Tips on keeping duck enclosures clean?

[SmithsCoop41]

I am seriously considering buying one of those huge round galvanized stock tanks and using it for a duck pen. I dont want to be constantly cleaning out soiled bedding . This way I can just hose it down and drain it out by a hose attached to the drain out hole. I think the stock tank is 8 foot across. Plenty large enough for my 2 ducks I'm getting . I plan to build a second level inside the tank with a ramp going up into the second level. That will be a little house for them with a porch to hang out on. In the summer months I can fill the stock tank with water . In the winter maybe I'll just throw some straw in the tank too. I'll only have to clean the bedding out in winter . Summer will be filled with water with a dry 2nd level. I'll fence in the stock tank and have a metal roof.

That sounds like a very neat idea and seems like it would be a whole lot EASIER to keep clean and manageable!

 

[CoriM]

Does it get very hot where you are? I am where the metal would get hot and the ducks would probably cook with no good ventilation. I hope where you are it works well with you. I have never used straw being afraid of mold that some people have gotten. I use sand in my pen along with large wood shavings from TSC in their houses. I have 19 ducks. Good luck with your idea.

Along those lines, in the winter when ducks are splashing their water around it could freeze their feet to the metal.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Along those lines, in the winter when ducks are splashing their water around it could freeze their feet to the metal.

Yes and if they walked on metal all day how could they not get Bumblefoot?

 

[yarrowhouse]

We also have 1 drake and 2 ladies. The biggest thing is space. We built a 460 sqft covered pen intending to have 6 total ducks.

It includes an 80sqft pool. We built on a slight slope so the pool has a bottom drain that we can open to completely empty and clean, it flows downhill to the garden. I do that about weekly.

We put them in a 25sqft hutch at night. We use straw as bedding, and use one of those extended trash grabber things to pick out poop roughly every day.

Every month or two we dump the straw from the hutch on to the ground. Our soil is clay, so hard to grow grass for them. We made the mistake (my opinion) of using pea gravel around the pool. At first it was fine, but it got kicked around on to the clay, and at that point just became painful to walk on. So the straw cushions the ground. Once in a while we remove all the straw for use as mulch/compost.