Another newbie question......

[WestKnollAmy]

Do ducks roost?

In planning the way I would like to make the duck house I wondered if I need to build it tall enough for them to get on a roosting platform or a flat turned 2x4. If all they need is a hay or shavings filled house then I can make it only 4' high and be able to hinge the roof to open. If they want to roost I will make it 6' tall and put in a roost of some sort, with a door on a side wall.
Maybe it depends on breed?

Yes, I still need to go buy a book but you guys have way more experience and books can be only very general. I will buy the "Stories" book because I like their chicken books so well and refer to them often.

 

[ChickenPotPie]

This may be one of those things were there is the rare exception, like the Madagascar Whooping Yellow bellied duck roosts, but I have never in my life seen a duck roost like a chicken.

We keep our ducks in the same coop as our chickens and turkeys. They have a large yard, a roost house and a nest house. They also have a kiddie pool. Sometimes I've seen them in the roost house but on the floor in the shavings. Mostly, they stay outside in the weather and sleep in a flock on the ground. If they had bushes to go under, I am sure they would choose that to both sleep and build nests.

We have provided them with a round feed pan and hay (in the corner near a tall weed for more privacy) to nest in and the hen liked it - hatched 6 ducklings. That pan was in an outdoor, roofed coop. I'd say ducks are ground dwellers and love being outside. I think if you gave them a 3 sided, roofed structure with some bedding, they'd like it very much.

 

[Goat_Walker]

Dep3nds on what breeds you get. Muscovies do in fact roost and some times my other ducks try to roost as well.

 

[Willowbrook]

I have Runners, Saxony, Magpie, Khaki and Silky ducks and none of them roost like a chicken. They huddle together and sleep on the straw bedding on the floor.
I don't have nor ever had Muscovy's, but since they fly, they might roost, although I'm not sure about that.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I have to make their coop so it can be closed at night. We have bad night predators and I would lose them if I left them outside. Not to mention it got down to 6 degrees here the other night with a howling wind and I could not bear to think of them in that weather. The fenced in pen will be 6' tall and I plan on Muscovy, Campbell's, Runners and maybe Cayugas or Golden 300 hybrid. I know the Cayugas may be able to fly over or at least think they might try. Mostly it is to deter the chickens from going in and foxes coming for a quick daytime snack. Too many dogs out during the day for predators but one can never be too careful.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

My Muscovies would roost right up in the trees with the wild chickens.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Alright then, since I plan on a few Muscovies I suppose I should consider making a roosting board inside. If they don't use it then that would be okay but I want to make sure they have whatever they need to be happy.

My entire farm is fenced in and broken up into paddocks and pastures we used when we raised horses so I do have some enclosed areas but the chickens go right through the hog wire where the horses ripped it up in past years. Only the perimeter fencing is still totally secure. It is taking longer to repair than just to restring wire. So I tear down and build pens and coops as I go. Farming is hard on old people like me.

 

[rainplace]

For a short while I had a muscovy pair, and they did roost, every night. Someone on here had shown a picture of some outside roosts they had made with cinder blocks and boards, so I put them up all around the yard. They used those as well. The male couldn't really fly though the female could get around quite well. When he would roost on one of the boards, she would come down from whatever tree, car, or rooftop she was on and roost with him.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Awwwwww....ducky love!