This is my first time with chicks and ducklings. All are now three weeks old and we got behind with building the coop. The brooder is quite crowded and I've got to get them out of there. My question about moving them to the coop is mostly about water issues. They (I mostly blame the ducks) have been making a constant mess of their bedding by completely draining the waterer between my visits. The bedding is constantly getting soaked, not to mention the waterer being empty for who knows how long before I come back after work or overnight. Once I move them to the coop, how do I make this better? The coop floor is just wood, I can't have soaked bedding sitting on it, rotting it, and making birds sick. There is no outside pen yet, but once there is, can the water just go outside and they go without overnight when they're in the coop? I assume that at three weeks old they still need to have constant access to water, but does that change as they get older, and at what age? Any ideas for improving my water situation? Any suggestions are welcome!
Have you checked the waterer to make sure it doesn't leak? A friend of mine just had to return a new waterer because the the seal was defective and I once had to do the same. Good luck.
Can you hang their waterer and feeder in the coop? Mine are still in a pen, until we can finish their coop. Both my waterer and my gravity feeder are hanging from the top. They are level with the chick's back, so they have to reach just a bit to get to the food/water. Much MUCH less mess.
Well, you're definitely right to blame most of the water mess on the ducks! Ducks and chickens have different habits (ducks are incredibly messy with water, chickens sleep at night, ducks don't), which is why a lot of people recommend housing them separately. I have both, and cannot imagine keeping them together-- the mess would be insane, and I don't think either set of birds would be happy. If you do have to keep them together, though, the best I think you can manage to cut down on the mess is to hang the waterer as high as possible to cut down on the ducks splashing it everywhere, and to give them their own little pool or water trough in the run. You can, of course, limit food and water to the run only and keep it out of the coop, but you just have to be sure to be available to let the birds out first thing each morning, or you will have some seriously unhappy birds!