Tahai,
the 4'x8' veranda is a good size porch for up to about fifteen runners tops. I plan to keep no more than that. Twelve would be optimal, I think. I have nine runners and two buffs now. It is attached to the 4'x8' duck house, and as a nighttime shelter only, 64 sf is good for overnight, based on my experience. Most of the time we have had nine or ten runners in it. It is the spring/summer/fall shelter, and is attached to a 160 sf day pen with fence across the top and coated chain link fence underneath, attached at the sides for security.
The veranda is attached at one end to the house. At the other end is a door. It is covered top, bottom and sides with half inch hardware cloth.
The floor has half inch hardware cloth along the bottom. I covered that with a few inches of sand. I then put an inch or four of sawdust.
Here's the management: when in use, I use a cultivator to fluff the top two inches or so of sawdust daily. Once the top layer of sawdust gets so full of droppings that it develops an aroma (not quite stinky, but not fresh), I shovel the top layer out and put that material on the compost pile. Then I replace it with fresh sawdust pellets, stir them into the material underneath (about an inch or two), and we go again for a while. Mild weather it could be weeks, high summer, or stormy wet times, might be once a week. The nose knows.
Here is why I do this: I am working to keep nutrients cycling through our place. The nearby sugar maple can benefit from the moisture and the nutrients. In turn, it actually takes up some of those so I don't have to deal with as much. When the moisture and nutrients get ahead of what the maple and soil organisms can take up, that's when the stuff goes to the compost, which becomes my fertility material for the garden.
So far, I have not found myself rethinking the design. I sometimes want to add a rainwater collection system to the back side where the roof slants, but then I decide against it because the sugar maple benefits from that runoff. And it does not get swampy, as I thought it might. It's well drained soil, which is a great blessing.
By the way the front and south ends of the veranda have cinder blocks sunk about eight inches into the soil as predator discouragement. The other side has concrete pavers and heavy (10 to 15 pound) stones in a skirt about two feet out from the edge. That's because of tree roots. I did not want to kill the tree that shades and protects the ducks. So far so good.
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