thanks to Chosen Chickens, I found the lovely program called SketchUp, which made making the plans for my new duck pen sooooo much easier to create. this time I am paying a contractor (my cousin's company) to build the pen for me. I had the drawings done on draft paper but needed good plans to give him to follow. Here are the final designs...
The pen is going into the 3rd bedroom of mine and Joe's, aka Duck_feeder, townhouse in downtown Chicago. The bedroom is a little bigger than 10' x 12', and the pen will be 9 1/2' x 10'. the pen will be 7ft tall. It'll take up nearly the whole room leaving room for us to access the pen and the closet in the room. Overall, the pen will have about 130 square feet of space, and could hold up to 9.2 ducks. lol. We only have six, so they should be just fine with the space. (we are still thinking about getting two or 3 more ducks in the future).
The pen itself will be made out of plywood and lumber. It'll be painted nicely and will be caulked and sealed. The main floor consists of a run area, and a coop/nest box area. There are two sections upbove the first level (the 2nd floors) that house a food center, and a forage center.
Here is the pen from the front, you will only see this wall of the pen in the room, the other walls of the pen will be against the walls of the room. The long door on the bottom give us access to the nest box for egg collection while the smaller one to the left of it will have a screen and will allow us to open it to use the heater when it gets cold in there, or to help with air flow. The door on the left is for us to get in and out of the pen, and the three doors up top give us access to their food and waterer, and to the ducks each morning for petting.
this is the back wall, i posted it to show the window. The window on the back wall will allow light from the room's window into the pen during the day
Here's the whole pen from above. The layout requires the ducks to utilize the whole pen, rather than just sticking to one spot (they only use the tiny second floor of their current one, doofus ducks...) They will have to walk across the whole bottom floor to get to the food center or forage center.
Here is a bird's eye view from the top. the front wall is at the top of the screen (in pink). It shows the food center (in purple) and the forage center (in yellow). The ramps are in red and the floor is green.
Here is the food center. It is 3'x7' and has the two sections with the mesh. Their food bowl and waterer will sit on top of the mesh areas. Pans will fit in the drawer under the mesh and will catch food/water that may drip through. The red platform gives the ducks access to a ramp to the first floor of the pen. The nest box/coop area is under the food center (In gray) for them to lay eggs or to sleep. The nest box/coop area is 3'x5' and 2 feet tall. The door to the nest box is directly under the ramp's red platform.
Here's a close up of the drawer area from the front. the pans go into either side, under the mesh areas. the space in the middle is for storage of eggs, dirty duck shoes, treats, etc. It has a backstop in the ack to keep things from falling in the duck pen, but is open so air can flow through.
The forage center (in yellow) of the pen is a second level for the ducks to play. It's is 3' x 7' and is 3 feet above the floor. Most of their toys and treats will be given here. We also grow grass/plants/sprouts for them in planter pans. The two pans (green and blue) on the forage center gives you an idea of how the planters will sit in there. We'll also give worms/crickets etc in dirt/gravel etc in the pans too up on this level. This level can also be sectioned off (with a special wall that can be inserted) if a duck gets hurt and needs a "hospital area". The red is the ramp up from the first level (both ramps are at a 30 degree angle).
here is underneath the forage center (orange). There are some support beams and a Chinmey. the chimney is required because the air vent for the heat/ac is located there. The chimney allows the heat or AC to be ducted directly into the pen for the ducks. The mesh area is where the air will come out of.
So what do you guys think? Any suggestions, ideas, questions or comments? Every time i build a pen, i always come up with new ideas (and then i have more improvements and ideas after the pen is done, lol). I can still change things at this point. Hopefully it'll be built and finished by the end of the month. My little ducks are far too big for their brooders now. lol.
This is the 3rd major pen i've built in the last year for them... (I've built about 3 other temporary pens as well). This time it'll be nice since i won't be doing all the sawing, screwing, nailing, sanding, etc... I'll basically be telling others how to do it for me. lol. My guess is with the lumber and the labor it'll cost a little over a $1000. This is a major upgrade from their current pen (called the ducky Loft... the first pen was called the ducky apartment... . this new pen will be called the ducky bungalow, lol). I do plan on adding some nice decorative finishes to it, like painting it to look like a house on the outside, adding a mail box and address sign on the door, painting the inside walls to look like the inside of a house, etc... it'll be cute when it's done. This pen even had Ming Mei's approval, lol.
