Three Years of Ducky Adventures!

So, we recently celebrated a big milestone at Lucky Duck Farms; we’ve had our ducks for three years now! We got our girls in July 2019; about a month after we got married. We added the boys to our little flock in August (about 3 weeks later). In honor of our three-year anniversary, I figured I would go over our biggest highlight of the year: our duck run renovation!

A little while ago, we realized we had a rat living under our duck run. This of course was super disappointing, and something we wanted to deal with quickly. So, we decided to get to a project we had meant to do when we first built the run but never got around to: adding a wire floor to the run. We also wanted to take the opportunity to add mats to the floor to hopefully help Petrie with getting around and make it easier for her. This project was primarily done by my amazing husband, with supervision from Lily and I.

We started by removing the ducks, then the house. My husband managed to flip the run on it’s side, and we began digging out the rat tunnels. We quickly realized we didn’t have one rat; we had nearly 25! We were completely shocked at how many we had living in one small area. At this point we went “scorched earth” and went to work digging out every tunnel and tamping down the ground. This took significantly longer than planned.

Let the renovation madness begin!

Once we got the ground prepped, we got to work on installing the galvanized hardware cloth floor. We did a similar concept of how we first built the run; using a combination of screws, washers, and a staple gun to properly secure the wire tight and make sure there were no gaps where rats or predators could dig in to. We had to use two pieces to fit the space, so we zip tied them together in the middle (again, making sure to prevent any gaps). Finally, my husband pushed the run back down into the proper position. From there came one of the most challenging parts, putting in the two 100lb stall mats. This was done for two reasons; first to make sure the ducks weren’t walking on the metal floor and potentially getting bumblefoot, and second to hopefully help support Petrie’s stump (she had recently been avoiding walking as much, so we were hoping the mats would be more comfortable for her). We also installed a thinner mat in the house in case the metal floor in there was bothering her.

Ground tamped down, both floor pieces on and zip tied together.

Both stall mats in place and ready to go

Once the flooring was in place, it was time to put everything back together. We got a super thick layer of shavings down, the house back in place, replaced the food, and refilled the water. Finally, the ducks moved back in. The change in all the ducks was almost immediate, especially with Petrie. Within hours, she was moving around so much more and socializing more. In the weeks since, she has been super active again and seems to be more comfortable moving around the run. Adding the mats has also made cleanup a lot easier and faster as well.

Everyone content in their renovated run (Note Petrie in the doorway of the house, running back and forth with ease!)

All in all, this was a much-needed renovation to the run and a great way to celebrate three years of ducky adventures.