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Other Activities => Equestrian & Livestock => Topic started by: Chase2008 on April 03, 2017, 06:11:30 PM


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Title: Duck pen
Post by: Chase2008 on April 03, 2017, 06:11:30 PM
Curious if anyone with ducks has good ideas for the ground inside the pen so that it doesn't become a muddy sticky mess

I realize I will have some of a mess with ducks but trying to keep it to a minimum. Straw - bad idea. Leave it as dirt - bad idea. Tried wood shavings thinking it would kind of compost. Not bad.

Open to ideas. Thanks
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: j_h_nimrod on April 03, 2017, 06:54:50 PM
Not sure how your pen is set up, but keeping water isolated to one area is a start. If it is out in the rain then there is not much I have found, ducks are great at tearing up a wet area.
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: Chase2008 on April 03, 2017, 06:58:34 PM
Pen is exposed. Have a house for night with a ramp to the pen which is a wired enclosure. Then they free range when possible.
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: bknilvr00 on April 03, 2017, 07:41:22 PM
What I can tell you is that if there is grass, it will get turned into mud. There's not a whole lot you can do about it. Had ducks for a couple years, and they are little excavators, and effective ones at that.
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: Birdguy on April 07, 2017, 01:42:29 PM
Massive square footage is about all you can do. They eat and stomp everything, add water and the excessive amounts of poop they put out and it is a tough challenge. We keep three ducks in a 16'x30' foot pen and has zero grass, just a couple trees left.
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: Special T on April 07, 2017, 01:45:46 PM
Duck tractor!
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: Buckewe on April 07, 2017, 02:05:12 PM
Duck tractor!


Not a bad idea. They will tear up grass for sure.
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: Chase2008 on April 07, 2017, 10:24:02 PM
No tractor for me. Won't let them tear up the whole yard. Hoping to find some material on the ground that will drain
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: jennabug on April 08, 2017, 08:27:45 AM
Maybe sand or pea gravel?
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: j_h_nimrod on April 08, 2017, 11:26:27 PM
For my first pen I put sand over d1 grave with porous weed cloth betweenl. It just ended up turning into poop cemented sand. Drained ok for a few months but that was it. I actually built it up above ground level inside the pen about 4", not great but better than a Jud pit. If you cleaned the sand every few months it would work ok.
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: singleshot12 on April 09, 2017, 05:48:03 AM
Put pen up on slight slope,lay out about 4 inches of 1 inch minus drain rock. Hose off every day or so,works great

Perforated rubber stall mats work also,just hose manure away each day
Title: Re: Duck pen
Post by: jennabug on April 09, 2017, 08:30:45 AM
For my first pen I put sand over d1 grave with porous weed cloth betweenl. It just ended up turning into poop cemented sand. Drained ok for a few months but that was it. I actually built it up above ground level inside the pen about 4", not great but better than a Jud pit. If you cleaned the sand every few months it would work ok.
I would suspect that the weed cloth was a big part of the problem on that. If you're doing sand, the poop should be scooped. Hosing it should work for pea gravel as long as the sediment has a path into the ground.
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