Tips for run

[Mandee297]

Hi I have three cayugas who shockingly (jk) make a mess of their run. This is my first go with ducks. I love them! What fun animals they are. My tactic to try and combat the mess is to deep litter the run with straw and hay and do a deep clean to compost seasonally. Is this a good route to go? Any tricks or secrets (not tooooo expensive)

 

[416bigbore]

Your Run looks great, what's wrong with it? Ours is a Nasty Muddy Mess from one end too the other. You asked a very popular question, what may work for one person really good don't work too well for another. Each condition is different and it seems to be an on going issue, limited space and over population don't help either.

If a person uses a material that is to sharp and or hard for their soft feet, then you start having issues with Bumblefoot and that's no fun to treat. A deep litter of straw and hay is fine for a little while as long as you can keep it dry. When it gets wet it's like a sponge and now you really have a big nasty smelly mess to work with.

I wish I knew of a secret method or trick to help but I don't, sorry. Best of luck.

 

[Mandee297]

Your Run looks great, what's wrong with it? Ours is a Nasty Muddy Mess from one end too the other. You asked a very popular question, what may work for one person really good don't work too well for another. Each condition is different and it seems to be an on going issue, limited space and over population don't help either.

If a person uses a material that is to sharp and or hard for their soft feet, then you start having issues with Bumblefoot and that's no fun to treat. A deep litter of straw and hay is fine for a little while as long as you can keep it dry. When it gets wet it's like a sponge and now you really have a big nasty smelly mess to work with.

I wish I knew of a secret method or trick to help but I don't, sorry. Best of luck.

Lolll yaaaa I mean I guess it’s prob just a normal duck run lol. I love them so much I don’t mind but was curious if maybe I was missing something lol. Thanks so much for your response

 

[KarynVA]

It looks like you have a good amount of fall leaves in your yard. You might try raking some of those into the run and add those to the mix. Dry leaves have worked well for me (I have chickens not ducks but I imagine the mess is similar).

 

[416bigbore]

It's raining here again today and the only thing I can do is make sure everyone has their life preservers on and don't float down stream. LOL

 

[416bigbore]

This whole spring, summer and fall has been nothing but rain every other day it seems. Things just start to dry out and then it start to rain again!

 

[DrHawkeye07]

Your run overall looks in good shape. My ducks had turned a grassy run into mud in a matter of weeks. I use a mix of playground mulch, leaves, woodshavings and old straw from the coop in the run. It gives them a nice spongy surface.

 

[Runner duck mom]

Your run looks good and what pretty ducks you have.
In the past I've used shredded fall leaves in the run which was perfectly fine.
Last year or so we switched over to mulch. We have landscape fabric down with cypress mulch on top. It's $2 a bag at home depot, soft on their feet and looks nice I think.
We need to add a few more bags on top at the moment but here is our run.