Messy ducks help/tips

[Blaine7890]

Hello! This is my first year owning ducks and they are messy! They make all the wood chips by the watering bowl soaking wet! As I live in Minnesota that cant happen in our cold winters and they can't be getting there feet or the chickens feet wet so I need a good system were the 2 ducks can not make a mess but the chickens dont have to struggle getting any... please help

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You might want to separate out the ducks, especially in winter. Your chickens can be more susceptible to frostbite on their toes and legs with ducks making a mess. You really can't make a duck not be messy. It's the nature of animal.

 

[Alaskan]

Hello! This is my first year owning ducks and they are messy! They make all the wood chips by the watering bowl soaking wet! As I live in Minnesota that cant happen in our cold winters and they can't be getting there feet or the chickens feet wet so I need a good system were the 2 ducks can not make a mess but the chickens dont have to struggle getting any... please help

I have done 2 different things with my ducks... and though yes, I prefer my ducks housed separately... in the winter everyone lives together.

I put the water pan up on a pallet. That way the hope is most of the water mess will go below the pallet through the slats. However, when it gets real cold, the second the water is splashed out of the pan by the ducks it turns to ice, and soon the pallet top is solid ice... nothing is draining..

Before it gets that bad... i switch them to an old cooking pot that I own. It is deep, but tall/narrow, so the ducks can dunk their heads but can NOT actually bathe in the water. The pot is firmly wedged so no one can dump it.

Whenever there is a slight warm up (like in the 20F range), I will bring out a small pool (actually, a kid's snow sled) and fill it for the ducks.