Building new coop

[SEWert]

I have been looking at different designs for a duck coop. I have 3 6 month old ducks (1female 2 male) and today got 5 (supposedly) female ducklings. I want to make sure it will be big enough for all of them. Also if anyone has tips or have found the best ways to keep them warm in the winters and to keep predators out please let me know. I want them to be happy and healthy.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

NO heat lamps!! they cause fires!

 

[LT71689]

There are specifically designed outdoor heating equipment that are unlikely to cause fire if you follow the directions - but depending on where you live and how cold it actually gets, and how much you're willing to put into properly building and insulating the coop in the first place, you may not need to consider mechanical heat equipment at all.


A common recommendation is AT LEAST 4 square feet per bird (as in bigger is better, especially if you have some larger breeds in your group) Ducks dont roost so they're all gonna be crowded in on the floor of the coop. They generate a lot of heat and moisture themselves so you want to give them enough space to spread out a little when the temps are too high and they need to cool off. They'll huddle up in the winter if they get chilly. Erring on the larger side of a coop also helps keep your bedding drier and your birds cleaner if they can spread their poop out more. Both you and them are happier in the long run.

in general duck coops dont need to be anything fancy, they're perfectly happy with a big plain box since they're not big on roosting or using nesting boxes for the most part. If you want to put the coop on stilts just know that ducks arent very good with steep inclines or very long ramps, so you dont want to put it too high up (a lot of chicken coops are too high for ducks to get in and out of easily, they're just so clumsy) The rest of your design kind of depends on your needs - Where do you live, how cold and hot does it actually get? Do you get high winds or other extremes (blizzards, hurricanes, tornados) on the regular? How do you want to handle cleaning up - do you want to be able to stand up inside of it, what kind of bedding do you hope to use and how do you want to clean it and dispose of it, do you plan to hose the whole thing down once in a while, are you considering deep litter, etc.

Predator proofing is pretty straightforward if you plan for it and do it right the first time. For the coop you just need to secure hardware cloth (not chicken wire) on all the windows and vents, make sure theres no large cracks or gaps or loose boards or anything like that in your construction, and secure all windows and doors with locks that raccoons cant figure out (multiple directional locks, padlocks, etc)