Design and Maintanace of Duck coop. Pic Heavy. ????

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Fancie

Fancie

Songster
11 Years
Oct 31, 2008
795
4
151
Illinois
Now here are some questions... should I keep to the bare ground... or maybe concreate or even brick?? I was thinking rocks around the pond?? How should I look at setting up the clean up issue. What should I use as bedding. Right now there is poop everywhere and It's kinda gross... and they have only been in it for 2 weeks.

How do I make this easy to clean... and what kind of cleaning regiment am I looking at???

Okay so I am near the end of raising the meat ducks, and near the start of raising the muscovy. Thankfully I raised the meat ducks as they have taught me some of the things I need to correct in my planning on making the duck coop. Some things that I may need to change I am not the happiest about... but what do you do.

Here is what I have now...

coop-1.jpg

3.gif
This is the whole run. The shed has 3 x 6 area that is connected as well. The two runs can be divided each are 7 x 8 1/2 Feet (at the longest point). They are divided so that I can keep the birds out of the pond if I need to.
coop2.jpg

3.gif
This is the main Run
coop3.jpg

3.gif
This is the water garden area. It is getting torn apart when the ducks get out and we are putting a drain in the pond to make it easier to clean
untitled.jpg

3.gif
Just blue print ish.

We are redoing the wiring, some framing, etc.

Now here are some questions... should I keep to the bare ground... or maybe concreate or even brick?? I was thinking rocks around the pond?? How should I look at setting up the clean up issue. What should I use as bedding. Right now there is poop everywhere and It's kinda gross... and they have only been in it for 2 weeks.

How do I make this easy to clean... and what kind of cleaning regiment am I looking at???
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I moved the question up to make it easier to see....

Now here are some questions... should I keep to the bare ground... or maybe concreate or even brick?? I was thinking rocks around the pond?? How should I look at setting up the clean up issue. What should I use as bedding. Right now there is poop everywhere and It's kinda gross... and they have only been in it for 2 weeks.

How do I make this easy to clean... and what kind of cleaning regiment am I looking at???

Any Suggestions??
 
Last edited by a moderator:
HI Fancie,

Those are actually very hard questions! I think coming up with a cleaning routine really depends heavily on your individual set - up. If I could have the perfect pen and only had a limited area I'd use pea gravel with a grassy area so they could rest their feet. Right now mine all free range or in very large pens (50x50) so I don't have to clean anything. Pea gravel woudl be nice to just hose down though.

I prefer straw for bedding, mostly because I always have some around and it is cheaper. Plus it makes a good nest. It does get nasty if there is a lot of water near-by. I use a combination of shavings and straw in the brooder though.

I do have one breeding pen right now that is small, 8x8, where my call ducks are. I have a small feed tub for swimming water and a small 1 gallon bucket for drinking water, a row of nest boxes, and straw for the floor covering and bedding.
 
So you think pea gravel around the pond??? Should I base the main pen in croncreate before I use straw or other bedding??

I probably could put a small grass patch in the ponds pen... I have never been able to get anything to grow in the main pen.

The main pen is an old pheasant coop we built about 5 years ago. We inclosed the pond last year.
 
Quote:
I don't think you must have concrete under your main pen, but it would be nice when cleaning to just hose it off! In my opinion, I think pea gravel next to the pnd is a good idea, will cut down on mud and you can hose it as well.
 
this is my opinion and i have never used it but if you put concrete with a drain and then pea gravel on top it would be easy to clean but like someone else said just put in a grassy area so they could be outside and rest their feet at the same time. if you want grass to grow then you could put seed down and then keep them out for a few weeks then just put a thin layer of straw so it grows taller faster. just down let them on it full time until it gets a little older and thicker
 
Well, I can't speak to your flooring and bedding issues for the duck house (our ducks have steadfastly ignored the one we built for them), but I would definitely recommend rocks around your pond!

We have a small sunken garden pond for our ducks much like yours, and without rocks, they'd have made an absolute soupy mess out of the ground around it.

We used pieces of flagstone around the pond edge itself, and then used round river rock for about a foot past that. The river rock is held in place by plastic garden edging.

We went a bit overboard, and I think in hindsight we could have used either the flagstone or the river rock held in place with the garden edging, and it would have been fine.

Here's a photo of how we did it:

2008-0526%20015.gif


I do think, though, that any kind of rock around the pond edge will work-- it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.
 

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