This is our first experience with ducks, we have chickens already & more in a seperate brooder now, they were in same, but I was nervous it was to wet. First I understand ducks are ducks & like water. The problem I'm having is I change the litter, even if I only put a quart of water in the gallon waterer, I think most of it ends up all over the brooder (stock tank), litter is soaked, etc. I could literally change it 3x a day & I'm by far from a clean freak. We have cows, the chickens, etc. I'm OK with a little mess, smell, etc. Shavings look brand new, but soaking wet. Yesterday I changed the liter mid-morning by 7pm, it was a mess. We have 6 Pekin & 4 Kakhi from TSC. We have had them about two weeks now. At this point I cant wait till it's warmer out, but in upstate NY that still a while off. Any tips ?
I know exactly what you mean. After our first spring with 8 duckling hatched in February in Michigan, I swore I would never get ducks that early in the spring again! They love to dabble in their water and make a mess. We found that putting their waterer over a flat container shaped like a baking pan that is covered with quarter inch mesh hardware cloth helped catch a lot of the water. We bent the mesh to make a little ramp for them to reach the waterer.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/426909/non-spill-duckling-waterer/10 https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/52173/less-mess-duckling-water/10 something like these may help and putting them on something like scratch'n'peck was talking about.
Weather permiting, my pekins are moving out this weekend. The spare bath tub has served them well. I made a wooden frame to support an old cookie rack, and placed it over the open drain. It holds back the pine shavings, and (most) of the splashed water just runs out the drain. I've been filling the tub and letting them swim for a while, after I clean out the daily mess. Then a quick wipe down before adding clean shavings.
I'm not sure what size your ducks are, but a 16 oz yogurt cup works as a great water dish for my adult mini appleyards. They can dip their heads down into it, but can't jump in because it's too tall and narrow. I attach it to the wall of their house with a sturdy tack and they don't tip it over. There's still plenty of water in the morning and just the bedding a few inches around the cup gets a little wet.
Water control. You'll have to try different things until something works for your set up. I had my waterer inside a large cake pan so much of the water splashed into that. If you can make it so they have a large area that is raised up on something to catch the water, you have a better chance of the bedding staying dryer longer.
I used large Rubbermaid container set their gallon waterer over in it and it caught 95% of the water the poop however is a never ending cleaning job.
This is my first season for ducks, too! I went to the feed store to pick up a few things last week and ended up with two pekings! YA! I am running three rubbermade brooders right now, and the one with ducks is ALWAYS wet. At first I blamed the waterer for leaking, but they just love to splash around. I've put my waterer onto a dinner plate with a little depth to it so when they do make a mess I can just go out a few times a day and empty the plate, rather than replacing all the shavings in the bin. The other thing I tried was using a few inches deep of shavings, since only the top was getting wet, I could just take a little bit off the top a few times a day. Though easy, it seemed wasteful. Good luck!
