Can my duck house get me through the winter?

[Colley12]

Originally my plan was to only have 2 ducks...I think that must be what alot do us say . I have 4 runners about 12 weeks old. 2 drakes, 2 ducks, so I know that I will prob have to get rid of one of the guys. They are all playing nice right now, so we are waiting it out until possibly spring.

My husband built the duck house, no plans just ideas from pictures. It is 3.5' x 2.5' (remember plan was only 2 ducks). The "front porch is pretty much same dimensions, with a roof that covers half for all the rain we get in Oregon.

They only get locked in the red part over night. During the day the whole thing is open for them to come and go as they please. They tend to go there to rest, maybe because I don't have a ton of big bushes to hide under in the backyard but otherwise they are free range in the backyard. They love their house and put themselves to bed at night when it gets dark, I just have to go shut and lock the door.

So really just seeing if this can get me by until we go down to 2-3 ducks or my husband makes some changes in the spring to make it bigger?

 

[ProudRedneck]

IMO, no you won't be able to wait until spring before making necessary arrangements. Your ducks are currently 3 months old and in 2-3 months your ducks will most likely be their adult size and would need 3-4 sq ft per bird in the coop. In addition to their size, your drake's will be coming into their hormones, possibly as soon as one month from now, and by then you will most certainly run into some fighting in the cramped space. I would at least expand the current coop you have and make plans to build what you want/invision in spring or whenever you were planning on starting their new setup.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

No your coop gives them only 2.1875 sq ft. per duck and the bare minimum is 4 SQ ft per duck. Even just over winter that is nowhere near enough space for 4 ducks especially with 2 Drake's. A big factor in a birds physical and mental health is having adequate space. When they are kept in too small of quarters it can result in actual bullying (not the usual pecking order spats), respiratory problems, growth issues and stress. Keeping 4 ducks in that size coop (even with free ranging during the day) would be the equivalent of someone locking you up in a small closet at night where you barely even had enough room to sit down.

 

[Colley12]

Ok thank you for your honest answers. That was what I was afraid of. We will have to downsize to 2 or make the coop bigger in the next week or so.

 

[Colley12]

I'm wondering if we keep all 4, if we just enclosed the "front porch area? That would double the size of the coop. It already has the structure just needs actual walls.

May give me some options later to separate the drakes from the ducks at night too?

Sorry, these questions may seem silly, but first year with ducks....

 

[ProudRedneck]

If you enclose the run and leave the door open from the run to the coop, then in effect you are making the whole thing a coop and they MUST free range, have a separate bigger run somewhere else,or attach a run to the newly expanded coop. No matter which way you do it, 4 sq ft/bird in the coop not counting the run area and 15sq ft/bird for the run area itself.

Edited to add:
Please never feel bad, guilty, or silly for asking questions, because I can promise you that you won't ask anything that we haven't asked ourselves in our first year.

I am still in my first year of raising ducks, 7 months to be exact and I still rely on the veterans of byc to help me out. It's also safe to assume that I will always rely on BYC members considering there will always be someone that knows more and has experienced things before I have come across it.

A few that I look to for advice and "stalk" their responses to other people's posts/questions are:

@Miss Lydia
@casportpony
@ruthhope
@Canadian Wind
@HollowOfWisps

 

[Colley12]

If you enclose the run and leave the door open from the run to the coop, then in effect you are making the whole thing a coop and they MUST free range, have a separate bigger run somewhere else,or attach a run to the newly expanded coop. No matter which way you do it, 4 sq ft/bird in the coop not counting the run area and 15sq ft/bird for the run area itself.

Edited to add:
Please never feel bad, guilty, or silly for asking questions, because I can promise you that you won't ask anything that we haven't asked ourselves in our first year.

I am still in my first year of raising ducks, 7 months to be exact and I still rely on the veterans of byc to help me out. It's also safe to assume that I will always rely on BYC members considering there will always be someone that knows more and has experienced things before I have come across it.

A few that I look to for advice and "stalk" their responses to other people's posts/questions are:

@Miss Lydia
@casportpony
@ruthhope
@Canadian Wind
@HollowOfWisps

I think that is doable, I don't know why I had the front porch, maybe to give them extra softness to sit on since that side of the house has alot of river rock. The rest of the yard is grass and plants.

