how much does duck poo smell?!

[TLWR]

I have a job (teacher at a Montessori school) and am away from home for the school day. I have a husband and other animals that need care as well.
I get up in the morning, feed the dogs, let out and feed the ducks, water everything that needs to be watered and then get fresh water for the ducks, hose down their pen around the water dish and then clean out their duck house. Go inside and clean their eggs and put them in the fridge.
I get home and get the dogs outside and get the ducks a snack and hang out with everybody for a bit before getting dinner started. Depending on what is going on, we'll be outside hanging out and the ducks are usually not too far away. Ducks get closed in to their hut at dark.
Repeat the next day.

The bonding and time consuming part of ducks is the early part - cleaning where you are brooding them a couple times a day and spending as much time as possible with them. Once they have grown, they tend to do ducky things and you get to watch them when time permits.
I think my 2 lead a pretty good life even if I'm not spending 90% of the daylight hours with them.

As long as you are realistic and your parents know all that goes with it and are on board, you should be fine. But I'd get ducklings instead of incubate so you have the rest of the summer to tend to ducky things before school starts again. The public schools here start in 5 weeks, so if I were to incubate, they'd be hatching just as school starts again.


The smell - just keep up with it. Clean their duck house.
Many people use a deep liter method. I can't go more than 2-3 days (when it is cool out) before opening the duck house knocks me out lol
I have a bin of leaves in there for them that gets dumped and refreshed every 3 days or so - depends on how much they've pooped in their bin as opposed to elsewhere in their duck house. I pull the bin out, hose the house, put the bin back in. Days the bin needs fresh leaves, I dump the bin into the duck waste pile and hose out the bin and let it dry and add fresh leaves in the evening.

 

[Cuqui18]

Quote:
Ducks need to be able to clear their bills (nostrils) under water many times daily. MANY times. A nipple or cup waterer will not work for ducks. They need to dunk their heads and SWIM.

To the OP- you have posted many threads today wondering how to raise ducks. To be honest, and not mean, it sounds like you need to do some more research. They are messy and require care several times daily. With your school schedule, you may want to hold off a bit. Once you have ducks, there's really no such thing as a vacation. Not many pet-sitters or neighbors can really take care of them well. It also sounds like your mom is not really on board with this plan to get ducks.

If you don't change the water and rake the pen twice a day? You will be hearing from everyone. Ducks are smelly at best, unless you really work at it. And even then, you are in school and athletics, I think you said. Last thing you need is relatively high maintenance pets who live 10 plus years easily.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=534318 In answer to this post, yes, I think you would be in over your head. Sorry, but it's just the realistic view, hold off until you have more time.

thank you for your concern i truly appreciate it. I think i'll be taking your advice as my summer continues to get busier and busier. still love to read up on the forum though

so many wonderful people on here.

 

[Cuqui18]

Although i will add that I am doing my research- what better way to learn than to learn from the owners of ducks themselves??? again thank you for your concern- I am always going for the best interest of the animals and if that means waiting until i graduate college to provide them with the perfect home than i am willing to wait.

 

[1234duck]

My son did kinda the same thing.. I think that he thought he was "Noah's Ark". lmao but not really funny, b/c there's nothing worse than someone having pets & they can't or don't take care of them properly or at all..

the only good thing that came out of my son trying to be Noah's Ark, was that's how I ended up being "Quacked", well that's how I ended up loving ducks so much b/c I kinda took over the full time roll as owner.. As for the smell, it is bad if not cleaned up right away.(Thats if their inside the house as babies for a while when hatched & cold outside) while in the house i ALWAYS cleaned up after them right away, except when i was sleeping of course. I used paper towels to lay down ON TOP of puppy pads(buy pads for humans/pads that go on beds..its cheaper & works gr8). The paper towels i could fold in half, pick it up & drop in a plastic bag then lay another one down as needed. I put an old towel down under the water container/bowl to minimize the water mess mixed with the food. ~When their outside i have hay down/spread all over & EVERYDAY when i give them water i take the hose, with a good spray nozzle & i spray/wash the poop away SUPER GOOD. That totally eliminates the smell and cuts back on flies a lot. Then as needed i rake up old hay & add new or just add more hay, depends on how bad the area/pen is. And its true just like most pets, its a chore to keep up if you wanna do a good job & have a clean area all the time. Not to often at all do i slack on the duck chores & no way can i rely on someone else to do it. lol (I might go a little over board on some things, some times) ~Julie~

