Ducks and deep litter discussion

[PirateGirl]

ducks don't turn their bedding the way chickens do, it' compacts into thick wet sheets, I manually turn the bedding in my duck coop/run with one of these, eventually it goes into the compost bin or my raised beds... i think your weather will impact how well this works for you

 

[Miss Lydia]

I do have chickens going into every coop to do their excavating they help a lot.

 

[PirateGirl]

I do have chickens going into every coop to do their excavating they help a lot.

Nice. Last summer I would occasionally put a few chickens in the duck run to do some work. Then I switched tactics and would shovel the waste from the duck run into the chicken run for them to break it down further. I'm not sure which way was better honestly.

 

[Miss Lydia]

More work for you!

 

[quackiemama]

I also use a deep bedding year round for the duck house. I do exactly what @Miss Lydia does and I love it. My ducks tend to poop on one side of the house but not where they sleep and lay eggs so I also put the tray from a dog crate which helps protect the floor from moisture. I just pull it out everyday and dump in the run and scoop more shavings on top. I have wood floors with vinyl in the duck house.

 

[PirateGirl]

More work for you!

either way i feel that summer is manageable, but this year's winter everything was a disaster we had more snow than normal and i had flooding/drainage issues and everything was soaking wet too much of the time! My takeaway is that if it gets too wet too much of the time deep litter can be a mess.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I don't stir, use pine shavings and add more on top once a week or so. Twice a year I shovel down to the concrete and put it all in my garden. Works great unless they get super messy wth water. Then I have to do spot shoveling in between. I find a snow shovel works well.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I bet, yeah that would be a mess. We had a lot of rain hardly any snow and it wasn't too bad finding places to put the spent shavings I'd dump out in the fenced area the chickens spread it around for me and I slipped down less because the ground wasn't just pure mud.

 

[Booodog]

First off: I've only been doing this for a year. I could be back here in two weeks posting about problems, but so far, it's been great.

My duck run is filled with grass clippings and old leaves over soil. I added to it each week until it got to be 8-12 inches deep. Once full, I turn it weekly. No smells, no flies to speak of. If I see them, I turn more often.

It is a pretty generous square footage... roughly 35 sq ft per bird, and two of those are call ducks. I did that on purpose to cut down maintenance. Honestly, at this point, I can't even see the droppings build up, and they dig ALL day, pulling up worms. It's almost like an enclosed free-range/compost pile.

I was skeptical at first. Deep-litter sounds like one of those too-good-to-be -true scenarios. However, I did some research, and there's really strong research behind it offering health benefits (as opposed to just being easier). I mean by people who are looking at industrial scale set ups.

I'll repost if something bad starts happening (I hate bad advice on the Internet), but right now, I'm a satisfied non-customer of the straw dealer.

 

[onaharley]

Following for the Great tips!!! Thanks for making this thread.