How to House Ducks in Barn for Winter

[Lupa Duende]

I need advice; the more posts the better for me. I am a dysfunctional housewife who started a small farm animal refuge this June. The animals keep coming, which is odd as we never found chickens found in downtown Montreal, but somehow people find sheep, pigs, goats, ducks....

We just finished building the barn (hurrah) and the chickens have their own corner to roost in with an easy Deep Litter method running smoothely. I have put the ducks in with the goats and pony in one large love-in as one muscovy is brutal to the chickens and my blind female (muscovy) gets picked on by the chickens.

How do I keep the Uber-Stall (where the ducks spend with night with the goats and pony) from being a humid swampy mess this winter?

I leave water buckets out and the pony and goats have learned to drink fast before the ducks muck it up but what about the slippery poos?

I have old hay and some shavings as bedding on top of cement (it was the law here).
What does everyone do? How can we budget for this with time and money?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Amiga]

While my animal numbers and sizes are much smaller than yours, I have found that a watering station of some sort makes all the difference for us.

It can look like just about anything, but it prevents some splash and catches the rest.

So. In the uber-stall, could the goat and horse water be elevated above where the ducks can reach it? Sometimes a larger bucket under a water bucket can catch quite a bit of splash. I use compressed sawdust pellets to absorb water and that makes it much better. The damp pellets can then be used outside on paths at my place.

I keep my ducks in a walkout basement at night. Their watering station is the bottom half of a very large plastic dog crate. It has a doorway, but there is a two or three inch lip they must walk over, and that keeps sawdust in. I place a large straight-sided, flat-bottomed stew pot inside the watering station. They cannot overturn it.

I only need to fluff the bedding with a cultivator once a day, and the little extra dampness just outside the watering station is handled by taking it out in one scoopful. I turn the sawdust in the watering station daily and add sawdust every few days, and replace the damp poopy stuff every several days.

There is no unpleasant aroma in the basement. No extra moisture to worry about.

 

[Going Quackers]

Wood pellet bedding, I'm in Ontario you should be able to get that in Quebec, my horses and my ducks are bedding with a combo of wood pellet bedding and shavings this will save bedding costs and keep the floor cleaner.

I would also get water up for the other animals.... they cannot run out because of ducks playing in it, i keep Muscovy too so i know how big and water hogs they are lol but differing levels will likely be of help.