This coop began with a 6x6 cedar child's playhouse I found on Craigslist for free.
Around the same time we picked up the playhouse, we also purchased a mated pair of Pomeranian geese, so immediately knew we needed a much bigger house.
So, we added an 8x8 section to the side. The geese claimed the smaller house and the ducks live in the larger house.
Recently, we added a covered feeder area, which can be seen in the last 3 photos.
Here is the original structure before we built the feeder area.
With the new covered feeder area....
A close-up of the feeder area. The black bins are from Tractor Supply. The feed stays dry in all but the worst weather.
Showing the door, which is made of 3/4 x 6" treated t&g. We cut out windows and inlaid 1/4 x 1/4 hardware cloth for screen and framed them with 1/2 x 6" treated trimmed down to 4 1/2 inches. We used a heavy duty gate latch for keeping the door securely shut.
The entire structure is built on top of treated 4x4's that were leveled and staked down. We then inlaid the "sill plate" with 12" square concrete stepping stones, cut to fit. That was topped with 2-3" of river sand and finally a layer of straw or waste hay for nests. It is fairly simple to clean. I roll up the hay/straw which forms large mats, and use them to mulch around the fruit trees in my orchard. The rain gradually washes the goose and duck poo into the soil and fertilizes the trees.
