Building the run for my duckies. is regular chicken wire ok or do they need the 1/2" hardware cloth? is a regular chicken waterer/feeder ok for my ducks too? do i need to put pine shavings or anything in the run area for my ducks or just leave the grass/dirt? they seem to be much filthier than my chickens so far...
I would personally use the galvanized hardware wire for your run, b/c it's much stronger than the chicken wire and raccoons can't fit their hands through it either. I'd just leave the run natural and let the ducks graze on it. Just let them enjoy it while it is there, b/c it won't last long. My chickens had my run stripped in under a month. I only have a solid roof on half of my chicken run, so I like to throw down pine shavings if we've had a ton of rain in the muddy spots, since they ate anything green a long time ago. I think it would be ok to use a chicken feeder and water, but maybe when they are older provide a water source deep enough so they can dip their heads in it. I hope this helps!
if you cant find something that they can dip their whole bill in, grab an empty gallon milk jug and cut scuppers in the sides... make them bigger than their heads, smaller than their shoulders and take the top off the water jug. then fillerup. I would make it so the bottoms of the scuppers are about 3 inches up though... that way they have enough depth to dip their whole bill. Not an authority on it by any means here, but everyone I have talked to on the subject thus far said that a duck needs to be able to dip its whole bill, and I have noticed that if my ducks water dish gets low over night they have a tone of dust and such in their little nostrils in the morning... first thing they do is beeline to the out door dish and stick their heads under. Hope this helps, and if you need any other ideas for cheap ways to get it done, gimme a shout.
