Cleaning a duck coop is always crucial for ducks. But, we know ducks are messy, feathered friends, so a dirty coop is always expected by the duck owner. So, it’s significant because your ducks will have hygiene and safety from predator attacks.
But how to keep the duck coop clean? You can follow plenty of ideas, including:
- Ensure The Right Coop Size
- Predator Safe House
- Regular Maintenance
- Weekly Coop Cleaning
- Water Management System
- Proper Ventilation
- Pest Controlling
- Feeding Ideally
- Ensuring Drainage
- Appropriate Bedding
- Necessarily Composting
- Proper Training
Aside from all these things, I have portrayed how you should clean the duck’s coop. So, I hope you won’t leave any section without reading as you may miss some precious information.
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How To Keep Duck Coop Clean? 12 Things To Keep In Mind!
If you care for ducks, surely you would expect to provide them the utmost comfort zone. For example, making an ideal coop, providing a duck pond, foraging space, a balanced diet, and so on.
However, if you just made a coop or are about to make it, why not follow the ideas I personally have generated for my pet ducks? All of them are expert-based tips to keep the coop neat and clean. Let’s check them out!
1. Ensure The Right Coop Size
The number of ducks you’re keeping has a great impact on the space. They should have enough coop space, or they’ll totally mess things up!
For example, I kept four and six square feet floor for each duck in my yard. Besides, the outdoor space is about sixteen square feet.
For your kind information, ducks don’t like rubbing their bodies too much. So, ensure they have enough space in their coop. However, the video may help you out with a proper coop size that won’t get ruined too much.
2. Predator Safe House
Ducks have a lot of predators, and they feel inner peace when messing up the duck yard. Either they kill the duck or at least ruin their coop when they get the chance. The noticeable culprits, I say, in the CCTV camera were dogs and coyotes.
So, keeping a predator-safe coop is what we suggest to make. Otherwise, the duck may leave the coop and never come back to a disturbed nest. Now, how to make a predator-safe coop?
- You can ring the base of the duck house with boulders to keep away any digging attempts by predators.
- Ensure all the coop doors and windows are secure with latches.
- Cover the top with a woven wire that deters flying or climbing predators.
- You can keep some citrus plants or other natural repellants near the duck’s coop.
Following all these things will ensure the duck’s coops will remain safe and clean. As ducks don’t need to struggle to survive their attack and ruin the coop area. However, check out this video for more ideas!
Related Reading: Keeping Backyard Ducks Safe From Predators
3. Regular Maintenance
To keep the duck’s coop clean, you always have to be active to clean their coop area. As I said, such messy ducks just ruin everything without reason.
So, queries may come like, How to keep duck pen from getting muddy? Or people may ask how to clean duck poop from grass near ducks coop?
Well, it’s as simple as breaking eggs! Follow the given ideas:
- You can remove the soiled or muddy pen or coop.
- Try to cover it with fresh wood shavings, hay, or straws.
- Use water to clean the grass near the coop.
- Including swimming, space won’t be a bad idea. I would say a kiddie pool for the baby ducklings and a pond for the mature ducks. It’ll keep them neat and clean, but be sure to keep it in a separate place.
I am thinking about making a pool for my ducks in a separate place, as it helps to remove all their dirt. If you prefer to build the same, the video may help!
All these things become more crucial when they lay eggs, and you have to collect the fresh eggs. Remember, it’s all about hygiene to keep the duck healthy and their eggs fresh.
4. Weekly Coop Cleaning
Personally, I prefer to clean the coop weekly. I don’t think it’s gonna bother that much. For this, remove the bedding and scrub the floors and walls.
But what to use? Use a mild and non-toxic disinfectant, like a mixture of water and white vinegar, which works best. Also, you can use lemon juice, castile soap, or hydrogen peroxide to keep the duck coop clean.
5. Water Management System
Ducks need water for bathing and drinking, so ensure the water management system is running well. Not near the coop, but you can make a separate zone for ducks to swim, drink, or bathe.
