Wet Run

[Kangasox]

We have 10 ducks who are in their coop at night and a run during the day. We are in the process of waiting for them them to be fully grown (almost there) and making a 250' x 100' run for them to be in during the day, but at the moment they are in their 10x10 run during the day. When the big run is done, their pool will move out there, at the moment it's in their run. And it's a soggy mess! We have some straw and Koop clean, but it's not covered (thinking about that as well). Until the other projects are finished, I'm trying to figure out what to do. Completely muck out everything down to dirt and lay down more dry stuff? I don't want to create a nasty environment that might harm them. It just doesn't dry out. Because they're ducks!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Mine are out on a half acre so they aren't congregated in a small area but for places where they have their water buckets I laid down landscaping material and put river rock[Lowes] over it it really does keep the drilling down. one of their pools also sits on landscaping material and river rock over top the other pool sits on a pallet its a smaller pool. I stapled landscaping material over top to keep them from having their legs fall through the slats. Not much else I can think of to do these have worked for me. Having to keep the pool in the run makes it hard to keep it dry as you have found out.

 

[Amiga]

I don't know the lay of your land, but a simple, shallow channel on the low side to direct water away from the pen makes all the difference in the world!

Even if you muck everything out and replace with dry, if there is nowhere else for the water to go, it will sit in the pen.

Our pen is on a 2% slope (on purpose) and at the downhill side there begins the channel - about 4 inches deep - that leads down to the garden beds on the hillside. Actually, the channel now leads to a level swale (flat channel) between two garden beds that brings water and fertilizer to both.

 

[Kangasox]

Thanks @Miss Lydia. Once their big pen is finished, it will be a little over half an acre too. I just don't know what to do in the meantime. I think covering the run is the only option, but that takes time too! Hopefully they'll be OK in the meantime. By the way, I think you're in NC too?

 

[Kangasox]

I need my kids to get big enough to dig ditches @Amiga! That does sound like a plan though. The run is very flat, we built the coop there on purpose, but slope would help. Ducks, a learning experience!

 

[Amiga]

Ducks, a learning experience!

Amen to that!!!!

 

[Amiga]

I am wondering if you could dig a fairly short channel over to a shallow oval that you can put some mulch on. It would become a great spot for planting a shrub (like, dwarf peach, or dwarf mulberry, perhaps, or columnar apple or comp spur apple).

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks @Miss Lydia . Once their big pen is finished, it will be a little over half an acre too. I just don't know what to do in the meantime. I think covering the run is the only option, but that takes time too! Hopefully they'll be OK in the meantime. By the way, I think you're in NC too?

Yep, west side, how about you?

 

[Kangasox]

Yep, west side, how about you?

Pretty much smack in the middle. But I'm quite partial to your neck of the woods! I recently tried to convince my husband to move to a house near Pisgah National Forest, but it didn't work...this time!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Pretty much smack in the middle. But I'm quite partial to your neck of the woods! I recently tried to convince my husband to move to a house near Pisgah National Forest, but it didn't work...this time!

Well work on him we'd love to have more duck folks over here in this part of NC.