Duck pen size?

[BladeDuck]

I will be moving to a new home in a few weeks. I will have about a quarter acre yard. Currently I'm in a townhome with a small backyard and the ducks have a pen about 10'x14' with a small coup they can go in and out of at their choosing. The pen is mostly concrete so its been simple to keep maintained because I just scoop the poop off and hose it down every week or so. Its daily maintenance though so it'd be nice not to have to scoop duck poop every day. Currently I have 3 ducks, but I'm hoping to up it to 6 at the new place.

My question is how does everyone handle manure management in dirt/grass pens? Do you remove poop from the dirt pen or does it just become part of the dirt? I just don't want a smelly situation with a fly problem. I've considered duck tractor type set-up but I don't know if I could make that secure enough. I'm sure I'll have raccoons on the hills where my new house is. I can't just let them roam the entire yard due to city regulations and I'm worried about predators so I do need to set up some kind of pen. How much space per duck to keep the poop under control and some grass still growing?

 

[Kevin565]

The grass may last a few weeks but 6 ducks are going to eventually trample or eat all of the grass regardless of how large the pen is. I try to shovel the poop out 3 times a week currently.

 

[cymbaline]

I have 5 mallards in a 12' x 16' enclosure, and recently put new grass inside. It's been 4-6 weeks and with the exception of about a 3-4' ring around the pool, the grass doing pretty good. Around the pool, however, is a mucky stinky mess, so I'm curious to see what solutions people offer you. I was thinking of doing large smooth pebbles just around the pool, and leaving all the dirt and grass elsewhere for them to play in, because they really enjoy it. I also pull dandelions out of my garden and insert them all over their pen and they enjoy finding and devouring them.

 

[jonhpdx]

I've got a 10x10' square pen that the ducks spend most of their time in and I use the deep litter method. I only installed it last weekend so it's perhaps a little early for me to give a final verdict but just in the first week it's made a big difference in terms of maintenance. All I have to do is stir the pine shavings once a day and it's been fine. Hope it stays that way!