Soooo messy!!!

[RileyB]

I have three ducks (2 runners, 1 rouen) and 11 chickens. The chickens and ducks are still a little young to free range, so right now they live in their coop and run. All of the food and water is in the run. The problem I'm having is the HUGE mess the three ducks make. I've tried hanging waterers, waterers sitting right on the floor, waterers that fit inside another watering pan so the water the ducks spill goes into the excess pan, and finally, a giant rubber pan that the waterer and extra pan sit in (so now I have two spill trays). Nothing works...each morning I go in and the ducks have dumped out the water, splashed it all around, etc. The area is always soaked. Unfortunately I can't keep having chickens in a wet area.

For those of you who have kept ducks and chickens together, have you found anything that works? I feel like I've tried (and bought) so many different things and nothing's working. I really want to be able to keep my ducks, but I worry if I don't solve the water problem for the chickens that the ducks will need to go. :-(

 

[Going Quackers]

I know people do house chickens and ducks together but honestly(and i have both) i don't know how they do it... i keep mine separate no way with the amount and mess with water could the ducks be kept with my chickens... i don't even have them outside near one another lol

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Can I ask a silly question: Why can't chickens be around the mess? We have two ducks and they are a bit messy, but I put their food and water up at night and then return it in the morning, which eliminates a lot of mess and we plan on getting some chickens this coming spring so I am curious about this topic.

 

[RileyB]

Well everything I've read (at least in terms of chicks) says bedding needs to be dry to avoid respiratory diseases. Cocchidossis (sp??) seems to ring a bell when it comes to wet bedding. If this isn't an issue for adult birds I'd love to know so I'm not stressing about it so much.

I was only supposed to get chickens, but one chick was constantly being pecked by the others. I put her by herself and got 1 rouen to keep her company. They became inseparable. Then when they were old enough to go into the coop/run I bought two more ducks so the rouen wouldn't be the only duck. The three ducks and one chicken (that was originally with the rouen) follow one another 24/7. The ducks and the chickens all get along great. I would hate to have to get rid of the 3 ducks because of the wetness issue. I really want to be able to keep them in with the chickens.

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Oh I understand now about the bedding. I also understand about the bond among all them. Hopefully someone will suggest something you can work with. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

 

[kristen2678]

The trick is finding something they can drink out of but can't get into. I had just runners. A tall-ish bucket in a pan to catch drips worked really well. There was still some clean up to do but nothing crazy. Someone dumped a mallard at our place. Since they have access to food 24/7 right now I've started to add a short container for him. My mess is back.

I've read you can remove food and water overnight. I might try this when they are older.

 

[crissycriss]

I keep my chicken and ducks together.My chicksare 18wks and my ducks are 14 wks.I have a 16x16' coop.Out of that i had a8x8' area fenced off for the ducks.My DH kept sand down for the ducks i kept pine shavings down in the chicks part.Every few days we would have to put new sand down.When the ducks got old enough i let them out in their run and removed all water out of the coop and put into the run.That was a life saver.Now my ducks and chickens share the run and the coop with no problems.

 

[tbitt]

Ducks will make a mess with the smallest amount of water.

I house my ducks and chickens in the same house....BUT there is never any food or water inside the coop.

All food and water is OUTSIDE, the ducks and their mess demands it!


But here is somethig I stole from someone else.

I place the water on a screen, that has a bucket below it so that all the slop goes into the bucket and NOT on the bedding.