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In a process of building a coop/ Pen combo with all hardware cloth. Have some questions.

post #1 of 31
6/30/12 at 7:11pm
Thread Starter 

Hello I have one question.. ..This pen/ coop combo is 12" high, 8 foot wide and 6 foot wide. I wanted tall structure since i wanted to see mandarin ducks and wood duck flying. The entire structure is covered with hardware cloth and in the coop area, plywood has been placed on the hardware cloth. The guy that is helping me said that raccoon can burst through ply wood and he insisted I put up hardware cloth under Neath.

  1. Second question is I am using r-19 insulation to keep them in the winter time. Do you think that is good?

Duck will have only 8" ramp to get up. I have to show them how. I want to put up pictures but I want to wait until it is all painted to give you guys a surprise.

Also, since I have blue birds, I have live meal worms and until miss Lydia old me, I did not know ducks loves meal worms. I will give them some. From yesterday, I am seeing in the evening time male duck is sitting in front of the small house which is cedar made. Gave them sliced grapes, cherry tomatoes and more.

  • How high these coop height ( notice not width) but height has to be for ducks and chickens?
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post #2 of 31
7/2/12 at 9:53am

I'll try to answer your questions, but I will have a lot of questions, too.

 

How many ducks will you have in that enclosure? Are you having just ducks or chickens too? I would recommend keeping waterfowl separate from chickens, the ducks are wet and dirty whereas the chickens want to be dry (and dirty).

 

Racoons will do a lot of damage to get to your birds, so the more protection you can offer, the better.

 

Where are you located? I'm in Maine and I don't insulate the coop. In fact, my coop is open. On really bad nights when the wind chill is insanely below zero or when there's a blizzard I will put a blanket over the front of the coop to block some of the wind and snow. I had a dog house in the duck enclosure that was much more "solid" than the coop they have and they hated it. I think they enjoy seeing out the sides and getting some fresh air. I moved the dog house out and just have their open sided coop. No insulation necessary.

 

The height of your coop depends on your comfort. You'll be in there mucking it out, so make it comfortable for you. My chicken coop is 8 feet tall, and I can walk around in there without worrying about hitting my head on the roosts (it's a big coop) but my duck coop is about 3.5 feet high - it's tiny and I can muck it out with a hoe in about 3 minutes.

 

And because I prefer pictures to tell my story:

 

Here is my ghetto fabulous duck coop, you can see the open sides:

 

312199_228921770495725_100001337108712_602440_629710287_n.jpg

 

Duck enclosure before I moved the dog house out (it was too crowded and they hated the dog house):

416500_288860937835141_100001337108712_768654_530884035_o.jpg

 

Chicken coop for size comparison (coop is insulated with R-13 but all the windows and vents are open in the winter unless it's actively blizzarding):

330130_252079038179998_100001337108712_670041_1574854567_o.jpg

 

My grow out hoop coop for roosters (it's about 4 inches too short for me to stand completely up in, and I bang my head almost daily - curse myself for not making it tall enough to stand up in):

hoopcoop.jpg
 

A lonely blue girl guards the riverbed, she shakes her brown torch at the tide...

 

 

 

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A lonely blue girl guards the riverbed, she shakes her brown torch at the tide...

 

 

 

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post #3 of 31
7/2/12 at 11:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by superchemicalgirl View Post

I'll try to answer your questions, but I will have a lot of questions, too.

 

How many ducks will you have in that enclosure? Are you having just ducks or chickens too? I would recommend keeping waterfowl separate from chickens, the ducks are wet and dirty whereas the chickens want to be dry (and dirty).

 

Racoons will do a lot of damage to get to your birds, so the more protection you can offer, the better.

 

Where are you located? I'm in Maine and I don't insulate the coop. In fact, my coop is open. On really bad nights when the wind chill is insanely below zero or when there's a blizzard I will put a blanket over the front of the coop to block some of the wind and snow. I had a dog house in the duck enclosure that was much more "solid" than the coop they have and they hated it. I think they enjoy seeing out the sides and getting some fresh air. I moved the dog house out and just have their open sided coop. No insulation necessary.

 

The height of your coop depends on your comfort. You'll be in there mucking it out, so make it comfortable for you. My chicken coop is 8 feet tall, and I can walk around in there without worrying about hitting my head on the roosts (it's a big coop) but my duck coop is about 3.5 feet high - it's tiny and I can muck it out with a hoe in about 3 minutes.

 

And because I prefer pictures to tell my story:

 

Here is my ghetto fabulous duck coop, you can see the open sides:

 

312199_228921770495725_100001337108712_602440_629710287_n.jpg

 

Duck enclosure before I moved the dog house out (it was too crowded and they hated the dog house):

416500_288860937835141_100001337108712_768654_530884035_o.jpg

 

Chicken coop for size comparison (coop is insulated with R-13 but all the windows and vents are open in the winter unless it's actively blizzarding):

330130_252079038179998_100001337108712_670041_1574854567_o.jpg

 

My grow out hoop coop for roosters (it's about 4 inches too short for me to stand completely up in, and I bang my head almost daily - curse myself for not making it tall enough to stand up in):

hoopcoop.jpg
 

Nice pics and advise. 

