Keeping clean tips?

[Isabella Mcadams]

Hey y’all, I’ve got eleven ducks and I have a house for them to sleep in at night that I bed with large flake pine shavings. It gets SO dirty SO fast, so I was wondering if y’all had any tips for keeping things clean. I hate having to wash feces off my eggs the day after I clean their house. I just want relatively clean eggs

 

[CoriM]

My ducks sleeping area is also pine shavings. Each morning I use a large metal dustpan and small rake and just rake through all the shavings and pick up all the wet poopy parts. It's easier to stay on top of it by cleaning every day, and you don't want your girls to sleep in a wet dirty mess. Your eggs will also be clean then.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

How big is the house? I found it more difficult when I had too many ducks for the space.
Personally, I put hay on top of small flake pine. The hay catches the big poop and the pine flakes absorb the liquid. But, I either push day’s poopy hay to the sides of the house or I empty it daily. I use the used hay in the meshed coop part of my setup. So, I am adding new hay daily. About once a month, I remove the shavings and replace them. I also have nest boxes which are large food containers (https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-C...B0006383JG&psc=1&ref_=pd_basp_m_rpt_ba_s_6_sc ) filled with shavings and hay. My eggs are usually clean.
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[BrittKay]

Space is a big factor, but also the deep litter method is AMAZING if you keep food and water OUT of the coop. My ducks have been outside in their pen and coop for 4 1/2 weeks (they are 8 1/2 weeks old) and I have yet to clean my coop. I have 6 ducks in 24sq ft (I may get 2 more ducks and keep this same coop size in a couple of weeks). I go in the coop once a week and mix mix all the bedding up and have had zero issues with smell or a lot of poop in the coop. I started my deep litter method right when I put them outside with one 20lb bag of bedding pellets (people use these in horse stalls a lot), a decent layer of pine shavings, a THIN layer of DE, and a decent layer of straw and 4 1/2 weeks later I have not had to add any layers or clean the coop. The deep litter method is made to only clean the coop once or twice a year, so I'm crossing my fingers!