 

[1234duck]

That is a great attitude Cuqui18...

you won't regret it b/c after you have your pets weather it be ducks or whatever, you will see just how important they can or will be to you so you'll be glad you took the time to make time for them. I gotta tell you there's nothing like hatching a duck egg or hatching some duck eggs and keeping the result or results (the duckling) Then raising him or her. I hatched and am now raising my ducky, his name is Lucky Ducky & he is now 17 weeks old. Name came from, him "lucky" to be alive b/c my hatch rate wasn't very good, i was gonna stop trying to hatch & put the incubator away when i finally got my 1st successful hatch. One egg which was my Lucky Ducky.. He is so cool. He looks at me when i call him or if he hears my voice. he always would make noises when he heard my voice when he was little & in the house. Even now while outside he comes running to the fence when he hears me. Hes very sweet & friendly to everyone. when I'm outside watering or whatever he just stands there next to me for a long time watching till I'm done follows me every where. I can pick him up & he don't run away or act scared. its a great feeling & hes a great pet.

It's a great experiance hatching & raising ducks and chickens. yes i even hatched and am raising 2 baby chicks, they are the same way.. very sweet and friendly. Good luck with your pet or pets, ~Julie~

 

[Caprice_Acres]

I free range my birds, and naturally brood ducklings whenever possible. When I have to brood ducklings, I do it with a brooder that has a hardware mesh floor, and the wet drops through to a tarp covered in pine shavings, which is cleaned regularly.

I don't think ducks smell any worse than chickens. My yard/pens only smell when we've had lots of rain and the main yard gets churned into mud - but mud always smells when you have animals, lol. Otherwise, when it's dry or when we get normal amounts of rain, it doesn't smell at all. And that's with often over 20 ducks and often over 60 chickens. Of course, the free ranging dilutes the smell because they spread it out over the lawn and other areas - including our back porch.

 

[THunter]

Quote:
That's strange. I raised mallards for years with nothing but a 3-gallon chicken waterer in their pen and was very successful with it. Had many hatchings of ducklings from the mallard hens that they raised to adulthood.

 

[1234duck]

I was just thinking & actually I do have to say that I agree with Kschwartz, that the ducks poop stinking wasn't an issue for me (maybe b/c I always had it pretty much cleaned up) but now thinking back, I couldn't & can't believe How Much they go poop & how Super Messy they are with their food & water.I think they poop more than chickens and are way messier too. ~ I agree with ranchhand about the ducks needing to have their water deep enough for them to be able to submerge their entire bill (thats what I had been told) And I also remember reading some where that ducks dont have to have "swim"water (its not a must). But i couldn't imagine my ducks with no swimming pool, they love to swim "Everyday" when its cold or hot outside. ~Julie~

 

[Hunter0704]

You have probably seen me post this before, but thought maybe a few BYC'ers might have missed it. Hope it helps some of you out there.

In my coop, I use Equine Pellets on the floor. It absorbs water from messy ducks, moisture from poop, and there is absolutely NO SMELL WHATSOEVER. When it gets wet it breaks down into a substance that reminds me of what wet saw dust would look like. It's easy to remove poop since the poop is dry and covered with the pellet dust. At Rural King a bag of Equine Pellets runs me about $5.00 for a 40lb bag. My coop measures 4' x 6'. I use two bags for a month, removing areas that look like wet saw dust, even though it is dry, and poop on a daily basis.

In my run, I have pea gravel which makes that job easy..all I do is use the "Sprinkle" notch on my hose, aim it, and the poop washes away.

 

[RunnerWhisperer]

It stinks real bad if you don't keep it cleaned up!!