keeping watering area in coop dryer

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

I have ducks, first off, and they go inside their coop at night where they eat dinner and have access to water. I am encountering a stinky problem with the area under the waterer staying too moist and the spilled food making horrid odors (they take a mouthful of food and spill it all the way across the floor until they get to the waterer so they can filter out the good stuff I guess). The floor is made of wood slats but the food often doesn't run out like the water does and stays damp.

I was thinking of putting sand down there, but anticipating the sand just retaining as much moisture as the food does and leaving me with more of a mess made me want to ask on here first...

I also thought of cutting the floor out in that section and putting down hardware cloth under the waterer, I just worry about the hardware cloth catching too much bedding between coop cleanings and the dang neighborhood birds showing up getting free meals from under the coop (which is about a foot off the ground)

you can check out the setup on my byc page for specifics. suggestions anyone?

 

[DazeGoneBy]

See post #15 here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=534703&p=2

Where the smart people put their water dispenser on a grated surface.

 

[efudge94]

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM! But im only 15 and my dad doesnt see what the big deal is so im trying to come up with solutions on my own. My ducks would literally carry mouthfulls of food to the plastic waterers and get them clogged up, so now I have to waterers and a small baby pool in the coop because I have chickens and ducks. Bad thing is that the chickens dirty the water up so fast I have to clean the pool out everyday, and that is NO easy task, let me tell ya! Haha but at least they can swim whenever they want to.