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Author Topic: Duck pen  (Read 4177 times)

Offline Chase2008

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Duck pen
« 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

Offline j_h_nimrod

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #1 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.

Offline Chase2008

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #2 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.

Offline bknilvr00

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #3 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.

Offline Birdguy

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #4 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.

Offline Special T

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2017, 01:45:46 PM »
Duck tractor!
In archery we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself. 

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Offline Buckewe

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2017, 02:05:12 PM »
Duck tractor!


Not a bad idea. They will tear up grass for sure.
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Offline Chase2008

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #7 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

Offline jennabug

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2017, 08:27:45 AM »
Maybe sand or pea gravel?

Offline j_h_nimrod

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #9 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.

Offline singleshot12

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #10 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
« Last Edit: April 09, 2017, 06:16:55 AM by singleshot12 »
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Offline jennabug

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Re: Duck pen
« Reply #11 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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