What’s the best bedding/substrate to use for an outdoor pen and very messy ducks?

[User690263]

I use straw for their outdoor pen, it stays fresh for a surprisingly long time. In their coop I use shavings

 

[LtDanFan]

I dont change sand out much. The grass, I use my hand rake and rake it up and throw it on my garden. It catches all the poop. Now, sometimes the chickens do dig into the sand, i clear out the poop in this area and add sand back. The back part of the coop has a thin board and I created a dust bath with soil, ashes, sand, and DE. They dont tend to poop in that. However, they do kick it out and I replace it. I put grass in the nesting boxes and under the roost as well.

I dont have a proper garden yet, that’s next year’s project. Here in Wisconsin we have a very short growing season and planting season is over for us. But we did start a compost pile, so i could throw the grass clippings on the compost pile. The chickens and ducks are separate for now but i hope at some point to allow them free range time together under supervision. To clarify, they have a separate coop area that is raised and has straw bedding that’s cleaned out once a week or so. But they do not have food or water in there as they are only in their coop overnight. The area im talking about is the area immediately outside of their coop.

I'd say 3 or 4 times a year. The pine only not the sand.

That sounds very doable. I cannot imagine that these messy Millies will require anything but daily scooping and I Jsut can’t do that. I’d rather net off my entire yard, electrify my entire fence and install guard towers so they could safely free range in my “back 40” than Scoop their entire inner pen out daily.

Do not use pine flakes do not use straw they both rotten smell bad pretty quickly get the horse stall pellets. They absorb all the water in the mud and make it lovely and sweet smelling
You also want to try to control where their water goes. Keep their pool in a low corner of the pen and dump it out out of the pen. Try to keep rain out of thepen.

I saw the pellets but we had already purchased pine shavings for the brooder. Next time I am at fleet farm i will get a bag and try them out. The pools are not set up fully yet but consist of a barrel cut in half (so 2 halves=2 separate pools) on a raised stand with a ramp in and out. The drainage spout will be connected to a short hose so that the water can be directed out of the pen entirely and around a couple of trees at the property line.
The whole set up is essentially a cube within a larger cube with an L-shaped perimeter. The smallest cube being the coop, the middle cube being the inner pen where i plan to keep food and water (completely shaded) and the outer L shaped perimeter which will contain the pools. I may move the food out near the pools, just depends on how messy it all becomes. Right now they only have access to the inner pen and coop but once the pools are finished and there is a roof, there will be a door between these two wire panels.

 

[Eric_W]

That sounds very doable. I cannot imagine that these messy Millies will require anything but daily scooping and I Jsut can’t do that. I’d rather net off my entire yard, electrify my entire fence and install guard towers so they could safely free range in my “back 40” than Scoop their entire inner pen out daily.

Yes, mine free range all day so that does cut down on the mess. I have 11 ducks, 2 geese, and one chicken. I have my entire back yard fenced off with 5' welded wire. I'm surrounded by the state gamelands. Their coop is 10' x 12' but they don't use it a whole lot except to lay eggs. In the coldest times of winter they sleep in there but they usually just hang out in the run. It's 10' x 16' and I did put a permanent roof on it.

 

[berlyannpotter]

I dont have a proper garden yet, that’s next year’s project. Here in Wisconsin we have a very short growing season and planting season is over for us. But we did start a compost pile, so i could throw the grass clippings on the compost pile. The chickens and ducks are separate for now but i hope at some point to allow them free range time together under supervision. To clarify, they have a separate coop area that is raised and has straw bedding that’s cleaned out once a week or so. But they do not have food or water in there as they are only in their coop overnight. The area im talking about is the area immediately outside of their coop.

That sounds very doable. I cannot imagine that these messy Millies will require anything but daily scooping and I Jsut can’t do that. I’d rather net off my entire yard, electrify my entire fence and install guard towers so they could safely free range in my “back 40” than Scoop their entire inner pen out daily.

