Ducks Spilling Feed in the Run... Mold!

[glloyd203]

I've seen a couple threads about this but none that were regarding ducks so I thought I'd post this here in hopes someone has advice! As we all know, ducks the messiest creatures around, and while I made a "no spill" feeder by cutting holes in a 5-gallon bucket for them to eat out of, they still dribble food everywhere after they take their heads out of it. I like to keep their food in the run because they NEVER go into their house during the day, but there's always a pile of food on the ground and I'm worried it's going to get moldy because that happened once before. My run floor is hardware cloth and then a somewhat thin layer of materials, so even if I scraped the food out I would surely miss some that gets stuck in the hardware cloth. I have heard that barn lime is great for mold and I've been sprinkling that on the fallen food, but I've seen my chickens pecking at it and I'm not sure if that's safe for them! So I guess I have two questions - what the heck do I do about my ducks food getting everywhere, and is barn lime safe!? Thanks all

 

[chickens really]

Ducks are messy....I use rubber stock bowls for feed and water...I never worry about spilled feed...If it gets too yucky I rake it up and toss under my trees....Never been a big deal...I would not be using lime around either species...