Sand for Duck House Bedding?

[kbh82310]

No, I haven't gotten any bugs. They've only been in their coop with the sand for 3 weeks, though. I feel like any bugs they see in the sand they're going to eat. I know mites and fleas are pretty small, so I dunno what you might do against preventing that.

I'm getting the same ducks you have ex I'm not getting the pekin (but I've been tempted to add one to the order for awhile now) and my Swedish is blue. But I was wondering how the sand is working out. I wanted to try to keep them with the chickens and the chickens are on sand.

 

[jonhpdx]

If you're really active in removing poop from the sand, I think it can work. I've found that it would take me long enough every day to clean out the pen that I got lazy with it. The sand gets really caked down pretty easily. We're not going away from sand, but I've decided to use the deep litter technique on top of the sand so that there's less maintenance and I don't end up lugging huge 50 lb sand bags around just to replace a few shovel-fulls of dirty sand (happens about every month or so for me).

In short, it can work, but you really need to be diligent with cleanup, which apparently I wasn't.

 

[kbh82310]

Thanks for the response. I may need to think of something else, my 4 silkies LOVE to eat shavings so deep litter prob isn't gonna work. I've also thought about getting them a lg dog house and putting them in one of the fenced dog runs and let them have the run of the yard during the day.

 

[Going Quackers]

what about wood pellet bedding? right now i have some silkies on flax bedding but that is a different material not easily found.

 

[lbierly]

I use sand in my chicken coop and love it. I tried pea gravel in my duck run and hated it. it gets slimy from the ducks, and it smells. My husband and I just pulled all of it out. I might try the sand.

 

[photogal76118]

Correct. I'm in Texas so extremely cold weather rarely happens for me but I'm sure it's quite common up North.

What kind of sand do you use? I have both chickens and ducks and looking into using sand instead of pine shavings. I've heard play sand/sandbox sand is a no-no. Is there a particular kind you use? where do you buy it? I'm in Texas also.

 

[PoorlySortedWaterfowl]

I'm planning on digging a few inches into the ground to level everything out, then put down a layer of landscaping fabric, 2-4 inches of pea gravel, another layer of landscaping fabric and then several inches of sand. Hopefully with that setup the coop will drain fairly quickly of any water. I've also designed a water-catcher for my ducks waterer, kind of like what I have now in the pen I'm keeping them in currently but a little more robust (essentially, a frame that's about 4'x4' that has a grate on top and a bucket underneath to catch all of the water and droppings that fall through).

My intention is for the sand to act as a big litter box for the ducks, and I can go in a scoop out all of the poop I find on a daily basis which really shouldn't take more than a few minutes a day. Minimizing the amount of water that makes contact with the ground to just the ducks' poop should really help keep things clean.

I'm really trying to minimize the amount of upkeep that I'm going to have to do, even if it costs me a little more money. It's worth it if it means I'm not spending 20 mins a day cleaning a coop!

How did this work you?

 

[BrittKay]

If you have grass in the pen area, you may want to rethink tearing everything out. I have had ducks for about 8 1/2 weeks, and they have been outside since they were 4 weeks old in their pen (300sq ft) and coop. I read about the sand thing and thought about doing it. However, I changed my mind and have been exploring how well they do on my grass and what I really need. I have grass in the coop (2/3 of it), I have river rocks around the ditch that runs through my coop, and I had large bald spots from grass not growing in 1/3 of my coop). I found the most AMAZING multiuse FREE product to keep away muddy messes, fertilize, ground cover/mulch, and food all in one.... GRASS CLIPPINGS!!! I just started to put the grass clippings in my pen two weeks ago and more grass is even growing now! I spray my pen down once a week to push the duck poo into the ground in 2/3 of the pen where there is nice thick grass, and I don't clean the poo in the other 1/3 of the pen (just keep piling on the grass clippings in this area). I have had ZERO issues with smells, and I'm sure a big part of it is the fact they spend so much time in the water. I'm also sure to water the pen at night when they go to bed so that the pen isn't all wet, which from what I have witnessed is what causes them to dig holes. I have ZERO hole digging issues in my pen because of the grass clippings and watering schedule.