Flooring in chicken coop ... Now with ducks. HELP!!!

[foxchasr]

We have our 7 hens and 1 rooster in our coop with a dusting of shavings over the floor, straw in the corners for one of our hens that doesn't roost and straw in our 9 nesting boxes. Life was good. We'd clean out the poop in the am, freshen up the straw, again, life was good. We don't put food or water in the coop at night. Our girls and roo are in late and out early free ranging all day. We have 2 3 month old Pekin ducks now that are great. We figured we'd give it a try keeping them all together. They all get along fine, no aggression whatsoever. The problem is they are making a real mess of our coop. I keep the 2 pekins in an x pen within the coop on a bed of straw and a bucket of water with a big rock in it to keep it from tipping over. The floor in the coop is cement and my husband is concerned that the cement floor is getting wet. Also, the wood frame of the coop at the base is getting wet as well and he's concerned that the wood will rot. There also loos like we are now getting gnats and we never had an insect problem. Please give us some advice. What kind of flooring do people use that won't get ruined. Do I need to be putting water in at night for the ducks? I know many might say, keep the ducks separate, but i've heard that this arrangement of everyone together may work. What are the uses for DE? Should I put some kind of liner under the area the ducks are sleeping at night. I have a colossal dog crate pan that I removed from the dog crate and have put under the ducks area so they have a "liner" under their straw. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[flnatv]

I can only tell you my personal experience as of right now.
We have 6 8 week old chicks, 19 about 3 weeks old and 4 ducks.

ducks go into the backyard with the baby pool during the day, big chicks free-range, little chicks have the coop

At night... little chicks go up in there little coop, big chicks and ducks into the big coop. I don't put them up until dark!!!!
I tried to put them up earlier and the ducks made the coop nasty, wet, smelly.... and ohhhhh the flies.

Haven't had a problem now that they stay out til almost dark and are let out at 5:30 every morning.

Don't know if that helps you, but I wouldn't keep the ducks in the coop all day.... they play in the water too much!!

 

[foxchasr]

Thanks for the tips. My ducks are out all day free changing with the chickens. I let them out between 10 and 11 am every day because my rooster is really noisy and I'm worried with my neighbor the lives on the left and by that time has already left for work. So the ducks are out all day and they go into bed between 8:30 pm and 9 pm every day. They aren't in the coop at all during the day once they come out in the am. I need to find a good flooring that will absorb the wetness from their poop, even though they are in their x pen, it seems the cement floor, along with the wood beams by the floor are getting saturated. I would love some kind of solution so I can keep them together as they all seem to get along really well.