An organized coop location a little distance from water sources is good, as ducks splash or spill water and mess things up.
6. Proper Ventilation
Ammonia smell, along with moisture and dirt buildup, is common near the duck’s coop. Besides, the cold environment pushes them to have frostbite when there is a lack of ventilation. So, ducks surely need a dry coop with proper ventilation to let the wind enter and clean off the dirt.
On the other hand, they spend their time in water and come near the coop with the damp body. If they lack adequate ventilation, the wetness makes the coop dirty, and fungal spores or mold grows.
Not to mention, such dirty coops without proper ventilation also cause respiratory problems.
Now, the solution from my side is to ensure proper ventilation. Keep free space on the coops overhead and help your duck to get wind. It will keep the duck as well as the coop condition good.
Also, you can follow the ScienceDirect research about the dynamic energy model of duck houses.
7. Pest Controlling
Pest growth near duck areas is a common thing to see where ducks eat a lot and control pest population. But excessive can ruin the coop area and make it dirty.
Now, how to keep the duck coop clean?
- You can use Diatomaceous Earth or fireplace ash on the floor or near the bath area.
- Phenols or quaternary ammonium compounds can go well with proper cleaning.
- Insect deterrents won’t be any less effective in controlling pests near the duck’s house.
- Natural repellents like lavender or mint herbs discourage the pestlike parasites or others from unclean the coop area.
8. Feeding Ideally
Feeding your ducks anywhere is a wrong move that can ruin your duck’s coop area. Then, what to do?
At least make a distance to feed them in a designated space. It will minimize the chances of food spillage inside their coop that attracts pests and makes the coop dirty.
Also, enough water in a bowl or using a feeder can be crucial to keep the duck coop clean. But don’t give a feeder and water inside the coop! They’ll mess everything up!
However, I personally prefer to give pellets as they won’t mess up the coop and the yard.
9. Ensuring Drainage
Ducks and coop have a bad combination until you try to keep it clean and organized. The area or coop becomes dirty each day.
For this, make a space for drainage when you clean the coop. It will wash away all the dirt and mud to ensure the coop is dry and clean for ducks.
10. Appropriate Bedding
To make you aware, don’t forget that wrong bedding can break their eggs. Also, the ducklings don’t care about the cleanliness!
To keep the duck coop clean, use appropriate bedding types and follow the deep litter method. Well, it’s about including more bedding on top of the soiled bedding. However, check the expert’s discussion about the deep litter method to ensure whether it’s appropriate for your duck coop.
Let the animal snuggle in snowstorms by piling it deep during winter. Also, it’ll help the hen (Female ducks) to build their nest during nesting season.
Alongside, using wood shavings or hay won’t be a bad idea that controls bad odors out of dirt or poop from the coop.
Sorry for missing out on saying brooder bedding cannot be any less valuable! Puppy pee pads are best, according to me and other duck owners. But it needs to be changed after 48 to 72 hours. But keep the dirty bedding as it can be amazing mulch or compost.
11. Necessarily Composting
Keeping the duck coop seems a little challenging as they ruin the house every single day. However, the composting system can also contribute as a fertilizer for your garden.
12. Proper Training
You make a bond with your duck when staying together for a long. So, try to train them to return to their coop on time. It drastically shows a big change near the coop condition. But how?
Ducks gonna stay in the yard for a specific time and enter their house on time is something challenging, but they’re trainable.
Well, I don’t want them to mess things up, so if they start to overcrowd, I just hush them to enter their coop. Also, I try to give them food and water as a routine.
So they don’t get any chance to ruin the coop as I train them to stay on one side. For example, taking them to a specific place for eating, leaving them to forage, and letting them swim or stay in the water for a while.
But unfortunately, you cannot potty train your duck. So, be active to see what they do and when they try to mess up. Be a parent rather than just a duck raiser!
How About No Coop Solution For Ducks?
