New to ducks and I'm over them.

[lilmizscareall]

Well, I'm NOT over them, but I really hate the brooding stage. (gotcha, sorry!)
I have two runner ducks, about 4 weeks old, and they are set up in an old storage tote, but they are quickly out growing it. Right now their drinking water is an old sour cream tub. They eat from a small ceramic bowl. I'm looking for another grow out option that I can use until they are feathered out. They are turning into quite a swampy mess. I clean out their area everyday, refill their water about a gazillion times and they get bath tub time, almost everyday sometimes twice a day. It's like they've turned into miniature smelly teenagers and I just want them out of my house and off to college!
It's the smell more than anything...
I have day old chicks coming this weekend and I'm hoping to not be totally overwhelmed, here. I like them in the house, because I feel more apt to spend time with them and keep them clean. We are still having freezing temps, so I think putting them out or in the garage is not an option. I just cleaned my basement up after the chicken/snowpocalypse of 2014.
Do I just need to have a reality check and told that "Hey, you wanted this, now deal with it a little bit longer!" ??? Do you duck-gurus have a better set up suggestion? Feeder ideas?
Thanks for listening-that crazy fowlhoarder,
Annie

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well, I'm NOT over them, but I really hate the brooding stage. (gotcha, sorry!)
I have two runner ducks, about 4 weeks old, and they are set up in an old storage tote, but they are quickly out growing it. Right now their drinking water is an old sour cream tub. They eat from a small ceramic bowl. I'm looking for another grow out option that I can use until they are feathered out. They are turning into quite a swampy mess. I clean out their area everyday, refill their water about a gazillion times and they get bath tub time, almost everyday sometimes twice a day. It's like they've turned into miniature smelly teenagers and I just want them out of my house and off to college!
It's the smell more than anything...
I have day old chicks coming this weekend and I'm hoping to not be totally overwhelmed, here. I like them in the house, because I feel more apt to spend time with them and keep them clean. We are still having freezing temps, so I think putting them out or in the garage is not an option. I just cleaned my basement up after the chicken/snowpocalypse of 2014.
Do I just need to have a reality check and told that "Hey, you wanted this, now deal with it a little bit longer!" ??? Do you duck-gurus have a better set up suggestion? Feeder ideas?
Thanks for listening-that crazy fowlhoarder,
Annie

The scour cream bowl did you make a cut out in the lid for their heads so they could dunk but not splash the water out? ducklings grow so fast you need to be prepared to give them as much space as you can to help keep the mess from getting over
whelming,
Here is a link with a few brooders on it I'll see if I can find more. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/650197/show-your-duckling-brooder
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/duckling-care-brooder-ideas

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Yeah ... I need more laying ducks, but I SO don't feel like doing ducky mommy again.

I used towels for bedding last time. I washed SO many towels. SO many. Oh so many ...

 

[lilmizscareall]

Yeah ... I need more laying ducks, but I SO don't feel like doing ducky mommy again.

I used towels for bedding last time. I washed SO many towels. SO many. Oh so many ...

Omg, that sounds awful. I'm a hairstylist, so I wash a lot of towels already. I hate doing towels...

The scour cream bowl did you make a cut out  in the lid for their heads so they could dunk but not splash the water out? ducklings grow so fast you need to be prepared to give them as much space as you can to help keep the mess from getting over
whelming, 
Here is a link with a few brooders on it I'll see if I can find more. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/650197/show-your-duckling-brooder
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/duckling-care-brooder-ideas

Oh yes, thank you for the links! I'm doing research on so many different things right now, my head is spinning. The tub does have the hole, but now they are knocking the lid off. I'm thinking about up sizing the tub and using a food safe glue to keep the lid in place.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Omg, that sounds awful. I'm a hairstylist, so I wash a lot of towels already. I hate doing towels...
Oh yes, thank you for the links! I'm doing research on so many different things right now, my head is spinning. The tub does have the hole, but now they are knocking the lid off. I'm thinking about up sizing the tub and using a food safe glue to keep the lid in place.

I had to do that I just kept going up in size of bowl even using the cheaper plastic bowl you can buy at the grocery store because they were flatter which kept them from tipping them over.

 

[Going Quackers]

Sadly, no easy answers brooding ducks is not the easiest.. they are sloppy, love to soak the place and you feel like you'll loose it trying to keep it neat. The last go round i had a dog crate for the calls and made a HUGE brooder for my buffs and Muscovy out of the bottom of a wooden crate.... and yes, all in my house lol

I am not brooding any ducks this year, it's way easier to do so in an outbuilding and by their own mum. Unfortunately, most of these ducks didn't have one and the 2 that did prematurely hatched so i got stuck.

I have heard of people using troughs, kiddy pools etc.. brooding chicks is a cake walk compared to ducks lol those i'd gladly do again(& i am lol)

 

[lilmizscareall]

Ok, so I'm doing good on the brooder home front, but now that they are starting to feather out my bathtub is getting filthy! It wouldn't be a big deal, but it's one of those whirlypool tubs aaaaaand it doesn't work. I have a special spray hose I spray into the air nozzles to clean it, but everytime I fill the tub I find more gunk and feathers. Last night my two year old was telling me there were spiders in her bath water! Lol!
LONG story short.... Do you indoor duck keepers use anything else for indoor bathtime or just your bathtubs? I might have to just go out and buy yet another Rubbermaid container for their baths...

 

[Amiga]

We had fifteen littles in the tub twice a day for two weeks, then eleven littles for, oh, several weeks after that (I was standing in for someone else and she picked up her four littles after two weeks). I love Bon Ami.

Have you seen these?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641902/created-a-water-saver-for-my-duck-brooder

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/679433/water-water-everywhere/10


This is my adult watering station, serves a dozen ducks. For ducklings, I would replace the open pot (dangerous for littles) with a large (one gallon or larger) gravity waterer, and set a head washer in there, too.

 

[lilmizscareall]

We had fifteen littles in the tub twice a day for two weeks, then eleven littles for, oh, several weeks after that (I was standing in for someone else and she picked up her four littles after two weeks). I love Bon Ami. Have you seen these? https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641902/created-a-water-saver-for-my-duck-brooder https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/679433/water-water-everywhere/10 This is my adult watering station, serves a dozen ducks. For ducklings, I would replace the open pot (dangerous for littles) with a large (one gallon or larger) gravity waterer, and set a head washer in there, too.

Bon ami the cleanser??? I'll have to try it! It's really getting all the hidden gunk out of the broken whirly jets. I'm thinking I'm going to have to switch them into a plastic tub for swim time, but that means ill have to be able to lift it to dump the water to clean it. Ok, only 22 days until spring! Hhow many more weeks until fully feathered, 5ish...

 

[Amiga]

Right. I lost track that it's a tub with jets. There's a wiki that recommends using Cascade - it is said to have enzymatic action that loosens gunk.