Important Question! Please!

[Chicken0Boy]

How many nesting boxes do I need for 4-5 hens (ducks)? Also how much space do they need inside thier pen? 4x5 enough I really dont want to clean it alot. Maybe once a month or so. Also Is 10x6 big enough for them in an avairy pen with a 5x5 pond in it? The pen would give em'35 sqr. feet for plain ground and some foliage and the pond would give am' 25 sqr. feet. Any suggestions would be awesome! And always pics would be great to show me anything about thier pen and avairy!

Oh, and do you know of anybody that sells sexed Mandarins or Wood ducks?

 

[Chicken0Boy]

Anyone?....bump

 

[Chicken0Boy]

Nobody?

 

[Wifezilla]

Ducks don't necessarily use a nest box. Mine tend to lay all over the place. They were laying in their doghouse for a while, but I have a broody in there now.

 

[Chicken0Boy]

So I could build a big avairy and just put a big doghouse in it? Would that be enough for 4 hens and a 1 drake? What do they do at night? How would I collect eggs from the dog house our would they lay them all over the avairy? and if you could answer my other questions at the top. Please!

 

[4-H chicken mom]

I just used a couple of old large plastic flower pot and cut a U-shape out of the side and turned it upside down, and put it in their inside pen and they lay their eggs in it.

 

[Amiga]

Hi, Chicken0Boy,

Didn't mean to leave you hanging! I was (surprise, surprise) out most of the day with the garden and duck-related chores

I can tell you what I found in Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks (if you can find a copy, I recommend getting one).

For a shelter, minimum 3 square feet per duck for medium sized breeds. I am going with that even for my runners.

For a run, minimum 10 sf per duck if they also have access to pasture or forage areas. 25 sf if they will be confined to that area.

The size of the pool sounds fine.

How often you clean the shelter will depend on many things. The weather, if you allow them to have water and feed in the shelter, the type of bedding, and what you mean by clean. Daily attention to bedding will help avoid all kinds of problems. There can be mold, ammonia, and probably other problems if things aren't managed well.

Some people have wire mesh bottoms in shelters - I don't because I want to use the deep litter method in winter to help keep them warm.

Also, it can be rough on their feet, I think, and you increase the risk of foot injury unless you use a more expensive, coated wire (which I would do if I were attached to the idea of a wire floor).

Do a search and take a look at WadeMD and Scott's setups for some ideas.

I have a 4' x 8', 4' high plywood shelter, double walled with perlite and vermiculite for insulation (New England). The roof slopes, is covered with sun-tuf to allow light in. The house is shaded by a large tree. There is a 4' x 8' night pen attached, with concrete blocks around the perimeter and hardware cloth on all sides. The duck yard is currently about 12' x 20', with two 2' x 4' concrete mixing pans for swimming and bathing, and a 5 gallon steel bowl for drinking water.

I am still deciding on the material for the duck yard floor. Leaving it just soil is not going to work long term - it will develop mud holes. So I need to get pea gravel under the pans and some kind of substrate - I am thinking organic matter that can be added to compost after a while - to the rest of the yard. It is well drained, with a sandy loam soil. I have netting across the top. Right now I am just using poultry fencing, but when I finalize the dimensions and exact location it will be coated woven wire fence.

Hope that helps!

 

[Chicken0Boy]

Thanks so much Amiga! Do you have any pictures of you pen and avairy? Oh, and what do I put duck feed&water in? Do they sell duck feed at tractor suppy? I heard somewhere you can use layer pellets to feed em')!Thanks!

 

[vlapinta]

Make sure what you feed has Niacin in it,or you need to supply the ducklings Niacin. (As per Storey's guide) I couldn't find duck food in my area. I started out with game bird feed because it did contain Niacin, but the protein was 27% so I added oats to the feed. After two weeks I added more oats to bring my protein level in the feed down to around 15-16%. I also supply greens every day.

Amiga you mentioned the deep litter method. I am also interested in trying this during the winter in my new pen. I am trying to figure out how I can accomlish this with messy ducks! My thought is not to offer the water in the shelter area but to put it in the pen area, to help keep it dry. I bought food grade DE to add to the litter. Do you have any ideas on how you are going to do it?

Vicki

 

[Amiga]

Vicki,

Pretty much as you describe. The water will be in the night pen, on sand bedding over hardware cloth (wire). No water in the house!

Then I plan to fluff, perhaps add some DE, and fresh bedding on top. Fluffing helps keep air in the bedding, and should reduce the production of ammonia (big problem, that gas). I will be experimenting with some different bedding. There is a thread in the chicken forum about the deep litter method, DLM. Some very experienced hands contribute to that - you may want to take a look.

One logistical component for me with DLM will be the ramp between the house and outdoors. Toward the end of winter, the litter will be, well, deep. I don't want ducks yelling kowabunga and having to leap down onto the ramp a foot or two below!

I will figure it out - there are a few options.

Chicken0Boy, glad I could help a little. I need to get some pics posted - I am about 90% done with the outdoor setup. With planting season and so forth, well, you probably know how things can pile up sometimes.

Anyway, I will work on the pics, and I have a couple of large (I mean, large) stainless steel mixing bowls for outside. I put a weight (read rock or jar filled with water and sealed tightly) in the bowl, then add food. The other holds water. The water is heavy enough that they don't easily tip it over. Those are outside, where spillage doesn't matter.

The birds aren't spending time in their house yet - temperatures and incomplete predator-proofing. But we are close, I think.

In the brooder, by the way, I use a three gallon plastic poultry waterer. That way I don't worry about metals leaching into the water (yes there is a debate, from what I have read, I think the risk is too high).

The waterer that is in the brooder sits in a three gallon short-sided rubber bucket on top of empty cleaned cat food cans. That catches most of the splash. And at eight weeks, they don't need water overnight (max 10 hours, usually 6 - 8).

I don't know about TSC. They are not close to me, so I go to a couple of local feed stores. I am using Nutrena grower/maintenance ration - they are sleek and seem quite healthy. I also feed greens, and a few peas for treats.

Layer pellets are best from about a month before they start laying to the end of laying season. Since I want natural rhythms (and a lower electric bill), I don't plan on keeping my flock on 14 hour light for production. So when they are laying, I plan to use a laying ration, but when not, I will switch back over to maintenance.

As you probably know, laying ration has much more calcium (ducks need close to 3% calcium while laying, per Storey's Guide) than non-laying ducks need. Extra calcium is hard on their internal organs. Non-layers need only a little less than 1%. I am considering whether to supplement maintenance ration with (don't faint) crush cat kibble and oyster shell just before and throughout laying season. Those ideas came from Storey's, by the way.