They'll make their own Doodle Holes...
This is an automatic watering trough
I made using a 6' piece of 4" plastic guttering. The end pieces slide
on and have a sealing gasket, but I also used silicone rubber sealant to
assure no leakage. The guttering is supported by and attached to a wooden
cradle of sorts.
I got an automatic water valve from the local farm supply store. The hose connects to it on the left, then the hose goes to a green plastic tub uphill near the pump house. I keep the tub filled, about 30 gallons, and don't try to use the pump directly. I prefer the gravity feed.
The trough rests on a sandscreened rack which permits feces to fall through or be washed away easily. The rack also prevents the area immediately around the trough from rapidly becoming a sloppy, muddy mess. Even so, you can see some of the mud that had resulted from a recent period of prolonged rain. I can always move this watering arrangement to a new location.
And here's the trough being used by
an Indian runner/Pekin mixed duck, the last of the hatchings that I did
on the halves for Tony. The duckling was raised in a brooder with five chicks,
so bonding occurred with them, the half grown mixed bantams that you see
around the ole pub.
I also make use of food grade plastic
barrels which I cut in half lengthwise. These are 30 gallon barrels which
make a nice size for ease of cleaning. I place a brick on either side of
the barrel to prevent tipping, though I think in this photo the barrel is
down in a shallow ditch.
It's easy to tip the half barrel up for rinsing and refilling. The ducks enjoy bathing in the freshly filled tub as they thrash water all over. Many matings take place in this fowl yard spa also.
The ducks in this photo are the "fawn and white" runners that I got from McMurray Hatchery in March 1997. The two drakes visible on the left appear to have more of the markings of "penciled" runners if I understand the color patterns correctly.
The white runners in this photo came
from Holderreads' in Corvallis, Oregon. The brown duck is the runner-Pekin
mix mentioned earlier. Here the ducks are sippin' from an ole whiskey barrel
that I used for a bee water source, hence the concrete block landing pad
inside the barrel.
The barrel had several water hyacinth plants growing in it BTRD... Before The Runner Ducks. The ducks enjoyed fishing the plants out and devouring them.
Doodle holes???? That is what I call the
delightful holes that the ducks make at points where 
water drains
from the water trough, where it accumulates when I dump a water barrel,
or if it rains. I enjoy watching the ducks "doodle" in the water
and mud with their bills...getting all sorts of tender morsels...chattering
with their bills as they filter...murmuring vocally with each other as if
they were comparing notes...standing up erect if disturbed, dirty face and
bill...then back to doodling. Yum! In the photo above, several ducks are
doodling in water that has run down from a dumped water barrel.
The views expressed on this web page are not necessarily the views of Georgia State University, Atlanta GA USA.
James D. Satterfield Canton GA USA jsatt@gsu.edu