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

[Frankie-n-little]

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.

Curious how your coop and run turned out. I like your idea of the square within a square set up. Also wondering how your experimentation with pine pellet vs shavings has been going? I’m trying to figure out how to best maintain a coop and run for one chicken and one duck. The duck is still a just a duckling and she’s already making a mess

 

[LtDanFan]

The square within a square works out well. They can access the “L” outside of the inner square but the inside inner square is completely covered and provides shave and protection from elements to some degree. Within that square poultry pen is a wooden coop. They get locked up at night and they for the most part walk up the ramp to go to bed when i or my petsitter go out to put them away. Occasionally (more so recently) some will hang out in the coop during the day. Food and water are outside. Pools are located in the arms of the “L” outside the covered square (which means they fill up with water when it rains) and also have ramps as they are half barrels on platforms (there are two, one in each arm) to make them easier to drain and keep clean but they don’t stay clean for long lol. I am working on buying more metal kennel panels to expand their “run” area as right now with the rain its all one giant mud puddle.
I haven’t purchased pellets as of yet because we bought a ton of shavings and are still working our way through that supply. The coop itself is the only place there will be shavings so they only need to be changed about every week or so, right now its straw as my partner purchased several bales when we made the setup. Straw works well for the coop area but i dont offer them food or water in there, so that cuts down on mess drastically. I am currently brainstorming solutions to cut down on the mud as those little quackers have quickly mowed down all every blade of grass that once existed within the confines of their kingdom.

 

[RapidsRanchShowPoultry]

i have tried many different bedding for waterfowl and the best choice is Straw its cheap, easy to pick up, stays dry longer than most and is soft for their feet