Watering ducks advice.

[zippy3]

Hi. I raised 10 ducks and 2 geese starting in April of last year and I feel your pain. They do make a mess. I finally evolved a way that worked pretty well for me. First, I acquired a large square plastic tray that was about 24" square (it used to be the bottom of a pet cage) that had 3" high sides and I built a wooden frame that fit inside of it and I covered the frame with 1/2" square hardware cloth. This is my catch basin and the birds can walk right on it and the poop and water falls through. I bought a waterer that is actually for dogs that holds a carboy you put in upside down on its holder and the water comes out into a basin about 8" across. As this was big enough for then to actually get into, I limited their ability to go swimming (or to drown) by putting a plastic yogurt container upside down in the basin. To keep the yogurt container from floating, I punched holes in it. The yogurt container took up enough room to keep them from climbing in, but gave them enough space to get their bills in to drink and wash their faces. The carboy holds 5 gallons, which I found to be more than they needed even when they got pretty big, so I would only fill it half way. But since they had acess to about 2 gallons of water, they never ran out. I used wood shavings on the floor of my brooder and i put in enough shavings so they could easily climb up onto the hardware cloth platform to drink. They had to go acoss the brooder area to eat, which helps to keep the food dry. Of course they still get things wet, but not nearly as much as when the waterer is on the floor of the brooder. But I was able reduce scooping out wet shavings only once a day, just around the catch basin.

The catch basin would not have to be as high as 3", but it is what came to hand for free, so I used it. Also, it would hold quite a lot of spilled water, so I didn't have to worry about it overflowing. If I was starting out from scratch and had to buy something, I would look for a 2" high tray, and still build a hardware cloth platform. I now own a watering pan that is a modified dog waterer that has a wire grid (a ring in the center and the wires attach to the plastic edges and go up to the rinf and form pie shaped wedges) over the top of it that allows the ducks and geese to get their heads in the water without climbing in. It works really well, and I might try making one for myself.
Hope these comments help.

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
If you get into ducks you should know ducks are WATERFOWL.

That means water is their basic needs and pleasure to use, drink and play any time or all the time if they choose.

Unfortunately there is no "solution" for water "problems" with ducks.

They need water all the time to drink, flush their food down, wash their beaks and nostrils ALL THE TIME.

Obviously since they are WATERFOWL they love to submerge their bodies in water if they can.

You can not deprive or limit ducks acces to water.

Or just switch to other species for ducks benefit.

There is no way around it, or ducks will suffer.