What are your best practices fir Ducks in Winter?

[CoriM]

I agree that anything put on bare ground is liable to absorb moisture in the winter. I have my ducks run on bare ground, and their sleeping area is linoleum covered plywood. I use wood shavings in both areas and the ones in the house stay dry since I scoop poop everyday. I do the same in the run, but the bottom layer is always a little wet in the winter. I just try to not make it too deep, fluff it up regularly with a rake, and also scoop poops to keep it clean.

 

[Kaw]

Do you keep water in your coop? That can make a big mess, and it is very difficult to keep the coop dry with water in there.

How many ducks to do you have and how big is the coop? I had an issue when I first got ducks. I thought I made my coop big enough, and it was wet from too many ducks. We expands and things were cleaner and no longer wet.

 

[Kaw]

Thank you for your reply. We have 13 ducks in an area 96” by 56”. It was intended for them when they were small and my husband has been planning a duck house now for 6 months. That’s another subject. We do have water in the pen area and the hay is always packed flat snd wet. I add fresh hay daily. It is particularly cold tonight. I didn’t let them out today so that they stayed out of the pond and staued dry, but in the wild ducks swim in winter. So it’s their bedding that needs to be dry. I may need to just ned Plan B. I will start building a bigger duck house.

 

[Kaw]

I agree that anything put on bare ground is liable to absorb moisture in the winter. I have my ducks run on bare ground, and their sleeping area is linoleum covered plywood. I use wood shavings in both areas and the ones in the house stay dry since I scoop poop everyday. I do the same in the run, but the bottom layer is always a little wet in the winter. I just try to not make it too deep, fluff it up regularly with a rake, and also scoop poops to keep it clean.

We have 13 ducks and I hadn’t thought of scooping their poop everyday. The coop is always one flat packed wet layer of hay.
At least the pen area. The sheltered area, I will try to spot clean everyday.
Thank you for your teply!

 

[Kaw]

I agree that anything put on bare ground is liable to absorb moisture in the winter. I have my ducks run on bare ground, and their sleeping area is linoleum covered plywood. I use wood shavings in both areas and the ones in the house stay dry since I scoop poop everyday. I do the same in the run, but the bottom layer is always a little wet in the winter. I just try to not make it too deep, fluff it up regularly with a rake, and also scoop poops to keep it clean.

That is the problem. Their coop is set on cement. I heap hay on too, but Moisture is easily wicked up through cement and rain is probably just soaked up.
I will need to build a duck house myself. My husband staked out an area in out yard over 4 months ago.
I hadn’t considered just how much moisture would change the bedding from underneath. The ducks, on their own make it very wet on top.

 

[Humanbean68]

I made a floor out of pallets with plywood screwed on top to keep their bedding up off the ground.

 

[Pollo Blanco]

I have a raised plywood floor with linoleum. I use Harbour Freight fatigue mats on top of the linoleum for a little extra insulation, with a heavy duty tarp over the fatigue mats. I use fine pine chips on top of the tarp. Beauty of the tarp is no matter how wet the ducks may be, I never have to deal with dirty fatigue mats or a wet floor. I can usually clean up the tarp with a plastic dust pan, but if it really gets trashed, I can easily haul it outside and clean it up. I don't do a deep chip bed because I don't feel it's worth the amount of chips it takes to combat all of the moisture. I'd rather just start over with dry chips.
Seldom gets below freezing temperatures here but it sure rains a lot.

 

[Ratchnick]

You can put a foundation sealer on your cement to stop moisture intrusion. My ducks are pretty tough, here they are hanging out in the fresh snow.

 

[Kaw]

I made a floor out of pallets with plywood screwed on top to keep their bedding up off the ground.

Great idea! Thank you.

 

[Kaw]

Maybe the link below will help you? Any bedding used on the bare ground is going to be harder to keep warm and dry over a coop with a wood floor of some type.

We use hay as well. I keep the door opennand the top open for air during the day before I add fresh dry hay, unless it’s bad weather. Then I close the too.
I discovered a squirrel has been going in during the day to look for food and I am reluctant to leave the door open.

Even though we have bare ground in our coop for the floor, I use wheat straw and keep it fluffed twice a day and us a small fan on low to move the air to help keep the bedding dry. It's not a perfect solution, but it does help. Best of Luck.

https://www.tyrantfarms.com/whats-t...e leaves, wet straw and,it's going to get wet.