Ducks run is so muddy!!!

[WannaBeHillBilly]

My ducks have a lot of space to roam, but most of the time they hang around our house and have turned everything into ankle-deep mud. Rubber boots are the solution.
And all that pooping and digging has improved our poor soil so much that i expect to have a jungle out there in no time once the temperatures rise. At the moment nothing grows out there, so i let them dig up the mud, poop, dig a bit more, …

 

[Miss Lydia]

It’s their passion Mud!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I’m in Ohio as well, and up, my entire property is one big mud pit. My ducks free range in the day, so they LOVE the mud...but I can understand your little one having an issue with navigating that. Straw is best suggestion, even if it gets wet in the run. Do they have a dry place to go to?

According to weather channel, we’re expecting a cold front coming in tomorrow...so the mud will freeze up.

Since I’ve had ducks, I really despise winter, especially here in Ohio. Poor things spend days inside there house, and since the hose freezes, I have to lug gallons of water uphill from my basement. I always worry about them in the super cold weather, and we go through much more straw, as they need deeper piles, and are in the house much longer than the rest of the year.

Fortunately, we’ve had a relatively mild winter this year...can’t wait for February to be over!

I had the very same problem last winter, there is a simple solution: Drain your hose after use!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

We have also had a ton of rain, our ground never freezes for more than a day or two, and it is mostly clay soil. So, a section of my pen is deep mud. I put old fence boards across it, it keeps me from sinking. Old straw and shavings help but do not fix deep mud. I also dig drainage troughs around the edges to it dry up faster. My grass always comes back in the spring. Duck poop is great fertilizer!

Exactly! There is a big difference in the color of the grass where my ducks have worked over the soil and where they didn't. As long as the roots are ok, the grass will literally shoot back up in spring.