Ideas to help clean and reduce smell of duck area?

[furbabymum]

Post it on Craigslist if you can't find anyone to use it for mulch. It really has done wonders for my bushes and plants so it's amazing mulch! Also, I have a stall cleaning fork I use to pick the hay up and it's super easy!

 

[kwinnypoo]

Unfortunately, I live in a very small town, and craigslist is obsolete here... I do have other posting venues though (FB groups, etc.) ... I will muck it into a pile until I can find someone to come get it...

I've been looking for a pitchfork type thing as well, but again, live on a small island in Alaska, and they're not exactly livestock oriented here, LOL ...

Hope to locate some hay or straw etc soon!

 

[ChickInDelight]

I have sand on natural ground. I don't have to do much here in VA. The sand hardens with duck matter. When it smells in the summer, I sweep /rake. Every month, I lime and add more sand.

Only in the winter do I have hay or straw. I go thru 1 or 2 bales per winter. Winter is easy. The dog days of summer are when I sometimes find smell and flies.

 

[Missy60]

Oh, it rains incessantly... I've been to FL, you haven't seen rain until you've lived here, hahaha... I'm afraid straw and hay just soaks and rots... I like your stone/cement flooring... That would be easy to hose off and clean.... I may have to ask the humane society if they're willing to help go in on costs for that...!  For now, I'll try the straw option, and turn it daily, see what happens...


As far as disposing of soiled bed, has anyone burned the soiled hay... Does it smoke much? LOL

I actually have burned the hay and omg it really stinks. Straw doesn't smell as bad burning though. I usually get straw but someone made a mistake and gave me hay. I always put the bale in a really big bag to haul in my car so I didn't notice.

 

[Kim95037]

I was having issues like that with my chickens. What I started doing that helps tremedously is putting pine shavings down in the run as well as the coop. It absorbs the moisture out of the poo and I dont have a big gooey stinky mess. Thankfully pine shavings are cheap, at least here, but that seemed to help a lot.

 

[kwinnypoo]

I thought about pine shavings, but that'd be a lot of raking, the larger tendrils of straw might be easier... I'm definately looking forward to trying it...

Thanks for the advice on burning, YIKES. I may have to though, LOL

 

[SJUDD]

I only have 4 ducklings so not sure if this will help you, but I put down some DTE and then put pine shavings on top of it. Once a week, I rake it up into a bag and re apply. I haven't noticed much of a smell at this point but I also have chickens at my other bedroom window so probably I am just used to the smell. What a wonderful thing you are doing for these poor ducks. I wish you the best!

 

[kwinnypoo]

The great news is that these ducks will not be returned to the hands of their abuser, and are now up for adoption.

I will only be keeping 2-4 of them, and allowing the others to find new homes!

Thank goodness this is over, and the 2-4 that I keep can be free ranged, reducing the issue!

 

[Missy60]

I thought about pine shavings, but that'd be a lot of raking, the larger tendrils of straw might be easier... I'm definately looking forward to trying it...


Thanks for the advice on burning, YIKES.  I may have to though, LOL

I actually burned some later from the same bale and it wasn't as green looking and it didn't smell as bad so you might be ok. I used straw in my pen at first and it was way more mess. It was back breaking for me. I had to change the whole thing out more often because of the smell. I actually use pine flakes, I don't do the deep litter thing. I spread out just enough to cover the bottom of the pen. I have a little shovel dust pan poop scooper that I get the big stuff out with. I only rake the parts that get damp to turn it a little so it will dry out. Sometimes if we have had a lot of rain I might sprinkle some dry over the damp parts before I put the ducks up at night. With the flakes I never replace over a shovel full at a time.

If yours is enclosed with a top then hay is not as much work, because when I finally got the enclosed coop built I had all that hay left so I put it in there. It took my ducks a while to even go back in there, but they do now. They only go in there to sleep with no food or water in that part so it don't get messy. When I used the straw around the food and water I was starting to get a fly problem, but that's solved now. My ducks home is basically fly free, if I could get rid of those tiny ants everything would be great. I have been sprinkling DE in there and sprayed the wall of the coop in the morning with hotshot(I know but a friend uses the one in the blue bottle with his chickens) two times. I might have them under control I think. Ok I have really rattled on hopefully something will be helpful.

 

[beccaWA]

I'm having the same problem with stinky duck pen. I know the pen is too small for 6 ducks, but I need to tame them down a bit before I let them out to free range. Now they freak out and try to force themselves through wire fencing, etc. when I get too close (they're about 3 months old, and khakis - known for being nervous). How about Zeolite? I know they use this (it's a natural mineral type product) for horse stalls. It actually binds with ammonia, I think, and the stalls stay really clean smelling. I think I might try that from the feed store. I think I just answered my own question. LOL Has anyone tried Zeolite bedding?