I saw the pellets but we had already purchased pine shavings for the brooder. Next time I am at fleet farm i will get a bag and try them out. The pools are not set up fully yet but consist of a barrel cut in half (so 2 halves=2 separate pools) on a raised stand with a ramp in and out. The drainage spout will be connected to a short hose so that the water can be directed out of the pen entirely and around a couple of trees at the property line.
The whole set up is essentially a cube within a larger cube with an L-shaped perimeter. The smallest cube being the coop, the middle cube being the inner pen where i plan to keep food and water (completely shaded) and the outer L shaped perimeter which will contain the pools. I may move the food out near the pools, just depends on how messy it all becomes. Right now they only have access to the inner pen and coop but once the pools are finished and there is a roof, there will be a door between these two wire panels.

I have no idea how people go 3-6 months without cleaning the coop. I do it weekly as well.

 

[LtDanFan]

I have no idea how people go 3-6 months without cleaning the coop. I do it weekly as well.

Maybe there’s a semantic difference between “coop” and “pen” as in the “pen” is the place they spend their day in doing duck things like making a mess and the “coop” is the place they sleep in, occasionally pooping and not eating or drinking.

 

[berlyannpotter]

Maybe there’s a semantic difference between “coop” and “pen” as in the “pen” is the place they spend their day in doing duck things like making a mess and the “coop” is the place they sleep in, occasionally pooping and not eating or drinking.

Who knows.

 

[aimee750]

I would not keep 8 ducks in a 6x6 pen. They need much more space than that.

 

[GracePoultry]

I use river rock in my run for my ducks. Once it starts getting dirty (every couple days) I take around the rock and spray them with the hose. That lets all the feces wash into the ground and now the rocks are clean

 

[Jenbirdee]

I dont have a proper garden yet, that’s next year’s project. Here in Wisconsin we have a very short growing season and planting season is over for us. But we did start a compost pile, so i could throw the grass clippings on the compost pile. The chickens and ducks are separate for now but i hope at some point to allow them free range time together under supervision. To clarify, they have a separate coop area that is raised and has straw bedding that’s cleaned out once a week or so. But they do not have food or water in there as they are only in their coop overnight. The area im talking about is the area immediately outside of their coop.

That sounds very doable. I cannot imagine that these messy Millies will require anything but daily scooping and I Jsut can’t do that. I’d rather net off my entire yard, electrify my entire fence and install guard towers so they could safely free range in my “back 40” than Scoop their entire inner pen out daily.

I saw the pellets but we had already purchased pine shavings for the brooder. Next time I am at fleet farm i will get a bag and try them out. The pools are not set up fully yet but consist of a barrel cut in half (so 2 halves=2 separate pools) on a raised stand with a ramp in and out. The drainage spout will be connected to a short hose so that the water can be directed out of the pen entirely and around a couple of trees at the property line.
The whole set up is essentially a cube within a larger cube with an L-shaped perimeter. The smallest cube being the coop, the middle cube being the inner pen where i plan to keep food and water (completely shaded) and the outer L shaped perimeter which will contain the pools. I may move the food out near the pools, just depends on how messy it all becomes. Right now they only have access to the inner pen and coop but once the pools are finished and there is a roof, there will be a door between these two wire panels.

I actually use sand in some places gravel in some places steppingstones in some places and the pine pellets for horse stalls in some places. And also some outdoor boat carpetingHonestly, I use a little bit of everything and in their houses I use a combination of the pellets and the flakes.

 

[LtDanFan]

I would not keep 8 ducks in a 6x6 pen. They need much more space than that.

This is a temporary measure until the rest of the pen can be secured from predators and the pools and ramps can be finished. My BF was furloughed for a bit but has since gone back to work. He completed as much as he could during his time off, but he has his own bills to pay so he can’t do home projects forever. Eventually they will have a 10x10 pen with pools and i have plans to add on to that (don’t tell him). My original plan was to free range but when i watched my friend lose several ducks to predators across several weeks, i decided that i do not have the constitution to free range, even in my rural subdivision third of an acre sized yard.
My pet sitter has reported multiple fox sightings, i myself have seen coyotes and i know we have raccoons and opossums as the dogs regularly corner them in the yard (plus I’ve had door dash deliveries stolen off my porch by those masked trash pandas i saw it on my ring camera).

Maybe at some point, i will range them with supervision but until i can spend an entire day in my backyard while still being able to either sleep, or use the internet and avoid being eaten alive by bugs, they will have to be confined for their own safety.