Flooring material and duck types

[tripletmumm]

Hi. I have three ducks that are around 5 months old. I'm not sure what kind I have because I think the farm supply store that sold them to me, didn't know what they were selling.

I was told one was a Buff Orphington, but has turned out to be a white duck with yellow bill and feet. I think it turned out to be a Pekin. I've read that Pekin tend to have a lot of leg injuries and this one seems to waddle a bit more than the others (like maybe it has a sore leg, but who knows . . . i'm new to this.)

I was told one was a Rouen, although it never looked like a Rouen when I did searches on it as a baby. As a duckling it had black down with a yellow spot on it's chest (black bill and feet). Now it is all black with a greenish tint to the feathers, however the tips of it's flight feathers have a blueish/purplish sheen.

The third was supposed to be a khaki Campbell. I still think that is what this one is. Guess one out of three isn't bad.

Also. . . I have been putting wood shavings on the floor of the coop. The ducks really seem to spread a lot of water all over and get the shavings really wet. Is this normal? Is there something a bit better than wood shavings? I've read some people use sand, but that would be really heavy to shovel out. . . Also do you have a drain on the floor of your coop to allow all that water to drain out? The other day, I shoveled out the wood shavings (because it was really bad) but didn't have any new ones to put in. This morning there was enough water on the floor of the coop to shovel out.

I'm just trying to figure out what's going on Please help.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

You have a pekin, black cayuga, and a khaki. I heard only "jumbo" pekins have problems with their leg.

you should probably move the waterer outside the coop. Yes they wont have any at night, but they will be sleeping and will be fine. Good luck!

 

[mandelyn]

Or build one of these to cover a plastic tote, and catch all that water before it hits the bedding. Bedding of any kind will smell when it gets wet, so solve the water issue.

I bought the tote first and measured around it to make a snug fit, the board on the side making the frame is a 2x10, the tote is flush with it, so that must about about 10 inches tall. The wire over the top means they can't get at the water they spill and throw it around. I put a handle on one side, to make it easy to lift for removing the tote to dump it out.

 

[Amiga]

I have an attached porch - half inch hardware cloth all around (top, bottom, sides) and my runners have food and water out there - none in the house. Keeps it very nice. I have sawdust over sand for the porch flooring, and wood shavings with a straw top over vinyl flooring in the duck house.

Got pics?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yep i think most of have learned real quick that ducks and water in their house doesn't work unless you do like mandelyn did, that is nice. 1 thing you have to be so careful of with wet bedding is mold which is a killer of ducks, geese and chickens. so I would say either build something like mandelyn did or put their water outside in the run, they don't need to drink at night anyway.

 

[tripletmumm]

Thank you for all the information. I will probably build one of those plastic tote things for now. The ducks are in a separate house than my chickens. The chickens have a fenced in yard, but it hasn't enclosed the duck house yet. I usually just let the ducks out into my yard (so far they haven't gone anywhere.) The fence project probably won't be completed until next spring. It is already getting wet and moist outside. So for now, I'll leave the food and water inside.

Thank you for telling me about the wet bedding. The house they live in has some nesting boxes up off the ground and I think they sleep in there at night. Those are clean and dry, however, I noticed that the ducks are awfully dirty when I let them out in the morning. That concerned me. Hopefully this plastic tote idea will work great.

How do ducks do in the winter? In my hen house, I have put a heating lamp because it gives the chickens some extra light during the winter time and helps keep the water from freezing so much. Do the ducks need additional light during the winter too? Do they do better with a heat source? I have heard that the ducks will still swim in the pool during the winter as long as I keep the ice off of it. So I'm sure they are a bit insulated from the cold.

 

[tripletmumm]

Oh, I'll try to get pictures of the ducks in the morning.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

Cant wait!

 

[Going Quackers]

I bed on shavings, i have a stall mat floor in my duck barn but yes the water can make things messy.. however i clean the floor everyday lol which of coarse is not something all would want to do. I like the idea of creating a guess a moat? type box.. perhaps i should consider it

 

[mandelyn]

I was spending about $20 a week on bedding ($5 per bale of pine shavings) because of how wet they got it. Keeping the water inside is how I'm going to get them through winter without having to change frozen water out 6 times a day when it gets really cold, so I really needed to make inside water work without spending $100 a month in bedding.

With the tote contraption, I don't use any more bedding for the ducks than I do for the chickens! It stays that dry. I scoop the obvious poo, stir it with a gravel rake, spread it back out (fluffs it back up after being tamped down by duck feet) and only add fresh when it looks like it needs it. I don't have to shovel out the whole thing hardly at all... I've been using this method now for 3 months and I haven't emptied it out not once.

With controlling the water though, it's gotten really low maintenance.