Alright Duck owners! FILL ME WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

[TheNewMrsEvans]

I really like the idea of having one side of the floor being wire, and the other area for sleeping and laying. They don't need the food at night either really, so maybe you could make it so they would be shut in one half for night, then could slide open the door to the other half in the morning. Then have the ramp leading down from the food/water side to a pen. As for the pool in the winter... we use a kiddie pool and to keep it from freezing put a kids size basketball ball in it...it blows around and keeps the water from freezing hard so they can break the ice in the morning. I would also suggest if you use anything deeper than that to make a platform and ramp over the edge so no one can get stuck in the pool and get tired. I had Khakis and they never flew out of the 5' fence, but now I have calls, so we just clip their wings. You could also just cover the run with bird netting.
You will love ducks! i think they are even more entertaining than chickies...

 

[Faithnthyme]

Our ducks have an inside/outside night run with a door that can close between them if it gets really, really cold. Their feed is kept inside and the water outside. I give them fresh water most nights when they are closed up. They do fine without it as well. In their larger run is a heated bucket for winter water that they have access to during the day. Most days they are out in the yard proper. The only time we keep them in their day run is during heavier snow - brown ducks against white snow make an easy target for raptors. There are some nice clumps of grass in the day run for them to hide under, etc. Their night run is built next to and in a small utility barn. The barn floor is pavers and the inside box is elevated about 5 inches with pavers. The inside floor is plywood with layers of straw and the rest of the structure is covered in hardware cloth including the outside section's floor. The ducks used to have a ramp to go between the elevations, they don't need it. We layer straw in both areas and muck the outside (which is where they do most of their business) as needed.
For the most part they are pretty low maintenance and they come when I call them to put them away for the evening or night.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
I'm making their small run a triangle, which I thought would be easy to make, and it would provide them with protection from above, and no way to get out as well

I'm going to get some patio pavers and give the run and under the building a patio paver floor, and then layer straw on top the pavers in the outdoor run. I want to be able to leave them out all night all day, so I'm taking extra precautions. As soon as the ground starts to thaw and the snow disappears I'm fencing in the poultry yard properly so they have a common large barnyard for them and the chickens to hang out in, until then I'll just stake in some tposts and wire it. Their duck house is pretty big, like 5 x 4 x 5 (height)


I'm looking at building them stairs, I have smaller cedar log halves from our horse fencing, and I was going to screw them like stairs onto a 2x4 and attach that to the outside of it, like stairs lol.