Need advice.

[rubberduckies]

Update: my ducks are outside and doing great! The first day I had to heard them into the house when the sun was going down but since then they've been putting themselves to bed at sunset. I just close and lock the door for them.

I'm going to have to do something about the nest boxes though. When they are in the house and hear somebody coming (when I let them out in the mornings, peek in the window to check on them, etc) they freak out and trample the decoy eggs. I'm glad I went ahead and put the nest boxes and decoy eggs in the house. Now I'll know what will work and what won't. Maybe I'll build wooden nest boxes with a "roof". Any suggestions?

The pen they have (attached to the front of the house) is very small. I'm building them something a lot bigger but for the moment they're in the small temporary pen. And it's getting messy! Everyday when I clean out the house I scoop up as much poop as I can from the outside part too. (I don't want them just living in poop like that). I really want to spray the ground with a water hose to wash away the poop but I'm afraid if I do they'll just dig holes and make a big mud pit. :/ They've already made a small mud put where their water gets spilled. Any suggestions? The plan was to put the house and enclosure on wheels but we haven't finished that part yet.

 

[duckins]

I have stepping stones in my run in spring/summer/fall I spray poop away each day all water exits threw a trench built right outside run. Some say concrete is bad for their feet but I offer smaller section in back of run with shavings plus concrete keeps nails trimmed. If you spray the ground w/o some sort of ground cover they'll have it a muddy stagnant mess in no time gotta love those little drillers.