Coop Conversion - Substrate Questions...

[0wen]

I sent all of my quail to freezer camp around Thanksgiving and now have an empty coop. (Hoop house design - roughly 8.5W x 16L x 6H. I'd been using wood chips as flooring for the qual (and do the same in an identical chicken coop) because I BTE garden and use the same substrate in garden and coops. I've taken the quail coop down to earth and am planning to add half a dozen ducks here instead of quail (easy to process, great layers, not the most personality and the high protein poop stinks - a lot...). Just wondering what flooring to use to keep the ducks feet healthy, but also the coop and run manageable.

I'll likely add a swimming area in the uncovered portion of the hoop house. I have a few plastic stock tanks that aren't currently being used (I use them as brooders when I hatch) so will likely build a ramp/deck access for the ducks to use one of these so there will be some water get on the floor - also again, this is in an uncovered portion of the coop.

Considering pea gravel as just hosing the duck manure through it a few times per week. The coop is leveled, but one a small incline that would allow water runoff to make it to the lawn as it filters through the gravel. Acceptable flooring? Should I do a mix with sand (just worried this would get messy)? Other? Assuming the wood chips are too rough for duck feet? These aren't shavings like the kind that goes into animal housing, but just downed trees that go through the shredder - still occasional pokey things - thorns, splinters, twigs, etc - left into the mix? Great if that works, unfortunately if not as it would allow the waste to make it to the garden eventually...

 

[CrystaBub]

If you could triple shred your shavings it could work. I'm in VA also and with all the rain we had last summer, it was easier for me to do sand and scoop - but for a while I also had linoleum and hosed it out - I had a drainage trench dug that went out into the yard. I use triple shredded mulch in the yard where they walk around and it hasn't caused any issues. The larger stuff may though. For bedding in winter I use a combination of pine shavings (that keep it dry and smelling good) and hay. A lot of people use pea gravel - I don't think that I could ever use it b/c my Drake loves to eat rocks - so he'd probably eat all the pea gravel lol.

On the stock tanks, I used those for a while too. Ducks don't do really well with ramps - some have success but I didn't. I would recommend steps - like concrete pavers stacked or something.

So when you said 'not the most personality' did you mean the quail or ducks? My ducks have so much personality - it would be hard to process them because they are so darn cute... Mine are pets and have been raised that way. I guess if you raise them to process, you won't be interacting with them as much... What breeds are you considering?

 

[chickens really]

Best thing is trial and error. In my house I use pine shavings and sand in my Runs. I turn the sand every few days..

 

[Duckworth]

I use straw and let it compost in my duck house. I use straw in my run, too, but I change it out more often and put it on my garden. My tomato and bean beds have vertical trellises about eight inches in from the long sides and a trellis roof mounted on top, making tunnels. I dump all of my duck straw into the length of the tunnels so that it continues composting and the plants, which are planted along the vertical trellises run their roots toward the center of the beds to get to the compost. Similar to hugelgardening, but without burying the stuff to be composted. Duck waste is not “hot” like chicken waste, so it can go straight onto the garden soil. My garden grows like crazy using organic methods.

Straw may not be for you, but using something that will compost and allow you to utilize your duck waste to benefit your garden could be a good option.

 

[AltonaAcres]

LOL "freezer camp". My ducks lived in a field that had grass, so I didn't need bedding/substrate.

 

[0wen]

So, shopping around for pea gravel and I'm getting quotes between $400-600 for 10' x 16' and around 4-6" deep. Definitely not trying to pay that much for bedding, so quite possibly looking at chopped straw for the covered part of my coop.

@Duckworth how often do you find your straw needs changed out?

 

[chickens really]

Depending on location and rain. Straw rots quickly from Ducks wet poop and water spills. Botulism can kill Ducks.
They drill and noodle constantly.

 

[casportpony]

If you want to mud proof your area, look into getting a load of recycled concrete, baserock, or blue rock. Here it costs about $200 delivered. One dump truck will do about 14' x 16' x 4" to 6".

 

[Duckworth]

So, shopping around for pea gravel and I'm getting quotes between $400-600 for 10' x 16' and around 4-6" deep. Definitely not trying to pay that much for bedding, so quite possibly looking at chopped straw for the covered part of my coop.

@Duckworth how often do you find your straw needs changed out?

That seems high to me for pea gravel. Pea gravel here costs about $70/ton. A ton covers about 100 sq. ft. at a depth of 2.5 inches. I’m estimating that three tons would fill your run to a depth of four to five inches. This does not include delivery, which here, would be another $50-60.

My run is covered, so it doesn’t get a lot of wetting from rain. Things compost better when they aren’t soaked. They also smell less and draw fewer flies. I have a solid surface floor that is sloped slightly for drainage. This isn’t ideal for deep litter and composting, but I still manage to make it work out for me. I also use unchopped straw, so it doesn’t compact as easily. During the winter, I just add straw on top of the spent straw, since we don’t thaw out very often. When we get a thorough spring thaw, I remove all of the straw from the house and run and put it on my garden beds in preparation for spring planting. The poop washes down into the beds and fertilizes my soil. Before planting, I rake it off and set it aside, top off my beds with finished compost from my bins, and add the straw to the compost bins or use it to mulch my planted beds.

During the spring, summer, and fall, I take down all of the side wall tarps to get even more ventilation, fluff the straw in the house and run daily with a garden fork, and add more straw weekly. I keep my small kiddie pool and water buckets in the lowest corner of the run and don’t put straw right next to them so that the straw gets less wetting. I also sprinkle Sweet PDZ every day or two. If the straw gets too wet and starts to smell instead of composting, I remove it and put it in my compost bin or into the center of my trellis tunnels where my tomatoes and beans grow. The main times I’ve had trouble with odor are when I added grass clippings to my run. Those stink. So they just go to the compost pile unless they have gotten overspray from our neighbors’ lawn treatments, in which case I bag them and put them out for the trash hauler (who takes them to the city compost heap—why I don’t use city compost). I do a final big cleanout before winter freezes everything again.

If you live someplace where you have to turn off your outside water for the winter, consider how you plan to keep your substrate clean without being able to hose it down or clean it out if it’s frozen.

Botulism thrives in an anaerobic environment, so any substrate will need to be fluffed or raked regularly to ensure that you are not creating an anaerobic environment where botulism can thrive and produce its toxin. A waterlogged substrate is anaerobic and can become problematic if you cannot keep it drained. Botulism and it’s resulting toxin are odorless and tasteless, so you can’t just rely on your sense of smell to tell you that something is amiss.