Kiddie pools and black contractor's (cement mixing) tubs, changed daily. A dug out area, filled with crushed stone, helps a lot to keep the area around the waterer clean, but they are waterfowl. Any water gets dirty within minutes. Some people with a constant flowing water source have good luck with a trough system which works well, but other than that, the only things that work are frequent water changes, or keeping very, very few birds on a very, very large pond.

Hi Patrick,

What size/type of stone stone do your recommend? Are there issues with some stone being too sharp for their feet?

--Jonathan

Yes, crushed stone for ease of explanation, but true crushed often has sharp edges. It's called different things in different areas, river stone, tumbled stone or pea stone. It should be 1" or so in diameter. "Pea" comes in different sizes, and it should be larger than pea size to prevent the occasional bird from ingesting too much and causing impaction. Best to visit the stone yard and look for what will work, then find out what they call it there.

I went to the landscape center today, to price river rock for use in an aquaponics set up I have been contemplating. They wanted $30 per Bobcat bucketful (about one ton, ha ha ha), while they wanted close to $70 for the pea gravel. The hardware store was just about as bad at $3.99 per 50 lb bag. It almost makes me wish I had a 2 ton truck with a hoist! I can drive less than 30 miles and dig all I want out of most stream beds. (Ooops, better watch it, DNR will get me, if I did. I wouldn't have all the permits and impact statements on file.) But you get what I am saying, the materials are available, it just depends on where you go as to how much you'll end up paying.

You might think of laying down a layer of weed blocking material around your pond or pool and then put the rock on top of it. That away whatever duck excrement ends up there can be hosed into the gravel, and absorbed by the soil.

Waterfowl, when concentrated cause a lot of problems. There are several small lakes around here that no longer have fish and have algae blooms all summer due to the amount of nutrients in the water from waterfowl. One subdivision I know of is investing several thousands of dollars to add aerators into its lake in order to keep the fish alive, the algae bloom down, and all the ducks and geese to hang around. (Big fancy houses, people with lots of money, and a homeowner's association that can "tax" the residents.) Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that the birds are providing lots of nitrogen rich fertilizer to the soil and water and that is why it smells so bad, and gets so nasty.

If you think having them in a pen with a pool is bad, just imagine raising them the way they used to (and may still do) in large enclosed barns, like chickens. They are constantly in a building with ever increasing amounts of ammonia in the air, and of course their by products underfoot.

Kevin

They have access to the outside enclosure with their pool. My problem is they go back in the barn and play in the waterer. Everything gets wet in there. Straw is draw one day and they are happy, next day everything is stinky and smelly and wet.The chickens are not happy. They will fly over the top of wire just to get in next pen.I want to get them in there own place and hate to free range as too many raccoons.I will try to gravel in the outside enclsure. Is gravel ok for chickens or do i want to build some type of housing for just them?

Thanks
Patricia

I've seen chickens on dirt, sand, and sawdust. I don't know why they couldn't be kept in a gravel floored run, provided it is even enough in size for them to walk on easily. But then the problem would be of the size being too small and causing problems with excess consumption of grit, or choking.

You'll probably just need to think about getting or making some sort of coop, just for them. A friend of mine bought an old pick up truck bed capper off of me to use as a peacock house. (I don't know why, most peacocks I've ever encountered either roost in the trees, or on top of your car.) Anyhow, you probably won't need to worry about having as elaborate a coop for the ducks as you have for the chickens. The ducks I had in the past were more than happy to bed down in a pile of straw in the barn or cage I had for them.

Kevin

I wanted to make a area in the opposite side of our barn for them but my brother used it for storasge and well I suppose the term storeage meant forever. So I suppose I am going to search for some ideas on making their own housing next to another chicken coup on our property. I have two sections in the barnb now for chickens and we have a storage shed convert to a chicken coup.
I had thought about swapping the chickens with the ducks but I am afraid the ducks would not like having to walk up a ramp to go to bed at night.

Patricia