What a mess! They sure do 'go' a lot.

[chicks & ducks]

We got our flock(5 chicks & 5 ducks) yesterday. Keeping them all together for now in one brooder. MAN what a mess! The ducks especially! I was warned but come ON! They're only on newspaper covered in paper towel and I had to clean it twice yesterday and it'll be 4 times today by the time we go to bed! They can't be on fresh paper for more than 20 seconds without one of them having to leave it's mark! sheesh.

I had planned to switch to pine shavings or-more likely-pellets as they seem to get good results but how often would I be changing that?! Any ideas?

 

[gryeyes]

Too freakin' often.

I used pine shavings in the brooder, but had to separate the ducklings from the chicks because the ducklings grow SO fast - much more quickly than chicks. Chicks feather out, ducklings build bodies 12 ways... or something like that. They were bowling over the chicks, or stopping with their webbed feet on the chicks' feet and imprisoning them (inadvertantly). So I moved the ducks to their own brooder.

So I only had to change the duckling brooders' bedding every day. Most folks would do it twice a day, I think, but I have a high tolerance for messes.

But once they were able to get OUT of the brooder by themselves, but not get back into it, on a regular basis, I just put towels down on the entire bathroom floor and took the duckling brooder out. A lot easier to shake duck poop off the towels and throw 'em into the wash than to hassle with changing out the wet pine shavings. (Put the ducks in the dishpan of water in the shower, scoop ALL the wet shavings out of the brooder into something to carry it outside, put fresh shavings into the brooder, put the ducklings back into the brooder. Come back to the bathroom and put the ducks back in the brooder. Repeat often.)

The chicks are still in their brooder, most of the time. They have learned how to get out occasionally, but they can get back into it by themselves. I have walked into the bathroom to discover both ducklings in the shower stall, one in the dishpan splashing around and the other leaning into it, a BR chick perched on the lid of the chick brooder, a RIR chick sitting on the toilet seat, and a Welsummer chick asleep on top of the feeder in the brooder.

 

[Amiga]

chicks and ducks,

Good that you have a forum where you can share your feelings about all that ducky stuff!

I have eleven five and a half week old runner ducklings. I have cleaned their brooder 3 to 5 times a day for over five weeks now. Most of the time it is just something I need to do. Sometimes I feel a little tired of it. But they are great little animals.

They are only young once. After they move into their grownup shelter, they will be spending more time outside, laying their lovely fertilizer directly in the garden, or in the duckyard where I can rake it up and put it on the garden or in the compost. Still work to do, but fertilizer, pest control, and eggs for no additional charge. Oh, and they are funny and sweet, too!

I have a splash catcher under the waterer, and that helps so much! It is wonderful to watch them grow so quickly. After brooder cleanup, I sit with them and a few of them cuddle up next to me. It is my quality time.

BTW, I tried shavings for a couple of weeks. Too dusty for the brooder. Outdoors we will try again. Meanwhile, it's old towels, shake them out and rinse them, toss them in the washer and around we go again.

Take a deep breath, have a cup of something warm and healthy, and hang in there!

 

[jennytg3]

I have three runner ducks, and I too, was amazed at the large amount of poop. I'm changing their cloth towels about 5 to 6 times a day, plus have paper towels on top of that.

One of my ducks has been sneezing occasionally for about a week and seems to have diarrhea - I started giving them poultry vitamins but it hasn't seemed to help - has anyone else experienced that and what do you do? Do I need to put her on antibiotics?

Jenny

 

[duck walk]

You have heard of the king or queen of pop? Well, these ducks and geese of mine are the kings and queens of poop...I am up to my eyeballs in it at the moment due to my extremely successful first time ever hatching experience...I had an 85 % hatch, which came out to 32 ducklings...take a little bite of food, dash to the water to get it down...poop in the water and repeat...aaaalllllll day and all night...I will never do this again...maybe five or six at a time as it appears my drakes and ducks are over the top fertile...I am cleaning the 'bator today and setting six goose eggs...NOTHING more...not this year...maybe not this century...

 

[FrenchHen]

Yeah, they hemorrhage poo.

 

[CityChicker]

Welcome to the world of waterfowl, "waterfoul" being more appropriate. They certainly are a mess. For the first week, we use towels that we change several times a day. After that, we generally have brooded in tubs that are half wire floors (that the food and water sit on) and half wood chips. If we don't have too many ducklings at once, we can changed the wood chips about every other day for a week or so. By the time they are a few weeks old, we switch to daily changes of the wood chips and depending on how the weather is- some amount of time outside. This year, I am going to try brooding some 100% on wire to see how that does. Some people also use shelf liner instead of towels because they are easier to spray off. The good thing is nothing beats the cuteness of baby ducklings! LOL

 

[FrenchHen]

We're brooding on plastic mesh. It cuts down the mess and I think it's easier on their feet than uncoated wire.

 

[pringle]

This is why I try getting ducklings in the summer so I can keep them outside as much as possible not inside lol

 

[Duck_feeder]

chicks & ducks :

I had planned to switch to pine shavings or-more likely-pellets as they seem to get good results but how often would I be changing that?! Any ideas?

I used wood pellets (expanded into saw dust) for my ducklings. Basically, I made sure they had about 3-4 inches of bedding. A couple times a day I'd take the ducklings out, scrape the top layer off (until no noticeable poop), scoop out all the wet areas by their water, spray down the walls with hydrogen peroxide (once a day), wipe it down, add more pellets/saw dust, mix up the old bedding to mix with the new stuff, the put the little stink butts back in the brooder.. Once every 3-4 days I'd change all of the bedding.

When I got lazy I was able to get away with cleaning once a day, but I only had two ducklings....​