I need a new duck watering set-up.

[OneEggToRuleThemAll]

Hi everyone! I need some advice, please. I have a cattle panel hoop coop (half covered by a tarp, other half covered by shade cloth) inside a fenced-in pen that is not protected from predators (fence is 4 ft tall garden fencing). The ducks go in their hoop coop at night and we let them out into their pen during the day. We live in the city and have a privacy fence in the backyard. We're not worried about dogs, and the cats don't bother our grown ducks. We do have bald eagles around here, so we only let them out when we're home to keep an eye on them, which is often because I homeschool.

However, when we are NOT home, we put them in their coop. Like I said above, half of the hoop coop is covered with a tarp (this half is their nesting area, with haystacks and dry hay as bedding). The other half is covered with shade cloth, which allows the rain in, and the hay bedding in this half is SOAKED ALL THE TIME because it's summer here in Florida and it rains every day.

PLUS, because we keep them in their hoop coop during the day when we can't be at home to watch them, we have to keep water for them in their coop. Of course, we keep the water in the part of the coop that is covered by shade cloth, where it's already wet from rain, but the duck waterers (the white and blue plastic duck drinkers from TSC) make even MORE of a mess, and it's all mucky and muddy and POOPY on that half of the coop, despite throwing down tons of hay a couple times per week.

I need help figuring out a new coop watering situation. We have to keep water in the coop because the ducks are in the coop sometimes for several hours during the day and it's so freaking HOT OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW that we already lost one duck to heat stress (RIP my beautiful jumbo Pekin Mae).

Honestly, I wish I had a different coop/pen/run situation...the hoop-coop-run is NOT WORKING for us. It just gets too hot in there, even with the shade cloth. I wish we had built it under an oak tree. When we move out of the city, we will do things very differently. But while we're here, I need to work with what we've got.

So THANK YOU FOR READING and does anyone have any watering suggestions for my ducks inside their hoop-coop-run? Something that they can't spill everywhere and poop in? Maybe something connected to the irrigation so it automatically fills with fresh water and stays clean?

 

[CoriM]

My suggestion is making an area on that end that has pea gravel - the tiny rounded rocks, then put water buckets on that. I have a different set up but the same situation in that I'm keeping one half of my run dry with pine shavings - I do have a roof - and the other half has pea gravel and that's the wet side. It works pretty well to hose down those rocks a couple times a day to wash away poop. In your climate you might also have to worry about mold if the straw is getting wet. Also, if they are really hot you could add in a small kiddie pool

 

[LydiaB]

Not sure it’s possible to add a water porch, but this is my water set up. No muddy barn. The water just drains away. I also recently upgraded to an auto waterer, best decision ever! I use a 3 gallon pan and a float valve. Hook a hose up and all you have to do is rinse it out daily and wash weekly.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I used to have a hoop coop and had the same issue. Eventually, I covered the whole top with tarp but I left the sides open in the non bedding part for air flow.

I would also suggest pine shaving instead of or under the hay. It absorbs a lot more.

I use a large dog dish filled with water set on a mesh rack (IKEA shoe rack). It works great. I think automatic waterers are just a challenge to ducks to see if they can empty them.

This is my 2 month old Hookbill drake in front of one of my dishes.