In the Spring, we'll be moving from more rural northern Massachusetts to more urban St. Louis. Going from ~5 acres of land (75% of which are woods) to 0.4 acres, pretty flat and manicured. Interestingly enough, our new neighborhood not only will allow us to house a duck (in the backyard, with the coop not visible from the street, no more than 4 animals of any kind), but would also allow us a horse! (Regulations going back to the late 1800's, no doubt.)
Our three ducks will be coming with us. (That knocked out half the towns/municipalities in St. Louis. If anyone needs a list, my wife has talked to all of the municipalities in the area, and knows the regulations on ducks and housing.) But it will be a different lifestyle for them and us!
Here, we just dump their straw in the woods, and dump the water tubs behind the pen. No worries about run off into the neighbors yard. And we have built them a decent sized pond, which can handle the bio-load, and aside from having a filter, also runs the water through a bog to be filtered by plants.
We won't be having nearly that much room anymore, and now have to worry much more about run off to the neighbors.
Does anyone have any good suggestion on urban coop design? And more importantly, does anyone have any good suggestions/design for urban water features for the ducks that will be easy to maintain, and won't need us cleaning it all the time? I'm thinking now a standing water feature that recirculates through a filter. My wife would like a small pond incorporated to the coop. We're not sure we can design something that can handle the bio-load. (As people here know, the girls can poop up a storm during egg laying season!) Anyone with urban experience who have solved some of these problems, we'd love to hear your ideas.
And if anyone has good recommendations of water feature builders/suppliers in the St. Louis, let us know!
Our three ducks will be coming with us. (That knocked out half the towns/municipalities in St. Louis. If anyone needs a list, my wife has talked to all of the municipalities in the area, and knows the regulations on ducks and housing.) But it will be a different lifestyle for them and us!
Here, we just dump their straw in the woods, and dump the water tubs behind the pen. No worries about run off into the neighbors yard. And we have built them a decent sized pond, which can handle the bio-load, and aside from having a filter, also runs the water through a bog to be filtered by plants.
We won't be having nearly that much room anymore, and now have to worry much more about run off to the neighbors.
Does anyone have any good suggestion on urban coop design? And more importantly, does anyone have any good suggestions/design for urban water features for the ducks that will be easy to maintain, and won't need us cleaning it all the time? I'm thinking now a standing water feature that recirculates through a filter. My wife would like a small pond incorporated to the coop. We're not sure we can design something that can handle the bio-load. (As people here know, the girls can poop up a storm during egg laying season!) Anyone with urban experience who have solved some of these problems, we'd love to hear your ideas.
And if anyone has good recommendations of water feature builders/suppliers in the St. Louis, let us know!
