Few Newbie Questions

[Bridgertrot]

Thanks everyone! I'll definitely keep posting updates. I can't really do anything other than sit around and wait. And wow, a foot deep of bedding? LOL Seems like a lot. Makes sense to me but wow lol

Here's my idea I have so far so please give me advice on it. I was thinking about making a 1-2 layer of wood shavings in the entire coop and then potentially putting a small area of sand in one spot to put their water and food on so it won't soak the shavings. Is this a horrible idea? Eventually they will have a fenced off run they can walk out in. Still need to build that though.

 

[Amiga]

How about a small attached porch, something like I have? It could have a sand bottom and be just big enough for the ducks to eat and drink. Hardware cloth (the heavy duty metal kind) all around for safety.

 

[Bridgertrot]

Do you have a picture? At this point we can't modify our coop that much other than adding a run for them. Need to put the money elsewhere. A neighbor told us today that everything on our property is leveled. That includes a large house (technically 5 stories), metal shed, wood shed, and me and my boyfriends place which was a studio "apartment" over a large garage. We are going to a meeting today to get it confirmed. I'm hoping we can salvage something. Only thing that probably survived is some metal tools (like wrenches) unless those got melted. Which I wouldn't be surprised if they did since this fire got so bad.

In the neighborhood we heard that a guy had a fire proof house with a steel roof and concrete walls. It got so hot that everything inside burned and it imploded and fell in on itself. We are chomping at the bit wanting to get up there and see the property.

 

[Amiga]

This fire is beyond imagination. So grateful you and the ducks are okay.

I will look for a pic and try to remember how to upload.

Here is the Duck Inn and Veranda on the right, just about finished a couple of years ago.

 

[CalBells]

Oh, I am so sorry about the fire! I hope everything works out for you.

As for your questions about water and bedding inside the coop, I'm still pretty new to ducks, but I though I'd share what we do. For bedding we use straw, since we just have 3 young ducks and a nice big night time coop it doesn't get dirty too quickly. I just use a rake to turn it and fluff it each morning, maybe sprinkle a little more on top. For water in the coop, I got the idea from others on this forum to create a catch basin so that the bedding stays dry. Basically making a box with a wire mesh top and a bowl or basin underneath to catch the water that spills. It works really well, we just empty the catch basin every day or two and the bedding stays nice and dry. Here is a picture of ours, that was made with things we found lying around:

 

[Bridgertrot]

Thanks everyone for sharing the tips and pictures! They are very helpful. We bought the ducks a kiddie pool yesterday to upgrade them from the wheelbarrow. It was one of the first times we've let them outside so they enjoyed it. We made a little makeshift fence around it so the horses wouldn't try and slurp them up like last time. They were curious but left them alone. We had fun sitting with them watching them swim.

As for the fire, my boyfriend has been able to do some night shifts to relieve some of the veterans as they are getting really tired. He was able to go up to our place before dark on the first night and everything is gone. I was correct in that our place fell into the garage. He said it also appears that the garage had an explosion at some point because he found things that he knew was in the garage 100's of feet away, unburnt. The metal shed we had also looks like it exploded. It was ballooned out with a tear in the side. Wood shed is completely gone obviously. And his parents house is a pile of rubble.

Here is a before and after of our place. He manged to take a few quick pictures. Both are shot at the same angle, the burnt one is just closer.



This is a picture taken at his parents house which is about a football field away from ours. These were a brand new washer and dryer. He said everything looked like it was sitting for 100 years. They fell down into their basement/crawl space. Sorry the picture is rotated...I saved it correctly but it's still posting wrong.


Boyfriend even showed me a picture of someones Prius that burnt. It had trails of melted aluminum flowing away from it. Even the glass melted and was just a blob on the ground.

There was a few weird things that didn't burn. We had a snowmobile sitting outside, it's fine. A truck bed sitting on wooden sawhorses right next to the garage, fine. We put a wireless router extender outside in a cooler (a bit redneck but it wouldn't reach and it worked lol), the cooler melted a little but the router inside is fine! It was sitting next to a giant pile of sticks and that didn't even burn! But the grass around it did. Such a strange fire.

Now we are trying to find another place to live. I'm trying to find a one bedroom place for myself and may even end up moving back into the dorms on campus. I need to buy more clothes and start making a list of things lost. Least the ducks are happy.

 

[Bridgertrot]

I have another question to throw out there about nutrition. I was recommended this stuff http://www.ranch-way.com/products/poultry-feed/ranch-way-20-lay-feed by the feed store, though I'm not sure how much the lady knew about ducks. I was hoping for a complete feed type thing, but it says we're supposed to add chicken scratch...but I'm not sure if this will work for ducks as a complete feed or if I need to add anything. I'm hoping that I'm over thinking the feed thing. I just don't want to hurt them in any way.

 

[jtbrown]

Wow, so sorry for all of your losses. Glad you and your family (and ducks) are safe. You are in everyone's prayers, hang in there.

 

[Bridgertrot]

Thanks everyone. I have started to slowly switch them over to the new feed. I compared the labels and they are pretty much the same. Only thing different is the new stuff has a bit more calcium in it. Is that OK for them? Is there anything else I need to supplement with? Their water jug got dropped the other day and made a small hole it in. By the time I got to them in the morning their cage was soaked and so were they with no water. They had another container for their dipper...but they knocked that over too! You can imagine how horrified I was but they are fine. They were yelling for me though when I got there. Poor duckies. Fixed the water with some sealant so hopefully it'll work fine now.

I took some pictures of their coop to share as well. It's quite big. A small horse could fit comfortable in it I think LOL...well not with the ceiling height ha.


We bought them a little kiddie pool as you can see. We made a makeshift fence so the horses wouldn't try to slurp them up like last time. They were curious but stayed away. We stayed with them the entire time just to be safe. I think they enjoyed being outside. They weren't too sure of what to think about the Robins flying around. Eventually we will make them a nice run. There is a door for them on the coop in front of the ATV.

Here is the inside.



It is A LOT cleaner than it was. It was fully packed with things before. Need to finish cleaning it and get rid of the chicken boxes. I'm thinking I'll probably spray the place down with some diluted bleach (is that safe for them if I let it sit and dry for a day or so before putting them in?) just to sanitize it a bit more. The boxes are full of chicken poo and who knows how long they have been there. Whoever built it loved putting random nails everywhere too so I need to go around and hammer in or pull out the hazardous ones. It's like a bed of nails around their door! I'm excited to switch them over to it. I want to finish up the inside soon so we can slowly introduce them to it.

And just for fun, Lucky was looking into the shop where we have the ducks telling us that he's starving to death even though he has a giant field of grass to eat.

 

[Diamond88]

I'm so sorry to hear about your home! That's tragic. You've done an excellent job taking great care of your duckies during this terrible time. You're such a good mommy!