[Womble]

 
OK, we have five runner ducklings in a shed just now, with a 5 litre bell type poultry drinker and a large dog bowl of water so they can wash their heads.
 
However, they're somehow managing to completely empty both at least a couple of times a day (I have no idea how they're doing it!). Not only is this annoying, they're also turning Auboise bedding into soggy weetabix at an alarming rate.
 
Does anybody have a solution (other than 'stick to hens')? 

[HesterF]

Not really - that's just what they do. I've started putting the drinker up on top of their brooder (electric hen thing) - obviously within reach but it stops them piling all their bedding into it (a trait shared with hens). You can also put their bowl of water over a tray of some sort to catch the drips but what I tend to find is they fill the tray with bedding as well. Just depends how much time you have to clean up the tray every time you replenish the water. Basically though they're just mucky and they smell too. They also grow really fast so they're enormous great creatures long before they get feathers (well unless you've got small ducks). In conclusion, not much help - I love them tiny and I love them big and outside and digging up the field but the two months in between are a bit of a smelly nightmare.

Oh, and sometimes I have not given them a bowl but let them have a bath every day instead. I've a pair now that are about a month old and from a few days old until three weeks old they went in with my children every evening. Reckoned it cleaned out their eyes better than a bowl and saved some of the muck.

H

[twizzel]

I turfed mine out at 4 weeks old into a warm pen with lots of bedding... they were fine. No they didn't have feathers but they huddled together and were toasty warm when I checked them at 10pm for the first few nights.