Cleaning Sand in a Duck Yard

[@jjanel1984]

How often do you clean the sand like this?

[@jesseserfling6807]

Lol it's like a sand blender. I am new to ducks and have been watching lots of videos and yours seem to be the most informational thanks

[@janeneh.3093]

Great information for cleaning sand in your duck yard! I just got two ducklings and am looking at different options for them. Thanks for your detailed information! 😊 You have gone to a lot of work putting everything together for your ducks!👍👏As I was watching your video I had a thought.... To help get rid of all the pine needles maybe putting a half inch hardware cloth attached to a 2in. By 2 in. wooden frame(then somehow make it so you can attached and detach as needed to your cleaning drum) so that the screen would catch most of the pine needles and debris from the sand. Same with the vacuum hose, put a screen on it when sucking up the water. Just a thought😊 I must say though, I'm impressed with all the work that you put into it all! 👏👏👏I could never get my husband to do that for my ducks. 🙄😕

[@jrob8764]

I am glad I found this old video I Use sand in my chicken coop was thinking about getting some Khaki cambell ducks but I think this has changed my mind chickens ain't this much work to keep sand clean.

[@smithmal01]

Duck poop is much more liquidity vs. chicken poop so I can understand your concern about that. If you have chickens, then I'd stick with them. The pros of raising ducks though is that: 1. Duck eggs are larger (more protein) and more nutrious (more vitamins) 2. Ducks can lay as much and some times more eggs than chickens (depending on the breed) 3. Many individuals that have chicken egg allergies don't have issues with duck eggs 3. Ducks are more rugged (don't require heat in the winter) 4. Ducks have a much stronger immunity system (don't have as many illness issues)

[@johnfitbyfaithnet]

@@smithmal01 excellent reply thanks

[@tammiechacra9623]

I live in north AZ and it is still desert with snow but and very little rain. So it is sand and I tend to rack the poop but I have 6 duck at this time. I have a show duck which is large and have Ravens that would steal egg before any other animal. Do I have to worry about the sand were the ducks are no water accumulates any were.

[@Survival-fr4ow]

Thanks for the information.

[@Euphroe]

Can a person cut one hole and use a PVC "Sanitary Y" in the catch barrel? Has anyone tried this?

[@smithmal01]

Not sure I understand your question. Can you provide additional details?

[@conneraldrich2156]

After doing this do you still recommend sand? Or would you rather do something like pea gravel?

[@smithmal01]

Great question Conner! My first recommendation would be to let your ducks free range. In my case, I can't do that b/c of my dogs and other neighborhood dogs or predators would kill them eventually (the farm where I purchase my ducks lost their whole flock to foxes). So, if you have to keep your ducks secure, you'll need to figure out a way to keep their yard clean. I looked into hay/straw, gravel and finally sand. I settled on sand b/c of its filtering properties and its easy to clean (it also stays cool in the summer and retains heat in the winter). I also wanted a yard covering that I could recover the duck manure from in order to use it with my garden and fruit trees. My first year with sand was problematic and difficult. My initial effort at cleaning the sand used a large utility cart to remove, clean and return sand to the duck yard. This involved: 1. Shoveling the sand to a utility cart outside of the yard 2. Moving the utility cart to my yard and filling with water 3. Agitating the sand, dump rinse (at my trees) and repeat (9 times) 4. Moving cart of rinsed sand back to the duck yard 5. Shoveling sand back into yard and then racking it back into place Needless to say this was back breaking work. It took about 5-6 hours and b/c of the labor, I didn't clean the sand as frequently as I should have. B/c of this, manure built up in the coop and I eventually lost two ducks to disease (E.coli most likely). I still liked the idea of recycling the sand and using the manure as fertilizer for my garden/fruit trees (which is a fabulous fertilizer BTW). So I decided that rather than removing the sand from the yard, I needed to find a way to clean it in the yard to reduce labor. The video above is an accumulation of the "R&D" for this effort. With the video system above, I've cut the time from 5-6 hours to 2 hours and the labor by like 75% (since I'm basically sitting on a chair when cleaning the sand using this system). This system also is much safer than what I was doing before (remember you're constantly dealing with concentrated raw avian fecal material). I've also added a sand disinfection step (see video) and a sand tilling step (which takes me 5 minutes to do the whole yard and is very important). Since then I've lost no ducks. I get about 45-55 gallons of exceptional fertilizer rinse with this system and I can now easily do this once every two or three weeks. Finally, to answer your question about pea gravel. Ducks are very messy. Their poop is very liquidy (vs. chicken poop). I think if you used gravel, you'd eventually turn your duck yard into a giant poop zone with serious cleaning issues. Without having an effective system to clean the gravel, the manure smell would build up and your neighbors (and yourself) would not be happy (not to mention your ducks would be wallowing in their own crap). If/when your get a bad rain storm and have to deal with a pool of water containing multiple inches thick of manure in your gravel, I think it would be a nightmare. Maybe someone has figured out a way to clean gravel, but I haven't seen it posted anywhere on the web or the forums. I'm not saying mine is the best way, but for the number of ducks I have (5-6), and my desire to collect the manure and use it as a fertilizer, this method works well.