Living in the Beautiful Mountains of Western N.C.. with 23 chickens= EE's, Game, Cochin bantams,Light Brahma, 7 Black Australorps 16Muscovy ducks, 1Embden Gander,1 Toulouse goose, 3 mini Dachshunds, 1 mixed breed, pond goldfish,  and a wonderful Husband who makes it all possible..♥

 



 

 

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Living in the Beautiful Mountains of Western N.C.. with 23 chickens= EE's, Game, Cochin bantams,Light Brahma, 7 Black Australorps 16Muscovy ducks, 1Embden Gander,1 Toulouse goose, 3 mini Dachshunds, 1 mixed breed, pond goldfish,  and a wonderful Husband who makes it all possible..♥

 



 

 

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post #4 of 31
7/2/12 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 

I will put pictures up later painted.  It is all insulated and all open with a gable roof on it. It took me 3 days to build it.

I had to be extreamly creative and stuff with chicken and duck ramps. I have two chicken ramp and one duck ramp.

 

I have this gable roofed that is tall 12X 8 ft and 6 foot wide.

 

It has to match my landscapoing and I could not just stick in a big box. This is the first day when we build it. From then, it improved significantly. I will put a coop door soon but it is all enclosed and the exterior pen door automatically locks and has many amanties to securely lock it. The entire thing is make out of hardwire cloth and it also went under the plywood. There is plenty of ventilatoin and iin the winter time, I will just put a big turf around it so I do not have to go back and forth when windchill is down below 0. My kois are so much more easier since hoenstly, they go down on their own and I do not have to do any thing.

 

 This is the firday progress and today is the third day.

 

I have to now paint this coop to match this house. Otherwide my friend is not going to be happy. It must match. I already started painting and hope to get most of it done today.

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post #5 of 31
7/2/12 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 

Also, please advise me with this coop/ pen combo that is 12 foot high, 8 foot length and 6 foot wide, which has 6 coops that are 13 X 27" each. with a pen that is

6 foot X 8 foot .. how many biifs I can really have?

 

Please realize that I will post pictures and please watch for my post to answer this questions. I do know that without pictures , it is hard for you to explain stuff to me.

Again there are 6 coops . each of them are 3 foot wide and 27" deep with a outside pen that is 6 foot x * foot. How many chicken/ ducks can I have? 

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post #6 of 31
7/2/12 at 2:02pm
Thread Starter 

Also, would you kinly advise me what do do with this pea green water? It happened after ducks being there only for 2 days. If they go to my pond, they will kill off my Kois since

growth of Algae will shoot my PH up and that will cuase my beautiful Kois to die? I have 300 watt UV filter in the big pond but this one is small pond that is right of my eat-in area.

 

Please look at the pictuer before and after and please advise.

 

this is the pond about three weeks ago when I put stones aroudit to make it look nice and please look at two more pictures and you will seec current condition.

 

this is two weeks back and the next picture will show what is its condition now.

 

Now please watch what happend after two days of being in this nice clean pond that is infront of my eat-in-area.

 

 

After duck being in the above pond for two days

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post #7 of 31
7/2/12 at 2:03pm
Thread Starter 

Also, i am Ohio.

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post #8 of 31
7/2/12 at 2:24pm

Your coop looks great! Really nice job. Generally you want at least 4 square foot per bird, at a minimum, and more for bigger ducks. So I'd say 6 ducks MAX per your 6x8 coop and enclosure. The height won't matter to ducks, and will matter to chickens only if you build a roost up high. The less ducks, the less mess. I have 4 ducks in a 10x10 and it's gross in there. I'll be getting rid of 2 more ducks next time we butcher roosters. The ducks also free range when we let them and it's still gross in there. You see already how gross ducks can be in your pond. You'll have to find a way to keep them out if you want it to stay clean, whether it's fencing them out or putting a large built up wall around it that they can't hop up onto. The ducks will mess in your pond in a short amount of time. No filter will help you. It will kill your fish, unfortunately. I got mine a 55 gallon rubbermaid tub which I change out every few days (I use the water to water my garden) and then a black bucket tub for daily water changes, although it doesn't stay clean very long.

 

Here's a photo of their "pond" (that froze over) and then their water bucket.

 

 

 

walk on water.jpg
 

A lonely blue girl guards the riverbed, she shakes her brown torch at the tide...

 

 

 

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A lonely blue girl guards the riverbed, she shakes her brown torch at the tide...

 

 

 

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post #9 of 31
7/3/12 at 12:38pm
Thread Starter 

I feel so good talking to you and Mrs. Lydia here without being judged. I am new into this and today these ducks were checking out my big pond.

They walked all the way from small to big pond and hung out on the side. Right on.... today without seeing your post, I put a sump pump and watered my garden thinking that

this will help really to fertilize as I do with my filter ( bead filter ) water from fish crap. I won't buy miracle grow for the back yard but only to the frong yeard since I can't reach with the hose.

 

Thanks for your advise. I am just thinking since I build the pen, I will just get illusive wood ducks and pin tail ducks and keep them in the pen and wont' let them out. I head they are illusive in nature and wonder away unlike malladrs. I will also get a 55 gallon Rubber maid since mine is tall Rubber mail that is 100 gallon which ducks can't climb.

 

Also, let me go out there and snap some pictures of some painted coop since I completed painting outside but just primed the inside. Tomorrow, we will paint the inside. Then I will

post more.

 

Among wood duck, Apricot wood duck and pin tail, which one are good show birds? I know Muscovies and Ruens are egg laying and meat duck.

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post #10 of 31
7/3/12 at 12:39pm
Thread Starter 

Also, I am really disappointed to smell and see their coop after I cleaned it out on Sunday. My large Kois do not need this type of maintanance.

Sorry, I just need to complain for a while and then I will get used to it. Yes, they are real mess.

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