isn't overt mold, but it's really mushy and doesn't seem like what deep litter is supposed to be. There's not a whole lot of sun in the run area, as we have huge cedars, but there is good airflow. And it's very well drained since we made a terrace on the hillside to get level ground, and that's built up with rocks and gravel with 6 inches of topsoil on top.

Do I need to clear all the straw bedding out and start with dry straw again? Is straw just hopeless in our soggy climate?

I'm also starting to think the roof needs to be more than a tarp over hardware cloth-- maybe a roofing material or corrugated panel? The straw will still get wet from rain coming in the sides, but surely it would be less soggy.

Another random thought: would it make sense to use straw deep litter and an open, uncovered roof for the relatively short dry summer months, and then switch to a covered roof and something else for bedding during rainy winter months?

 

[Katicorn]

I’m reading that a lot of people are liking pea gravel on the ground of their duck pens. For my 3 ducks, I’m currently using pine shavings, which is proving to be a little smelly and a fair amount of work. I was hoping I could deep litter method the ground of the pen, but it’s not composting quite fast enough. Once a week I rake it to fluff it up, and add a layer of pine shavings. It’s getting so thick though that I had to haul a bunch of it out to the compost pile. I definitely don’t want to keep having to do that very often! Does anyone else use pine shavings in their pens and have suggestions?

I’m also using pine shavings inside the ducks house. That’s working pretty well, stirring it and adding fresh shavings once a week. But it’s not breaking down and composting at all, which I thought it would from what I read about deep litter method. The ammonia smell builds up really quickly too. Am I missing something?

mine are under our deck, so smell is majorly important. I’ve been putting them in the run starting at 3 weeks during the day to test out methods and so far this is working fairly well. We have 5 ducks.

1.the base is mountain dirt soil.
2. Im sprinkling Sweet PDZ Horse stall refresher in their favorite areas.
3.pine shavings
4.littering with wheat straw on top.wheat straw poop goes in my garden.

5. I feed them blueberries in their snack of lettuce, peas and weeds.It makes them poop blue so its VERY easy to find.

Im spot cleaning 2-3 times a day. Clean the straw out out of their little house inside the run once a day. We only put straw in their house. No food or water in there

Major clean in their favorite areas once a week.

im by no means an expert, but due to the location of their run, under our entertaining deck , it has to be as low smell as possible. Its about 50x12. Its the safest place in our mountains from storms and super predators.