[@conneraldrich2156]

Thanks for your reply, and what I've seen people layer the pea gravel with stuff like sand beneath it, and then hose it down to clean it.

[@smithmal01]

The question is, how do they clean the sand beneath the gravel. The sand will eventually become clogged with muck and when you hose down the gravel, you'd create a big pool of muck water (dirty, smelly and dangerous for the ducks). Has anyone posted a video using this system? I'm always interested in learning how others keep their duck yard clean.

[@conneraldrich2156]

Huh, I find people recommending pea gravel but no one saying any reason why it is good... I'll likely just go with sand then.

[@smithmal01]

Not saying gravel wouldn't be a bad way to go, but I'd really do some research on exactly how people are keeping it clean over the long haul (i.e. through 4 seasons/a number of years) so they can speak to how they gravel/sand system is working out for them in the long term. In theory, putting a layer of sand beneath and rinsing off the gravel is a good concept, but like I said, eventually, that sand is going to get clogged (at least in my experience it has). I've been using sand for two years now, so I can definitely speak to its pros and cons.

[@johnfitbyfaithnet]

Cool ideas!

[@kimhawkins8935]

Do you clean all the sand in the paddock, or just the "mucky" areas?

[@smithmal01]

Kim, great question. I clean just the mucky areas as those areas lose their ability to properly act as a filter. I de-compact all areas though. I'm also toying around with the idea of making a 1 gallon mixture of the ASC and putting it in a sprayer and liberally spraying down all the surface of the sand.

[@feltingme]

Very cool setup.

[@smithmal01]

Thanks!

[@bongsolis5579]

Probably late to ask, but do you think Sodium Borate is just as effective (and harmless to ducks) as Sodium Chlorite? I've heard people say it is and it's cheaper too.

[@smithmal01]

I use Sodium Chlorite specifically because of it's ability to react with Citric Acid to create acidified sodium chlorite (ASC) which is a very potent short lived disinfectant against mold, fungus, viral and bacterial particles. When Sodium Chlorite reacts with the free hydrogen of Citric Acid it turns into chlorous acid which is a very potent disinfectant. This acid is short lived as it readily breaks down to Chlorine Dioxide (gas) which is why you see the bubbling of the water when it is used (gas release). Below is a write up of ASC from wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chlorite Acidified sodium chlorite Mixing sodium chlorite solution with a weak food-grade acid solution (commonly citric acid), both stable, produces short-lived acidified sodium chlorite (ASC) which has potent decontaminating properties. Upon mixing the main active ingredient, chlorous acid is produced in equilibrium with chlorite anion. The proportion varies with pH, temperature, and other factors, ranging from approximately 5-35% chlorous acid with 65-95% chlorite; more acidic solutions result in a higher proportion of chlorous acid. Chlorous acid breaks down to chlorine dioxide which in turn breaks down to chlorite anion and ultimately chloride anion. ASC is used for sanitation of the hard surfaces which come in contact with food and as a wash or rinse for a variety of foods including red meat, poultry, seafood, fruits and vegetables. Because the oxo-chlorine compounds are unstable when properly prepared, there should be no measurable residue on food if treated appropriately. ASC also is used as a teat dip for control of mastitis in dairy cattle. As to your question of Sodium Borate and don't know how well it disinfects vs. ASC. It is true that it is much less expensive vs. Sodium chlorite. I do know that Sodium Borate is essentially Borax which can be very toxic so you have to be careful in terms of the concentrations you use. I've read that at very low concentrations (1% or less) it is okay, but I've not read that it has/is used effectively with cleaning animal housing. It is also poorly soluble in water. For these reasons I'd stay away from using Sodium Borate with animals. ASC is used by many for effectively cleaning animal housing (SANOVA, Oxine, etc). You can read about the effectiveness of ASC with food products here: www.academia.edu/4795124/Assessment_of_Sodium_Hypochlorite_and_Acidified_Sodium_Chlorite_as_Antimicrobial_Agents_to_Inhibit_Growth_of_Escherichia_coli_O157_H7_and_Natural_Microflora_on_Shredded_Carrots

