duck house questions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacey52 

I really hope I'm not being annoying with my newbie questions!!     I have been looking and looking but I can't find anywhere the details on duck houses - like how big, what kind of wood, how would I build it so I can clean it out, how many ventilation windows?   Currently my babies sleep in in a dog crate in the garage.  I put a towel on one side and their food and water on the other side.  They make an incredible mess by morning as I'm sure you can imagine!!  Also on that note, when can I take the food and water at night?  That, I'm sure would help greatly with the mess they make.  I really don't mind, for now, cleaning up after them as long as they do in fact still need it but if they don't it would sure make it a lot easier!!  Thank you so much for your help!!!

Good morning, here is a link to many threads about duck houses.  http://www.backyardchickens.com/search.php?search=Duck+housing 
 as far as food and water inside, it depends on age, when my ducklings are usually around 2 weeks old I take food and water out of their pen, mostly because they have a mama duck who is messier than they are, lol, but mine are out a first light eating, drinking and running around till dusk so i figure bedrooms for sleeping not eating, i don't keep a light on in there so they can't see their feed and water anyway, and I haven't lost one to dehydration or starvation, I would not tell you to do this your the only one who can do for yours. But this is what I do. How old are your ducklings? 

I cheated. Here is a pic.

I just dropped 5 poles into the ground and cemented them. The roof isn't on yet but you can see how it'll look. I'm going to leave those two top sides open and just put hardware cloth up for vents. Also not doing a door. It's a dirt floor obviously. It'd look a lot better but that top peice was incredibly long and unweildy and I had a hell of a time nailing it up there. Ended up crooked.

Also note the cement pond. :)

I also used a dog kennel for my ducks. However I had it in the barn and I fenced in a little run type area for them. The run was dirt and I put hay on top of it. That way I only had to replace the hay once a week and it stayed pretty darn nice for 5 ducks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacey52 

Thank you for sharing.  I'm imagining a dog house style with vents at the peaks and maybe a window that can close when it's cold, and a door that closes (obviously) I did find pretty much exactly what I was picturing online but it's in the UK. I'll try to find the link to what I'm talking about. 

Ok, this isn't exactly what I had found before, but it's close - http://shop.thefishsite.com/detail/561/the-naburn-duck-house/

Thats a nice house, just needs some windows, lots of ventilation in duck house is very important for their health. so venting below roof to let out hot air and windows of some kind with hardware cloth to keep out preds. We bought our windows at Habitat thrift store, I only close windows in winter if it's going to be stormy and then the tops are open and it gets pretty cold here below freezing and into teens alot of nights. mostly you just want to keep them out of drafts. 

We thought we had made a predator proof duck house, but about six months later somekind of animal was able to get in.  I had four inches wide vents on that went along the roof that were covered with chicken wire.  Some animal was able to chew through it and kill one of my ducks and bad injured two others.  Be very careful of the venting.  We thought there was no way an animal could squeeze through that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubbysan 

We thought we had made a predator proof duck house, but about six months later somekind of animal was able to get in.  I had four inches wide vents on that went along the roof that were covered with chicken wire.  Some animal was able to chew through it and kill one of my ducks and bad injured two others.  Be very careful of the venting.  We thought there was no way an animal could squeeze through that.

  chicken wire is NEVER predator proof. It is fine to protect from aerial attacks but pretty much useless for anything else. I use 1/2 hardware cloth in window's or vents. Then as an added precaution put wood or metal slats across that. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubbysan 

We thought we had made a predator proof duck house, but about six months later somekind of animal was able to get in.  I had four inches wide vents on that went along the roof that were covered with chicken wire.  Some animal was able to chew through it and kill one of my ducks and bad injured two others.  Be very careful of the venting.  We thought there was no way an animal could squeeze through that.

Yes hardware cloth is the only way to go. I have heard too many heartbreaking stories about chicken wire and preds.