Wow! The mess. Newbie shocked.

[Amiga]

I found that having a very slight slope, maybe 2%, and a small channel to direct water to gardens makes for a nice base. I do need to add straw from time to time. So, indoors having a watering station and outdoors having drainage seem to work for us.

 

[GoingQuackers]

I can definitely sympathize--oh the mess! I have 6 eggs in the incubator, due to hatch next Friday, so I am building a new brooder over the next few days. I have used a Rubbermaid box in the past; since this group will need to brooded indoors for a longer period of time because their mom died after just finishing laying the clutch & I only have one lone male out in the coop, I need something better. I looked at the numerous brooder designs here on BYC & came up with something I think will be affordable, functional, and relatively easy to clean. The watering station is a must-have. Can't say I'm exactly stoked about twice daily poop & water patrol, but I am extremely stoked for new little ducky faces!

 

[creaturelife]

what kind of duck eggs do you have in the bator

 

[GoingQuackers]

Mallards. I really want to bring some new breeds into the flock, however. I will be attending a local flock swap soon (shhhh...let's tell my husband about it later)!

 

[wordgirl]

I hear you! Ducklings and ducks are sooo much messier than chickens. Like you said, it's a good thing God made them so cute! I've actually switched over to ducks from chickens because I like them, but man, they're a lot more work in the janitorial department.

For the past few months I had 7 ducks sleeping in a giant dog kennel at night and out in the yard during the warm (10+ degree) days, and blech!!! When they couldn't go out during the day, I had to add bedding twice a day and it was still gross. They splashed water all over the bedding and it froze into a giant shavings-poop ice cube.

We finally finished their coop at the end of December and built a washroom that's separate from their main area, and it has been so much easier. I still turn over the bedding once a day to get the poop mixed with the bedding and to keep the bedding looser, but I've only had to add bedding to the main area once in the past 2 weeks. The washroom is amazing for keeping the bedding much dryer. It's gone from quarts dumped in the bedding to maybe a cup or two or less (whatever runs down/gets tracked down the ramp and whatever may drip through the little crack where the ramp is attached - I suppose it could be more, but I haven't noticed that the bedding in those places is particularly soaked, and in the rest of the pen it's quite dry other than their poop).

Here's a pic. There's a hinged side that's hanging down (white) that closes up so it's enclosed except for the door that leads to the ramp going down into their pen.



It's a pretty big thing (4 feet tall by 3 deep by 4 long), but it's been so helpful. I don't know if you'd be able to make something like this, or like what Amiga has set up (love that idea, Amiga!). I used to have their water bucket sitting on top of a low under-the-bed-type rubbermaid container covered with 1/2-inch hardware cloth, which did help a bit, but having some walls/splash guards (like the sides of Amiga's) are also very helpful because the ducks like to throw water around.

Good luck! Spring will come! Ducks are much easier in the warm months when you can leave them outside all day - much less cleaning!

 

[creaturelife]

i have mallards and muscovy never had a problem with them trying to mix breed yet any way i lost one of my white and brown muscovy that i just got the the other day she pasted some time last night i though he was asleep and didnt know i came into the coop i was pretty sad bout it he looked alittle sick the other day but i didnt think it was any thing to be serious but it was sadly

 

[creaturelife]

idk if it was a boy or girl that is why i called it a she then a he

 

[Deleted member 94844]

Now, see, I totally disagree... my chickens are WAY more of a mess than my ducks. I have a really good system for our ducks and they barely make a mess at all. We built a pond and almost all of the poop stays there. Anything on the patios gets hosed into the border gardens and the plants love it. When they were brooding in the house we switched from shavings to bath towels and the world changed. The chickens are disgusting. First, their poop is totally gross. Duck poop is like dirt, barely smells, and washes off easily... the chicken poop is greasy and resists hosing, plus it stains and stinks to high heaven. I need to hose their coop out every day. The duck pen only needs to be hosed once a week. What's worse, the chicken poop is too strong and harms the plants in the garden. Many near the coop have died. More, when I let the chickens free range in the yard they poop all over my outdoor furniture (ducks can't), get up in my raised planting beds and destroy my plants (ducks can't), and kick dirt and mulch all over the place (ducks don't). All of my border gardens are a mess now, and they were perfectly fine when it was just the ducks. The chickens also spill their food no matter what type of container I use. The ducks keep themselves extremely clean and require little maintenance. The chickens roll around the dirt and get covered in poop so I need to bathe them almost weekly to keep them clean. I love the chickens dearly, but when I got them I never thought in a million years that they would be messier than DUCKS. They are, by a large margin.

 

[GoingQuackers]

I don't raise chickens but a disabled friend of mine does. I can see exactly what you're talking about when I go over to visit him--they roost in his storage building & there's chicken poop all over everything! And I swear it's made of some magical super-sticky, greasy compound that does not want to come off! And then there's the odor. Sweet heavens, the odor! My dad is leasing part of his property (which happens to be right behind my home) to some local farmers that use chicken litter from their massive chicken house as fertilizer. I always dread that one special week of the year when they are preparing the field & they apply the litter. I gag the whole week! I promise you all I'm a country girl born & bred; I'm accustomed to farm smells but chicken poop is just especially rough.

My husband wants to add some chickens to the flock but I've been resistant for the reasons you mentioned. My ducks, once old enough to live outside, are not very labor-intensive as far as the cleanup process goes.

 

[Deleted member 94844]

Omigod. A few months ago we were having guests over for an outdoor dinner party... I had spent the whole day cleaning the yard and patio so everything was just right, furniture and cushions had all been cleaned, fancy throw pillows out, gardens pruned and preened, pond cleaned, patios swept, candles on the tables... it looked like a scene from Sunset magazine. One thing, though... I forgot to put the chickens in the coop when I went in to shower. When I came back out, there was a layer of dirt covering EVERYTHING!! And I mean every square inch... the patio, tables, cushions, pillows, all covered with dirt! Thank heaven I hadn't put any food out yet. LOL. It took days for me to figure out how they had made such a mess. After they take a dirt bath, they will sometimes run around shaking it out of their feathers. All four girls must have done this at the same time, covering the entire patio. Amazing timing. Fortunately, I managed to get it all cleaned up before company arrived