The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: SomewhatOffTheWay on February 28, 2021, 06:05:51 pm
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Hello,
I have a few questions about ducks ;D :&>
What size door do runners need for their coop?
What type of bedding should I use?
Do they need drinkers/feeders or do normal bowls suffice?
Thanks in advance for your help! :excited:
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>What size door do runners need for their coop?
Wide! Ducks tend to all come out at once in the morning, so as wide as you reasonably can, to avoid the crush. Nice and tall too, for runners!
>What type of bedding should I use?
We use shavings, which work fine.
>Do they need drinkers/feeders or do normal bowls suffice?
Normal bowls are fine. Ducks tend to scoop food, so a normal bowl is better than a chicken feeder say, which is more designed for pecking.
Drinkers is a bit more tricky. Ducks need access to, at very least, enough water to dip their heads in to keep clean. If you don't have a pond, I'd recommend getting a dog bath, with a ramp up so they can go for a swim. We have one like this, which was bought as seconds quality, and has now served us well for ten years:
(https://nedandfred.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Corilla-NedandFred-Product-imagesSMALL-BATH-2.jpg)
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A child's rigid paddling pool also serves well as a bath. I bought a couple of cheap ones from Argos - one for the ducks and one for the geese - and they work well. Our ducks don't need a ramp, they just climb in. They are a mix of pekin and pekin/runner crosses. Just be prepared to clean it out and refill every day though - they make a lot of mess!
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Wombat and Richmond, thank you for all the info, really useful :thumbsup: Pekin/Runner crosses sound ace!
I was looking at paddling pools and dog baths as options for swimming/washing. Not looking forward to the cleaning bit... :yuck: But I was wondering if they need a bowl for drinking from too, near their food? I've scared myself reading about dry pellets swelling in tummies...
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You can provide extra drinking water if you wish but they'll probably get in that and make it filthy too - that's what ducks do. One receptacle large enough to swim in serves both purposes well as long as it's cleaned out daily. Just empty out, rinse and refill. Doesn't take many minutes.
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One receptacle large enough to swim in serves both purposes well as long as it's cleaned out daily. Just empty out, rinse and refill. Doesn't take many minutes.
Agree with all this. The trick is to choose a container big enough for ducks to have a good clean but small enough to empty and refill by hand easily. As mentioned previously - dog bath, baby bath, etc ideal. Also choose you layout and positioning so that you can empty it where it is downhill or into a ditch so that the resulting muddy patch (which the ducks will love) is controlled.