No Messy Ducks How to Raise CLEAN Ducks

The top reason why most people don't raise ducks is they're afraid they are going to make a mess. And for those people who do raise ducks, they say, oh ducks are just messy. But no, but no, but no. Let me show you how you can avoid having messy ducks. The biggest mistake people make when raising ducks is with kiddie pools. Yes, they try to let their ducks have total access to water in these kiddie pools all day long. And as a result, they have water everywhere. Imagine if you were to have one of those kiddie pools inside your house with some kids. What would you have? You would have a mess. And that is the same thing that happens with ducks. And it's not just kiddie pools where people make the mistake. People also make the same mistake with one of these and with one of these. Let's watch the mistake unfold. Now, let me show you one way, one simple way to keep your ducks from making a mess with their water. I don't know if anyone else has done it out there, but this is something I came up with. I call this a duck shield. Put your shield in place. I highly recommend having a duck shield for raising ducks. It helps to minimize the splashes of water in the mud that the ducks can make if you let them just have free total access to water. The second way to avoid having messy ducks is to make sure that they are on fresh grass or have fresh bedding every day. Currently, we are raising some ducks in chicken tractors and moving them on fresh grass every day and sometimes two times a day. And as you can see here, this is the progression of their movement. And we are doing the same things with these chickens here. We are moving them in a chicken tractor every day to fresh grass. And as you can see here, this is their progression. And with proper management and moving on a consistent basis, the grass grows back and it grows back even better than before because of the natural fertilization process from the manure. I've said it before, anyone can raise ducks. Yes, I can raise ducks and you can too. And today, this was two points on how you can avoid having messy ducks. Point number two was to make sure they have fresh grass or fresh bedding every day. And the first point was use a duck shield. A duck shield helps to minimize the mess that ducks make with their water. And now I'm going to show you how to make a duck shield. As with most projects here on the farm, I typically try to use as much of the resources that we already have available and try to go to the store as least amount as possible. The duck shield that I will be making today is from scrap wood from previous projects. Don't be afraid to use the resources that you have around you. Gather some things together, put it together. It doesn't have to be perfect. Sometimes it's putting something together that can help you get from point A to point B just to hold you over and you can always upgrade later without breaking the budget. These slots are two to two and a half inches apart. That way the ducks have enough room to slide their heads in, get some water without getting their whole body through and then making a mess again. Before I forget, I also want to comment, some of you may be saying, well why don't you just use the nipple waterers that the chickens use? That is a good point. However, ducks really need to be able to get their heads in the water. Their eyes and their nose can crust up if they don't have access to getting their head in the water. So it's very important that you make your ducks, give them the ability to be able to get their heads in the water. They don't have to get their whole bodies in the water every day. So maybe once a week or a couple times a week, it depends on what you think. You can give them access to where they can swim and play. And then I tend to, I'd like to let them just go out in the pond, but you may not have access to the pond. You may have a pool, you can use a pool, one of those little kiddie pools, but only give them access to it a couple times a week. So that way you're not having to deal with duck mess. The goal here is to avoid the duck mess. The duck shield, you can make as rustic or as fancy as you want. It's up to you. It's up to your fancy. A duck shield could be used with fencing, with wood, or even lattice. However you want to apply the concept of the duck shield, the overall principle is to shield the ducks from getting submerged and splashing around in the water. Well there you have it, the duck shield. I would like to thank Jack Spierko because I watched one of his YouTube videos and it sparked my idea for the duck shield. In his video, Jack took a chick feeder and used it to water as a waterer for his ducklings. And from that, when I saw that, it is what helped develop the idea for my duck shield. So thank you Jack for that. Well that is it for today. I want to let you guys know that this, once again, that this is the last week. June 10th, this Saturday at 10 p.m. is when we'll no longer be offering our membership area for free. In the future, only supporters of our farm will be able to access this membership area. And you can support it, you can support it by becoming a Patreon supporter. And you can become a supporter for as little as one dollar per month, or you can do more if you decide to. But that's it, that's it for today. Oh also, I am planning to do a permaculture ducks course. And if you're interested in that, please let me know. Once again, subscribe in the link below. Well, that's it for today. Duck Man out. See you next time.