The pen is going into the 3rd bedroom of mine and Joe's, aka Duck_feeder, townhouse in downtown Chicago. The bedroom is a little bigger than 10' x 12', and the pen will be 9 1/2' x 10'. the pen will be 7ft tall. It'll take up nearly the whole room leaving room for us to access the pen and the closet in the room. Overall, the pen will have about 130 square feet of space, and could hold up to 9.2 ducks. lol. We only have six, so they should be just fine with the space. (we are still thinking about getting two or 3 more ducks in the future).
The pen itself will be made out of plywood and lumber. It'll be painted nicely and will be caulked and sealed. The main floor consists of a run area, and a coop/nest box area. There are two sections upbove the first level (the 2nd floors) that house a food center, and a forage center.
Here is the pen from the front, you will only see this wall of the pen in the room, the other walls of the pen will be against the walls of the room. The long door on the bottom give us access to the nest box for egg collection while the smaller one to the left of it will have a screen and will allow us to open it to use the heater when it gets cold in there, or to help with air flow. The door on the left is for us to get in and out of the pen, and the three doors up top give us access to their food and waterer, and to the ducks each morning for petting.
this is the back wall, i posted it to show the window. The window on the back wall will allow light from the room's window into the pen during the day
Here's the whole pen from above. The layout requires the ducks to utilize the whole pen, rather than just sticking to one spot (they only use the tiny second floor of their current one, doofus ducks...) They will have to walk across the whole bottom floor to get to the food center or forage center.
Here is a bird's eye view from the top. the front wall is at the top of the screen (in pink). It shows the food center (in purple) and the forage center (in yellow). The ramps are in red and the floor is green.
Here is the food center. It is 3'x7' and has the two sections with the mesh. Their food bowl and waterer will sit on top of the mesh areas. Pans will fit in the drawer under the mesh and will catch food/water that may drip through. The red platform gives the ducks access to a ramp to the first floor of the pen. The nest box/coop area is under the food center (In gray) for them to lay eggs or to sleep. The nest box/coop area is 3'x5' and 2 feet tall. The door to the nest box is directly under the ramp's red platform.
Here's a close up of the drawer area from the front. the pans go into either side, under the mesh areas. the space in the middle is for storage of eggs, dirty duck shoes, treats, etc. It has a backstop in the ack to keep things from falling in the duck pen, but is open so air can flow through.
The forage center (in yellow) of the pen is a second level for the ducks to play. It's is 3' x 7' and is 3 feet above the floor. Most of their toys and treats will be given here. We also grow grass/plants/sprouts for them in planter pans. The two pans (green and blue) on the forage center gives you an idea of how the planters will sit in there. We'll also give worms/crickets etc in dirt/gravel etc in the pans too up on this level. This level can also be sectioned off (with a special wall that can be inserted) if a duck gets hurt and needs a "hospital area". The red is the ramp up from the first level (both ramps are at a 30 degree angle).
here is underneath the forage center (orange). There are some support beams and a Chinmey. the chimney is required because the air vent for the heat/ac is located there. The chimney allows the heat or AC to be ducted directly into the pen for the ducks. The mesh area is where the air will come out of.
So what do you guys think? Any suggestions, ideas, questions or comments? Every time i build a pen, i always come up with new ideas (and then i have more improvements and ideas after the pen is done, lol). I can still change things at this point. Hopefully it'll be built and finished by the end of the month. My little ducks are far too big for their brooders now. lol.
This is the 3rd major pen i've built in the last year for them... (I've built about 3 other temporary pens as well). This time it'll be nice since i won't be doing all the sawing, screwing, nailing, sanding, etc... I'll basically be telling others how to do it for me. lol. My guess is with the lumber and the labor it'll cost a little over a $1000. This is a major upgrade from their current pen (called the ducky Loft... the first pen was called the ducky apartment... . this new pen will be called the ducky bungalow, lol). I do plan on adding some nice decorative finishes to it, like painting it to look like a house on the outside, adding a mail box and address sign on the door, painting the inside walls to look like the inside of a house, etc... it'll be cute when it's done. This pen even had Ming Mei's approval, lol.
