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How Often To Clean a Duck Coop
One of the biggest stress factors for homesteaders who raise ducks is how often to clean a duck coop. Raising ducks provides countless benefits, but keeping the duck coop clean is quite challenging. So, how often should you clean your duck coop? Is it possible to raise ducks and also avoid all the manure piles, flies, and potential diseases?
The Short Answer on How Often to Clean a Duck Coop
You should clean your duck coop every week to avoid mud, flies, and disease. One easy way to do this is to place your ducks in a mobile coop, which is made to move easily and quickly.
That is the short answer, but let’s talk more about why ducks need help keeping their coops clean. Maybe the first question we could ask is,
Why are ducks so messy compared to chickens or other fowl?
As we know, most ducks are waterfowl and need water access to be happy and healthy. Ducks need water to help keep the oils in their bills and feathers in good condition. Without a good water source, ducks’ health will suffer, and they are at risk for more diseases. Giving them lots of water is one sure way to have happy, healthy ducks.
However, access to water has its downside for your flock of ducks (and hence, the need to clean your duck coop more often). Ducks naturally tend to splash water on themselves and on each other. Lots of water and lots of splashing eventually create a muddy mess. If ducks remain in one location too long, their coop can eventually turn into a wet, muddy mess.
In addition, ducks tend to have very messy poop. The wet manure mixes with wet, muddy conditions and is the perfect habitat for disease and viruses to begin. The sticky, muddy mess creates a damp, sticky environment that will attract flies and other insects, eventually leading to a disease-infested duck coop.
In reality, most people avoid raising ducks simply because of this “messy” scenario that attracts flies and other insects.
How to Keep Flies Away from Duck Coop
Although flies are such small insects, they are capable of creating issues regardless of where they are. On certain duck breeds, flies will actually lay their eggs in the duck’s feathers. Later, these larvae hatch and begin feeding on the duck’s skin. This is painful and damaging to the duck since they are not able to protect themselves from such a small insect.
So how do you avoid these risks and still grow happy, healthy ducks?
Flies will also lay their eggs in manure, decaying food, or unclean spaces. As noted above, Ducks tend to create a muddy, sticky mess of mud and manure, which becomes a fly attraction. With clean conditions, flies, bugs, and diseases have no place to thrive.
Continually cleaning a duck coop is a great challenge for farmers. Many farmers do not have the time (or the desire) to clean out a muddy, manure-infested coop every day, which is why many farmers resort to dangerous insecticides or costly fly traps.
Your best option to keep flies away is to clean out the manure piles and keep their water from creating a wet, damp, and muddy mess. You should clean your duck coop on a regular basis, to avoid the muddy and stinky mess.
How often to Clean a Duck Coop
When it comes to cleaning out a duck coop, is it ever possible to clean it too much? Even though you worked hard to clean out a coop, we all know that within a day, the ducks will create a mess again.
We recommend that you clean out your duck coop at least once a week. Not only does this create a regular cleaning routine, but it also aids in breaking up the breeding cycle of many of the flies and insects.
Simply remove all the wet manure and replace it with dry shavings or straw. Also, keeping after the spilled water helps to keep the coop dry. While some duck coops are hard to clean regularly, you are sure to reap the benefits of healthier and happier ducks inside your duck coop.
Another Answer to Keeping Your Duck Clean
The Happy Farmer Mobile Coop Solution
At Happy Farmer Coops, raising ducks has become easier than ever before. With the creation of our mobile duck coops, we are able to avoid spilled water, messy manure piles, diseases, and countless hours of cleaning.
With a mobile duck coop, instead of hauling the stinky manure and food scraps out of the coop, we move the duck coop to a new patch of fresh, dry grass every day.
Our mobile duck coops are designed to be moved easily once or twice a day. This allows us to “kill all the birds with one stone”! No more hauling manure, using insecticides, fighting diseases, and timeless hours cleaning out the coops.
Furthermore, the manure coming from your ducks fertilizes the pasture and creates great growing conditions for grass or whatever else you wish to grow.
Now all you need is some grass and a movable duck coop.
You just move your ducks to fresh, green pastures, and bingo! You have avoided spending multiple hours cleaning out your duck coop. Raising ducks has never been easier!
Commercial Chicken and Duck Coops
Are you a commercial chicken or duck farmer and are looking for housing for your feathered friends? Our commercial mobile chicken coops and commercial mobile duck coops are the perfect choice for your poultry housing needs! These coops are designed to be moved around, allowing you to provide fresh and clean locations for your birds every time.
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