We are about to start construction on our Brood House.... So my question to you.. What would you have done different in yours?? Pictures if anyone has them would be great.
Our Plan.
We are planning on converting our old avairy (duck pens and pheasant/quail) into the Brood House..
The main part is 16x34 (maybe 32) and the little part of it is 13x13. We are going to take the wall doen between the two and have on large pen. On the back walls, which on are the east side of the pens we are goign to build brood boxes. We have 1 large one now that we raised the mallards in that will stay. We are going to do a combination of wet and dry brooders since we have lots of divers. the floor of the boxes in going to be a wire/woodd mixture and underneath the brrod boxes is going to be concrete so we can easily wash them out and clean the house easily. The back side of the pen is totally shaded so they will only be getting afternoon sun which the tree line will cut out on a few hours of that too. Inside the house we are going to concrete the back half under the boxes and have small 3x4ft swallow pond in it. The front will be sand. We are plannign on putting the babies in the brood boxes once they hatch and leaving them in a box until they are 2-3 weeks old (when they start to get feathers) then putting them out the brood boxes in this oen for a week or two before moving them to the outside catch pen that is next to the big avairy.
The brood house pond will have fresh water running 24/7 to keep it cleaned.
Any thoughts?
This is what it looks like now less the birds since they have been moved
Currently we have 75 pair of birds and are expecting aroudn 200-300 ducklings this year.. With any luck though we will have lots more! Doign the math based on 6 ducklings per pair we could have up to 450 but some of them are this years birds and won't lay and some are hard to get to lay... keep your fingers crossed!!
Our Plan.
We are planning on converting our old avairy (duck pens and pheasant/quail) into the Brood House..
The main part is 16x34 (maybe 32) and the little part of it is 13x13. We are going to take the wall doen between the two and have on large pen. On the back walls, which on are the east side of the pens we are goign to build brood boxes. We have 1 large one now that we raised the mallards in that will stay. We are going to do a combination of wet and dry brooders since we have lots of divers. the floor of the boxes in going to be a wire/woodd mixture and underneath the brrod boxes is going to be concrete so we can easily wash them out and clean the house easily. The back side of the pen is totally shaded so they will only be getting afternoon sun which the tree line will cut out on a few hours of that too. Inside the house we are going to concrete the back half under the boxes and have small 3x4ft swallow pond in it. The front will be sand. We are plannign on putting the babies in the brood boxes once they hatch and leaving them in a box until they are 2-3 weeks old (when they start to get feathers) then putting them out the brood boxes in this oen for a week or two before moving them to the outside catch pen that is next to the big avairy.
The brood house pond will have fresh water running 24/7 to keep it cleaned.
Any thoughts?
This is what it looks like now less the birds since they have been moved
Currently we have 75 pair of birds and are expecting aroudn 200-300 ducklings this year.. With any luck though we will have lots more! Doign the math based on 6 ducklings per pair we could have up to 450 but some of them are this years birds and won't lay and some are hard to get to lay... keep your fingers crossed!!
