Holy Criminy the mess!!!

[Mom 2em All]

When I just had Quackers and Jax in the brooder in the kitchen I thought they were slobs. Messy, poopy, made me nuts trying to keep it clean and dry...heh heh heh...
Now that there are FOUR in there, I didnt have a clue.

I am simply amazed at how much ducklings can poop and slosh water. I need a DUCKLING Brooder SHAM-WOW~~~no, a stack of them.

 

[conroy]

I have 7 ducklings...and I was not prepared either...lucky they are sooo darn cute <3 I stopped using bedding and use old towels instead... easier to clean up

 

[duckyfromoz]

I have three ducklings in my lounge room, four beside my bed and 6 eggs starting to hatch..Its heading into winter over hear...So they will all be in the house for quite a while... I use huge cardboard boxes ( 35 inches each side ) ... clean the bedding a few times each and then throw the whole box away - I get the boxes at work so have a steady supply of them.


Oh... I also have 9 eggs at day 8 of incubation ...and also another 7 I put in today... I guess I will be putting up with messy brooders all winter long....

 

[henloverinmaine]

No kidding on the mess!

We hatched 3 Pekins last week and had NO idea they would be so messy. We keep them in an old 20 gallon fish tank and use newspapers as bedding. (I do lay out paper towels so they have better footing) We have to change them 3-4 times a day. Luckily we have an ample supply of newspapers. We also put a shim under one end of the tank so most of the water stays at the other end and placed a rack at the other end so it keeps the up off the bottom and hopefully drier. Seems to be working......for now.

 

[froggie71]

We've had up to 16 ducklings in a brooder at 1 time. Definitely understand the mess. We recently put 4 ducklings out side at 4 and 6 weeks of age because I couldn't take it any more. Of course just after that we picked up 2 muscovy ducklings. (not by my choice). What I'm amazed at is they are much less messy than any other ducklings we've had.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I couldn't imagine having ducklings in a brooder. My hen hatched out 6 and the babies have been on the ground in the yard from day 1. Thank god! lol

 

[smith2]

I had ducks and when I tried to explain to people about the mess they really just didn't get it until they got ducks. They have got to be one of the messiest birds around. I think it is because they want to play in that water all the time, and they have such fun doing it! They were just too messy for us. I found them a new home with a friend that has a pond.

 

[AHappychick]

nipple watereres is the only way to brood ducks imo I also do it on nice rubberized mesh floor, does not hurt their feet and so much cleaner. This year though I got even smarter and did not incubate any duck eggs, inbstead I have 2 broodies hard at work. Now all I have to do is sit back and watch.

 

[chickboss]

Ohhhh Yessss! They are so messy! Brooder# 1 has 16, 4 week olds, Brooder # 2 has 18, 1 week old Bantams, Brooder # 3 has 7, 1 week old Runners. So that's 41? Oh man.., I purposely don't add them up. LOL! 4 week olds are graduating to the great outdoors soon!

AHappychick~ Rubberized mesh floor?

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I was so glad when mine were old enough to move out to the coop!

I started them in a plastic tub and after 2 weeks had had enough of the 3 times a day changing so I put them on wire but still they were so messy even with controlled water containers.

Once it was warm enough they have moved out to the coop and now all my worries are on keeping them from digging up all the grass where the water over flows the pool and water containers. but I can handle that soooo much better.

I think 15 ducks is enough for me but I will probably get some Muscovy this summer. How crazy am I?