Duck shelter bedding?

[alevr]

My Runners took forever to learn the coop was for sleeping and laying eggs. They would just let them fall out where ever. As for bedding I use deep shavings in their coops. I scoop out the wet poopy stuff daily and add fresh when needed. My ducks share a coop with the chickens here too. Poop boards for the chickens so they don't poop on the ducks.

What is a poop board? Can you post a picture lol. My runners like sleeping under the chickens also lol

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

Pine shavings, fine pine shavings specifically. They are more absorbent of moisture and more absorbing of smell. My ducks poop here there and everywhere but they tend to use one corner for poopin 2 for nesting and one for drinking. In the winter i tend to try to cleanup as best i can what has been wet. When it is cold it’s tough and i top up with fresh dry clean. It gets pretty deep when its cold for a while, but pine is definitely the best.

 

[rjmyooper]

I thought I read somewhere here that Ducks will try to eat the pine shavings. Maybe I miss understood.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/premier-pet-aspen-pet-bedding-20-cu-ft?cm_vc=-10005

 

[Stoney Meadow Maple]

I thought I read somewhere here that Ducks will try to eat the pine shavings. Maybe I miss understood.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/premier-pet-aspen-pet-bedding-20-cu-ft?cm_vc=-10005

Hogwash. They certainly injest some as they go about their day, along with mud, bugs, tree bark, you name it. They wont chow down on it and whatever amount they do will will pass.
I have always been uneasy about the idea of pellet bedding. But shavings are fine.

 

[dreamofwinter]

Even pellets work fine - I put pellets down to help with mud and mine know they are not food. They're angry about me drying up their mud, but they don't eat the pine pellets!

 

[PicklesMom]

We did straw this past winter - after a lot of trial and error I realized the bagged chopped straw at TSC was not good, but found some good baled straw that was the best for insulation. We did shavings the winter before which tended to get wet, pack down, and freeze. I think this contributed to some bumblefoot in retrospect, though I was in denial at the time . The baled straw was nice and springy but a pain to shovel out. Now that weather is warming up I may try going back to shavings but will keep on with straw in the winter.

 

[Knighstar679]

Pine pellets are my best friend for the ducks but they are a nightmare for the chickens. So i use a combo of both. I designed the house for ducks so I don't have poop boards or anything nice like that. I did add in a cat tree and a perch for the chickens that they love. The ducks like sleeping under the cat tree.

But I found that as the ducks add moister to the pine pellets they break down pretty well and I can scoop out the bad stuff if i need to or add in pine shavings. (Which my chickens love). What ever I take out I put in the pen to compost down to dirt because fill dirt is expensive and the area I have for the ducks likes to hold water because of it being uneven ground. It has actually worked out really well for sections, and using the used stuff from the duck houses means less product I have to buy directly to absorb mud. (duckies hate me taking away their mud)