Recently with the addition of 10 ducklings, I built a whole new brooder with a wire bottom and I put towels down on half of it, and plastic tub under the other half where the water is. I think 10 ducks poop 4 times as much as 5 ducks... there's no way that mess is only twice as much.
However you control the water, so long as you do it, will help out. I was placing the waterer in the flat base part of a paint roller tray, and using towels as bedding. That worked really well for 5 of them. I used that handy shelf liner mentioned above to cover the slick ramp of the paint tray.
The best, by far, is building a platform with a pan below it, and wire on top to set the waterer on. The mess water is caught out of their reach, and they can't resift it, sit in it, play in it... much better. I have a big version outside for my grown ducks sized to fit 2 gallon.
You will be battling the water their whole lives unless you free range them and have a lot of room where the created mud pits aren't really visible. Mine are in their run more often than not, so we went so far as to lay 5 inches of pea gravel down into their run. The chickens sneak in when they can when I'm cleaning, they swear the ducks have better feed. They turn gravel for me, I rake it back into place, and hose it off. Easy.
With the platform built for the food/water inside, I have worse trouble with rain water flying in through the pop door than with ducks ruining their fresh bedding.
I don't use pine shavings at all for babies anymore. Not even the chickens. And when you look at a towel from the chickens and the towel from the ducks... makes you wonder just how fast ducks can digest their food! I rinse mine in a utility sink and send the bulk of it down the drown. Duck poo is REALLY water soluble. Then I wash them in the washer and dry like regular laundry.
On a daily basis, from ALL of my grown animals, 6 chickens, 5 ducks, and 2 litter box trained rabbits, I empty just shy of a 5 gallon bucket worth of pine shavings/poo. Before the watering station, I needed a wheel barrow. A week's supply of bedding now lasts me a whole month.
However you control the water, so long as you do it, will help out. I was placing the waterer in the flat base part of a paint roller tray, and using towels as bedding. That worked really well for 5 of them. I used that handy shelf liner mentioned above to cover the slick ramp of the paint tray.
The best, by far, is building a platform with a pan below it, and wire on top to set the waterer on. The mess water is caught out of their reach, and they can't resift it, sit in it, play in it... much better. I have a big version outside for my grown ducks sized to fit 2 gallon.
You will be battling the water their whole lives unless you free range them and have a lot of room where the created mud pits aren't really visible. Mine are in their run more often than not, so we went so far as to lay 5 inches of pea gravel down into their run. The chickens sneak in when they can when I'm cleaning, they swear the ducks have better feed. They turn gravel for me, I rake it back into place, and hose it off. Easy.
With the platform built for the food/water inside, I have worse trouble with rain water flying in through the pop door than with ducks ruining their fresh bedding.
I don't use pine shavings at all for babies anymore. Not even the chickens. And when you look at a towel from the chickens and the towel from the ducks... makes you wonder just how fast ducks can digest their food! I rinse mine in a utility sink and send the bulk of it down the drown. Duck poo is REALLY water soluble. Then I wash them in the washer and dry like regular laundry.
On a daily basis, from ALL of my grown animals, 6 chickens, 5 ducks, and 2 litter box trained rabbits, I empty just shy of a 5 gallon bucket worth of pine shavings/poo. Before the watering station, I needed a wheel barrow. A week's supply of bedding now lasts me a whole month.
