Duck Pen Help

[Robbo]

Hey I had a question on what you all do to keep the smell of your duck pen down?

They free roam but are in there at night and some days when it is the chickens days to free roam.

They have 2 houses and a little pool area. But it gets stinky. More so when it is spring-ish when stuff starts to thaw, like now. It is just like one big muddy, poopy, stinky, sink hole. I am lost...

 

[roseyred]

You could throw down some lime when there free ranging. It'll dry up some of the liquid. They put a nice thick layer of dry dirt or sand over it an then some straw or hay

 

[Robbo]

You could throw down some lime when there free ranging. It'll dry up some of the liquid. They put a nice thick layer of dry dirt or sand over it an then some straw or hay

I'll look into that lime and maybe some sand. Currently we do use straw and I think that is what has made it 10x worse this year than others. Because all I can smell is them and the rotting straw. I currently am trying to get about a foot (thick) of straw out of there while it is a melted frozen mess. I so regret using that, lol.

I am seriously thinking about putting boarding around the inside of the runs and filling them with sand though, or gravel. Then I could rinse it all off? Bad idea? I suppose rinsing off down into the dirt wouldn't help the smell? I have some coop smell pellets I bought that say they are safe to use. I wasn't going to use that though until it warmed up some but I am curious to use it outside too instead of in the coops. My coops don't smell bad, it is the runs.

 

[roseyred]

We use the lime for wet spots in horse stalls and it gets rid of the amonia smell. You just don't wanna breath the lime. Once it's down it's harmless. Sand could work but I would wanna mix it with some small gravel so it dosnt get packed down and it will def freeze too.....what about covering your run? That way the only wet comes from them and it'll provly reduce the muddy ness...or just get some big flat rocks and make yourself a walkway lol I don't have sucks but that's what I plan to do through there run

 

[Robbo]

I certainly want to build a roof. I just have no building skills so I might look around on craigslist for someone who would for me. I mean I probably could but I don't even know where to begin. My run is 12ft wide by 36ft long.

 

[roseyred]

Wow! That's huge! I would just get some tarps. Some nice ones and a staple gun and attatch it to the wood or if you have metal use zip ties. Can I see a pic of your duck area!?

 

[Robbo]

Wow! That's huge! I would just get some tarps. Some nice ones and a staple gun and attatch it to the wood or if you have metal use zip ties. Can I see a pic of your duck area!?

Certainly I will get some photos up this evening. We have used the tarps before and stopped for the only fact they rip from the wind and we were spending good money on expensive tarps to last about 2 months at the most it was very expensive, the grommets would rip away and such. Then when it snowed we would have to take them down or, like before, snow would pile up so much they would rip and crushed a coop, thank goodness no one was in it.

 

[Robbo]

This was when I started, and had half covered by a tarp, about 2 years ago I believe. I added 2 more 6ft panels on front and back just this last summer. I will try to get a photo of it now, I am sure I do, but it is in a couple photos since it is so long now, lol.

I have the red "barn" taken down to the ground now, with the dog house for the ducks. The chickens now have a different red barn for themselves with roosts in it.

 

[roseyred]

Oh yeah /: maybe look into plexi glass or just some treated wood panels and add more support beams to keep it from bowing.... Or you could add height to a long side of the run wall so whatever you put up is at a slant

 

[roseyred]

Ooooh okay I have that same type of fencing and it's hard to cover... I put 2x4s across the short distance. I don't have mine covered with anything but chicken wire thoo..I used short pieces of wood to make it rest on the metal fence but not be attached. If you did that maybe then you could attatch some plastic sheets or something...