We live in town and have over 6ft tall fully fenced yard, so they get free rein of the back yard, their kiddie pool is out in the yard. They only get locked up at night in the house. They do like to go lay in there randomly during the day, but spend plenty of time foraging or knocking on the back porch doors wondering when we are going to come and hang out on the porch with them. But hopefully with a more spacious duck house we won't have bullying problems. Thank you!

I've done alot of reading of posts on here and keep an eye on those BYCers you mentioned! I've learned a ton and continue to learn or realize when I need to change something up!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I was going to say the same thing as ProudRedneck. I did the same thing -built for two but I added three. My coop is larger but I always leave the door open between my house a screened area (and free range during the day).
However, I would suggest rehoming a drake sooner than later. If you wait, their hormones will rise in late winter-early spring. You will most likely not realize it until they are trying to kill each other. Yes, it might go fine. But, in as small of a space as you have, it could go really badly. Save yourself the issues and do it sooner. I did not and paid for it.

 

[Colley12]

I was going to say the same thing as ProudRedneck. I did the same thing -built for two but I added three. My coop is larger but I always leave the door open between my house a screened area (and free range during the day).
However, I would suggest rehoming a drake sooner than later. If you wait, their hormones will rise in late winter-early spring. You will most likely not realize it until they are trying to kill each other. Yes, it might go fine. But, in as small of a space as you have, it could go really badly. Save yourself the issues and do it sooner. I did not and paid for it.

I'm not sure which one to rehome That's probably why I haven't done it yet too, besides being super attached to them.
I have one that got his drake feathers around 10 weeks old, my other drake doesn't have the tail feathers but he really whispers.
The one with a drake feather is really attached to one of the females, she puts her neck out and flattens herself in the pool on a regular basis, just for him, not the other. He's mounted her a few times, but no breeding, he usually falls off after about 1 or 2 secs because of balance. The other female today has finally joined in with the stretched neck and flat back in the pool, but he doesn't seem interested.
The other drake just stands on the outside and watches or if he gets in, they all get out. You would think that the easy answer is to get rid of the drake that they don't seem interested in, my other thought is maybe the drake with the drake feathers is the one to go? He seems to already have an appetite that could wear my girls out when he does get it figured out?
suggestions?

Also already talked to the hubby about making it bigger either way, he's a go, just got to figure out how he wants to go about it.

And to add, my sister lives on 30 acres and has a large flock and will take one of the drakes. That was the plan all along if I got more than 2, because we didn't know sexes when we got them...I got hooked on the ducks at her house, she just had a rough time with hatches this year, otherwise I would of just started with 2 from her.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I'm not sure which one to rehome That's probably why I haven't done it yet too, besides being super attached to them.
I have one that got his drake feathers around 10 weeks old, my other drake doesn't have the tail feathers but he really whispers.
The one with a drake feather is really attached to one of the females, she puts her neck out and flattens herself in the pool on a regular basis, just for him, not the other. He's mounted her a few times, but no breeding, he usually falls off after about 1 or 2 secs because of balance. The other female today has finally joined in with the stretched neck and flat back in the pool, but he doesn't seem interested.
The other drake just stands on the outside and watches or if he gets in, they all get out. You would think that the easy answer is to get rid of the drake that they don't seem interested in, my other thought is maybe the drake with the drake feathers is the one to go? He seems to already have an appetite that could wear my girls out when he does get it figured out?
suggestions?

Also already talked to the hubby about making it bigger either way, he's a go, just got to figure out how he wants to go about it.

And to add, my sister lives on 30 acres and has a large flock and will take one of the drakes. That was the plan all along if I got more than 2, because we didn't know sexes when we got them...I got hooked on the ducks at her house, she just had a rough time with hatches this year, otherwise I would of just started with 2 from her.

I tried to keep both of mine with four -five girls. Like I said, it ended badly. One of my drakes would get the drake curl and be dominate. The next year, the other got the drake curl and was dominant. Because I kept them together, they seemed to teach each other to be extra violent to the other ones girls. Eventually, I got rid of the roughest one. Then, the second one became just as rough to two of the girls. I recently re-homed him and kept his son. All the girls instantly started showing off to him a day or two after his daddy was gone. His son is much more gentle but still picks on two of my four current girls. As much as drake ducklings are sweet to us, they really turn into jerks to the girl ducks later on -my experience anyway. You might be right that the less dominant one will be more gentle but he may be holding back because of the other one. If one is smaller that might be your answer as to how to pick. Otherwise, just pick your favorite. The girls will be happy either way.