how wide of a run for runners? what type of ground?

[klf73]

I am putting my duck pen behind my garden, a bit elevated so I can drain the water to my garden. I was also going to put a run for them around my garden so they can police the bugs, but how wide? is 3ft wide enough for 7 runners? The garden(raised bed) is going to be at least 30 x 30... also, what is the best thing to put on the ground for them to walk on? Their pen is going to have sand, pea gravel and grass but I wasn't sure what would be best for the run around the garden? thanks for the help

 

[Senna95]

If your run is 3 feet wide, and your garden is 30 x 30, then they'll have .......... 30 x 3 x 4 + (4 x 3 x 3) = .............. 396 square feet of space. That's plenty for 7 runners. You can also let them into the garden for short periods of time, especially since you have raised beds. A few of mine live in the garden permenantly, and never touch the plants in the raised beds (though they did eat ALL of my blueberries

) And just plain grass would be great for them to walk on. It's good for their feet, gives them something to chew on and entertain themselves with, and provides some extra nutrition.

Just be sure that you have a covered area to lock them into when it rains. Everything will be peachy-keen till it rains and they turn everything into a mud pit unless you can keep them off of it.