nasty ducks

[Birdcrazy]

I think it matters on personality and how friendly the duck is.. but my ducks are beautiful, so very sweet and cuddley!! I love my ducks!!

 

[Amiga]

I have ten runners. Their house is 4'x8', with an attached porch that is also 4'x8'. Their house is clean enough that I would sleep in it (on a blanket, of course!) . I keep it that way. I need to spend fifteen minutes a day, max, on the house. It smells mildlly of earth, not poop.

They have a 10'x16' day pen. There is some poop in the pen. It mixes in with sawdust, leaves, and straw. It only has an unpleasant smell if you stand next to where a duck just made a deposit. The sawdust, leaves and straw help break down the poop. Every couple of weeks (once a week in summer) I pull out some of the mixture and put it on the garden or compost pile.

Water and food are kept out of the house. I fluff the bedding every day or two, and in cold weather have over a foot of shavings and a layer of straw on top. I change out the straw about every three days (it gets damp with poop and I want them to have dry bedding).

They swim in a concrete mixing pan. I change the water once a day or two. Oak leaves and pea gravel keep the area drained and stink-free. The enriched water flows into the grape arbor, fertilizing and watering the grapes.

I put a tarp over their straw-covered resting place on rainy days to prevent wet straw mold. I generally lay down some fresh straw once or twice a week and let it build up. I fluff it a bit with a rake before adding straw. Worms and bugs come into that, and give the ducks some fun and free food.

So, to manage aromas (there is a little bit sometimes, especially in hot weather), you will need access to fresh water, dry straw, sawdust, dry leaves or similar bedding, and enough time to pull out the old and replace it with fresh. A place to compost the used bedding will provide you with an excellent mulch and fertilizer, after a few months.

My ducks are precious, friendly, cheerful, egg-laying, fertilizer making, pest eating treasures!

 

[sandcat]

my ducks are completley freerange but they must love us enough to stay close to the house(must be all the food!!) They are messy and some of the poops left behind defy belief ha ha cant believe it came out of a sweet ducky.