- Sep 23, 2014
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I personally wouldn't think about keeping them in the same aviary unless it was incredibly huge. I don't think there's any way around the mud and "stanky water" (tactfully put kkb!) and that sets up conditions for histomaniasis and other infections that are favored by muddy conditions. I dunno how Destin Duck manages it... will be interested to hear.
Time and again, we hear of illness starting when we've had cold rainy weather and our peas are wading and digging in mud...
Free ranging is one thing... then the peas and the ducks and the geese can each choose their own places to wander. I just think in a pen with a pond and a bunch of ducks, it would take rather sophisticated planning of the terrain and the materials for the base and the layout and the plants and shelters and the size and mixture of the bird load... The kind of planning a zoo does. So what kind of drainage, what kind of runoff, how many birds so they won't crowd each other or overly contaminate with poop, biological intervention like pond filters & plants that clean the water, lots of upkeep to make sure things stay in balance, sand that drains the water away, limiting the muddy soils, that sort of thing.
I think the peas would actually enjoy the pond. You would need chicks to be raised by momma peas or they might drown, though? Zaz, how do your momma peas manage the chicks around the water at your place?
Time and again, we hear of illness starting when we've had cold rainy weather and our peas are wading and digging in mud...
Free ranging is one thing... then the peas and the ducks and the geese can each choose their own places to wander. I just think in a pen with a pond and a bunch of ducks, it would take rather sophisticated planning of the terrain and the materials for the base and the layout and the plants and shelters and the size and mixture of the bird load... The kind of planning a zoo does. So what kind of drainage, what kind of runoff, how many birds so they won't crowd each other or overly contaminate with poop, biological intervention like pond filters & plants that clean the water, lots of upkeep to make sure things stay in balance, sand that drains the water away, limiting the muddy soils, that sort of thing.
I think the peas would actually enjoy the pond. You would need chicks to be raised by momma peas or they might drown, though? Zaz, how do your momma peas manage the chicks around the water at your place?