Well, it seems awkward, but if the ideas I shared don’t convince you somehow, follow the no-coop solution. If you have enough space, let them freely stay in your poultry farm or in the yard.
But I personally don’t like to leave them in a broad area where predators are more prone to visit and hurt the ducks. However, the idea is good when you ensure a balanced diet, foraging space, a duck pond, and, of course, safety overnight.
Related Reads:
8 Tips To Clean Coop For Ducks
So, you understand what you should do to keep the duck’s coop clean. But don’t you need the right way to clean it? Check the ideas to clean the coop!
1. Temporary Move The Duck
Just before you start cleaning the coop, take the duck to some other place. It’s to save them from any chemical substances during sterilization or cleaning.
2. Cleaning Duck Coop
Start cleaning by removing all the dirt, like food containers. Dirt can come from anywhere, like inside, outside, or near the surface of the duck coop, as it causes bacteria or virus growth.
To clean, use a wire brush or broomstick and ensure there is no bad odor coming.
3. Washing Duck Coop
Start by removing all the things in the coop, for example, bedding or other equipment. Right after that, scrub the surfaces with a mild disinfectant.
Using detergent is okay to wash as it works like antiseptic. But use detergent with water to ensure the mixture becomes foamy. Now, rinse thoroughly and let the surface become dry.
4. Using Spray Tool
You can get a spray to clean off all the dirt in the duck’s coop. Using a sprayer with high pressure, like 30-40 bars, is a proper way to remove any sticky dirt from the coop.
Although there is no specific spray tool for cleaning ducks’ coop, use a garden hose with a spray nozzle. However, using a water bucket, brushes, or scrubbers is always best!
5. Applying Disinfectant
In this step, How and what to use as a disinfectant or cleaning agent? Well, disinfectant like Virkon S is quite effective. Also, you can use other antibacterial or other disinfecting cleaning solutions. You have to spray it properly and rinse the coop.
Well, how should you apply or use any sort of disinfectant? Follow the ideas generated by poultry experts:
- To clean it, simply spritz it with vinegar and wipe it off gently.
- Then, add a spritz of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for more confirmation of disinfecting.
- Finally, mix a solution of water, vinegar (Around a cup), a few drops of rosemary, and lavender essential oil to scrub the swim pan near the coop. It will even remove the bad odor.
6. Using Formalin
Although I said some valuables that disinfect the duck’s coop and keep it clean, formalin with about 0.5% is okay as well. To be more precise, it’s about 10 parts water in 1 part formalin.
But use it carefully as it has a strong odor. For this, you need personal protective equipment (PPE). Besides, wait for 10 to 15 minutes to let the formalin sit. And end up scrubbing and wiping the area.
7. Using Insecticide
Pesticides or insecticides are a solution, but I don’t recommend it to remove insects. Most importantly, avoid insecticides of the organophosphate class.
But as a breeder, an insecticide from the carbamate class or permethrin is okay. To clean the coop, let the coop stay after sterilization for 2 weeks and see the result.
8. Spraying Steps
Now, it’s time to complete the sterilization. So, I said, spray the disinfectant. But your curious mind will ask how to, right?
- The bottom of the duck’s coop is all set, and spray upward first.
- Select the outside wall part and spray from the inside.
- Then, spray the inside part of the coop roof to the inside of the wall.
- And end up washing the floor downward.
However, this video can be an A to Z tips giver for the people who need to know how to make a duck coop and keep it clean.
Final Touch
So, how to keep duck coop clean is now a handy part for the breeders or duck owners, as I said, the effective ideas. Significantly, the right coop size, weekly cleaning, proper ventilation, and a separate zone for feeding, swimming, and foraging can be worthwhile.
Besides, you understand how you should clean the duck’s coop with a proper cleaning solution. While doing so, ensure you wash the coop thoroughly and apply the right disinfectant. Plus, let the coop area dry to be back in a neat and clean condition.
Sources & References:
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1537511022001088
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bedding-for-duckling-brooder.61790/
