My ducks are massive pooping machines...normal?

[chickorama]

Birds poop. There's no stopping them.

 

[starryeyes]

I have ducks and all they do is eat and poop after 5 weeks i had enough and booted them to the yard with a nice little house. I will say this my adults are much better they dont eat as often i can put food out in a tub and all 5 of them are good for a few days . i fill a bowl up for the babies and its gone in 2 mins LOL. All i can say is it does get better when i had them in the house i was changing the bedding 2 xs a day and could have done it every few hrs LOL but limited it to 2 xs a day to keep smell down.

Good luck

 

[AHappychick]

I learned with my first 8 runners that a regular brooder just does not work for them lol I converted a rabbit hutch with 1/4 inch hardwear cloth and use hanging waterers with nipples. they do very well in this set up with no foot injuries and are quiet happy this way, we all are lol

trust me the smell is on its way they can get very stinky too. There are some great duckling ideas on BYC with waterers on cinders and other uniqely designed brooders that work well.

 

[Feathered Wings]

OMG i was in shock when i got my first ones they pooped non stop.
I had to move them to a wire bottom brooder and then the ground was heaped with poop.
Then when they moved to a larger off ground pen they pooped so much it actually stacked up in piles 4 to 5 inches high on the side boards!!!
Finally at 6 weeks put them in a ground pen and now they eat less and poop less!

My 3 new Call Ducks are 1 week old and already on a wire bottom brooder cage.
Even being as tiny as they are they pooped up my brooder tote in 30 minutes or less.

Pooping machines is a under statement

 

[sweetie54]

ok people i have two ducks also and yes they are messy and they poop alot but i have this little kiddy pool in the pen for them to sleep in and i drain it every 3 days but heres the good part!!!!I drain the water/poop into one of my fig trees and this year it has grown massive amouts!!!!! I think the duck poop is great for fertlizer!!!!!!

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
AS I recall from keeping ducks years ago, this is par for the course.
Seems everyone forgot to tell us this part - huh?

 

[Duck Keeper]

Quote:
It /IS/ a wonderful fertilizer, but don't use it on your food plants raw (without composting), because it can spread diseases. Not sure about the effect it would have on a tree's fruit though.

 

[Brickman House]

Duck poop water is AWESOME for fruit trees! Our ducks roam our small orchard, and we have a garden pond in there for them. We drain the pond once a week or so, and pump the soiled water to the orchard. Our trees are doing unbelievably well!

The soiled water will have no effect on the fruit at all, so long as you're not spraying the water directly on the fruit, and then eating it without washing it!

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
I spoke with Delbert Hartmann the other day, the inventor of the "Chicken Mobile."

He said water is a much better way of collecting manure, as it holds the nitrates in suspension. When they are just dropped to the ground, the oxygen in the air causes them to convert ammoniated nitrogen, and as such they evaporate quickly and are lost.
Or something like that.... Delberts pretty smart; like, Buckminster Fuller smart, and I'm, well - I'm not.

But you get the idea. This is why the livestock biz has gone to wet dropping pits. The manure stays in solution and retains all the "goodies", then you only have to pump it out.

 

[vfem]

It is so normal and soooooooooooo nasty, I moved my last pekin duckling out into a small floorless duck house outside under the deck. I couldn't take it anymore!!! OH how they stink and poop. With one duckling left, I was cleaning the brooder 2 times a day and I could smell it on the first floor of the house.

Now outside its GREAT!!! I let her out to walk and roam with us throughout the day, she stays right with us. I fill her up a little tote with water so she can bath. I remove her food, water and shelter from the open bottomed house and I just use the hose to spray it all out!!!!! So quick, so easy and not stinky like inside.

This is going to be my last duck for awhile. No matter how cute and friendly they are... I need fresh air in the house!!!!