[@djpitr]

I love it !!! :) you build a “dredge” for a duck poop :) great system , do you think it’s better use more corse sand ? Like river sand , or evan more corse like little pebbles? Or very fine sand it’s better because it absorbs better ?

[@smithmal01]

If choosing to use sand, use construction sand that has small pebbles in it. It will decrease how quickly it compacts and the ducks can use the small pebbles as grit which is needed for them to properly digest their food.

[@art1show]

@@smithmal01 You mention you use for disinfecting Sodium Chlorite & Citric Acid. Why don't you use bleach to to clean your mucking sand? It would be cheaper too?

[@smithmal01]

@@art1show see my previous reply to you

[@gotshpilkes]

I would incorporate a screen to the first stage of the cleaning process. That would clean out the large debris like pine needles while letting the sand pass through.

[@smithmal01]

Interesting idea. How would you go about doing this? Generally, when I'm manually mixing the sand, all the large debris (pine needles, feathers, leaves, etc) float to the top and I just pull them out therefore very little actually are sucked up to the holding tank. I'm always open to improving the design however.

[@gotshpilkes]

I built her an A-frame from which I hung a square of hardware cloth within a wooden frame. I put a handle on the screen frame so she can shake it. She throws a couple of shovelfuls of trash soil on top and shakes the finer soil through, leaving behind the sticks, larger stones, and weeds/roots. You can use a finer or coarser screen, depending on your needs. Looks something like this (this is not mine but looks like the first iteration): www.soggyhollow.com/uploads/5/6/2/3/56230781/7396726_orig.jpg Your system looks pretty slick though.

[@smithmal01]

Great idea. Do you do this for sand in the coop? I find that my sand can gets clumpy from the mix of water and waste (especially near the water stations). Do you find that your sand gets clumpy before cleaning?

[@gotshpilkes]

I can't have a coop where I live. My wife uses the screen for sifting soil and sand for the garden. When we get several yards of topsoil delivered, there is always a lot of debris--especially noxious weed roots that will take if they aren't removed. Screening has proven to be the quickest way to handle that task. I'm starting to do my homework for when I retire (in a couple of years) to a place where I can have quail, pheasant, and pigeons for training bird dogs, and ducks and chickens for meat and eggs. Maybe a dairy sheep or goat or two. We had ducks when I was a kid--within the city limits of NYC if you can believe it--and they are easy and fun.

[@smithmal01]

Ahhh... makes sense. So duck poo (unlike chicken poo) is pretty liquidy. B/c of this, it causes your sand to clump up if you get any sort of build up (say in two weeks). Add water (from rain or nearby watering stations) and yard debris (like pine needles, leaves, etc) and you've got a clumpy mess which makes sifting almost impossible. I was thinking you were speaking as a person who sifts sand that comes out of your duck yard which is why I could n't quite see how a sand/soil sifter would work. I could see maybe putting screening over the opening of the vacuum hose to stop large particles from being sucked up by the vacuum, but I was also thinking this might greatly impair the vacuum if anything get's stuck to it.

[@ShampooWow]

Awesome video! I like it

[@duskydon]

sodium chloride should not be expensive.

[@smithmal01]

You are correct. Sodium chloride (table salt) is not expensive. What I use is sodium chlorite (which is).