Building A Duck House

[kkara]

I am an A-level Product Design student. My sister owns ducks and therefore, for my coursework I make a cheap, temporary nesting house designed to hold 1 duck and her nest/ brood. It is made from Corriflute (the plastic version of corrugated card) and is intended for self assembly which can easily be done with no specialist tools. The house is secure to the ground using guy lines and flat packs when not in use. Any comments you may have, (good or bad!) would be extremely helpful. If you have any questions, please ask! I would probably sell the house at around £30-40 which is higher than intended but still a lot cheaper than many of the other houses on the market.

Also, I need to backtrack slightly on my coursework so here are some questions intended for the start of the project. Again, I would be very grateful for any help.

1) How much would you be willing to pay for a 1 duck & 4 duckling capacity nesting house?
2) Have you encountered any problems with the duck houses currently available on the market?
3) What do you look for when buying a duck house?
4) Have you attempted to make your own house? If yes, what did you need to consider and what problems did you have?
5) Do you have any other comments which I may find helpful?

Thank You

K Kara

Here are some photos of the house:

 

[Cassie Collins]

Most people don't have just 1 duck bc they are social animals. I only have 3, but wouldn't want to house them separate. I live in Texas & I can't find duck houses/pens anywhere. I had to buy a rabbit hutch & pen & alter it. I paid almost $300 for a house, pen & material for alterations. Ducks have many predators from hawks, owls, snakes, cats, opposums, raccoons, dogs, & fox, so their safety is my MAIN concern. Fox can dig & raccoons can reach their crafty little paws up holes . Ducks also need ventilation, which I did not see in your design. Most people use Hardware Cloth for that. I hope this helps .

 

[Bellatrixed]

That house is in no way practical for a duck and actually looks inhumane. I imagine it's pitch black in there and it looks like there's barely room for the mother duck to move around, let alone its fast-growing babies! The door is too low for the duck to even walk in without hunching down. Not natural or desirable for the duck in the least.

Aside from that, I imagine it isn't predator proof at all.

Poultry housing is made out of wire and wood for a reason... sorry!

 

[Cassie Collins]

Good point about it being dark & the door is too short.

 

[kkara]

Thank you for your comments. They were very helpful. The intention is that they would only be separated until the ducklings are not at risk of being killed by the other adults as this has happened to us in the past. We had difficulty too and ended up re purposing a plastic children's play house which has worked really well so far. I hadn't considered raccoons as we don't really get them here but that's a really good point.There is a small amount of ventilation in the base but it definitely needs more. I used wire mesh. Would that do a similar job? The only difference I can see is the shape of the holes.

Thanks again

 

[kkara]

That house is in no way practical for a duck and actually looks inhumane. I imagine it's pitch black in there and it looks like there's barely room for the mother duck to move around, let alone its fast-growing babies! The door is too low for the duck to even walk in without hunching down. Not natural or desirable for the duck in the least.

Aside from that, I imagine it isn't predator proof at all.

Poultry housing is made out of wire and wood for a reason... sorry!

Please could you expand on the reasons for wood and wire? I did intend to make it out of that but was steered to my teacher towards plastic as it is seen as more hygienic and easier to clean.

I think inhumane is a bit harsh but thanks for your other comments. This is only a prototype and there are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out. I completely agree about the door, it's size had to be reduced during the making. Would the darkness be a problem at night? The top can be removed during the day to let light and air in.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

I think its kind of cool, but it would need to be way bigger for my flock!

 

[Cassie Collins]

I

That house is in no way practical for a duck and actually looks inhumane. I imagine it's pitch black in there and it looks like there's barely room for the mother duck to move around, let alone its fast-growing babies! The door is too low for the duck to even walk in without hunching down. Not natural or desirable for the duck in the least.

Aside from that, I imagine it isn't predator proof at all.

Poultry housing is made out of wire and wood for a reason... sorry!

Thank you for your comments. They were very helpful. The intention is that they would only be separated until the ducklings are not at risk of being killed by the other adults as this has happened to us in the past. We had difficulty too and ended up re purposing a plastic children's play house which has worked really well so far. I hadn't considered raccoons as we don't really get them here but that's a really good point.There is a small amount of ventilation in the base but it definitely needs more. I used wire mesh. Would that do a similar job? The only difference I can see is the shape of  the holes.

Thanks again 

I believe wire mesh is the same. Can you post a pic of the alterations?

 

[Bellatrixed]

Please could you expand on the reasons for wood and wire? I did intend to make it out of that but was steered to my teacher towards plastic as it is seen as more hygienic and easier to clean.

I think inhumane is a bit harsh but thanks for your other comments. This is only a prototype and there are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out. I completely agree about the door, it's size had to be reduced during the making. Would the darkness be a problem at night? The top can be removed during the day to let light and air in.

Wood, wire, or anything else heavy and sturdy are required for poultry housing to keep them safe from predators.

I don't mean to be harsh--I don't think you're out to intentionally mistreat your ducks, but the very cramped interior coupled with no light/good airflow is not anything I would ever want to subject an animal to. Also, the plastic might cause issues with baby ducks since they are prone to spraddle leg, caused from walking on slick surfaces. Not sure if you have bedding in there or not.

I'd suggest googling duck/chicken houses... it's generally recommended to have 4 to 10 square feet of space per duck in a house, and people usually have hardware cloth or some other heavy duty, predator-proof wire the duck can see through in at least part of it.

 

[nayeli]

Even temporary housing should be bigger. It should be at least 2x the size of the duck and predator proof. Also how do you plan to get the ducks to go in there?