Can i see your Duck Housing set-ups please???

[Thundrr-Chicken]

i love chickens... but im seeing these cute little ducks everywhere i go... and ya know.. a man can only hold out so long... but im wondering how i'd keep them... so...

let me see how you keep them.. and if you have chickens as well.. please show me how they are kept together or apart... im a backyard guy... not a farm.. but i love seeing the farm set-ups too

thanks in advance

 

[Amiga]

Here is the two-penny tour of my accommodations for eleven runner ducks, in my front yard (you have to see the property to understand why this may not sound quite what it looks like - we live on the side of a hill).

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4090349

It is post number 8, if I recall correctly.

 

[pishposh]

Here is one of our duck enclosures:

 

[Amiga]

Wow, pishposh! Thanks!

This is what I want their daytime duck yard to be. And now I have an actual photograph to show my beloved!

Any tips and pointers on construction? I have been learning as I go. I designed the house and pen, my neighbor built most of the house, I added the hardware cloth and flooring, and built the pen all by my little lonesome, as mom would say.

Now I am taking a brief breather before setting up their duck yard.

Do you have any anti-digging-under-the-fence features, or is it in a larger enclosed area? (Edit: now I see what looks like some concrete block. Does it cover the entire bottom, or just around the edges?)

My idea right now (from the New Agrarian's blog, with a twist) is to lay chain link fence under the run, attaching it to a baseboard. Our soil is supremely stony, with many sugar maple roots that I do not want to destroy, because I love that tree and it shelters the ducks (we have the tree checked out periodically by an arborist).

 

[tplummer]

What is the size of the setup shown above? I like that. It looks like the top flips up.

 

[Kari]

You can see mine on my page, under ducks. Mine is a 20x20? dog kennel which has been reinforced along the bottom with hardware cloth, covered with heavy duty netting, and they have a dog house for a shelter. Any questions, ask!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I just started building mine so I really haven't gotten many photos yet.
I have 15 ducks growing up and about to get more. I think I need to expand before I ever get going good!

 

[Amiga]

Kari - inspiring!

 

[RAREROO]

Mine free range full time. You don't particularly need much of a shelter for ducks as mine are out playing in the rain whenever it rains. I also wouldnt recommend keeping them with chickens as they will make a terrible mess of your chickens pen and water. That is the worse thing about ducks is keeping their water clean, everything else is easy, they don't muck and they grow exstreamly fast.



And pishposh I LOVE that pen design.

 

[cptbfp]

Hi, I built the pen that PishPosh posted. It is 10' X 10' X 3' high covered with 1/2" X 1/2" hardware cloth. Half of the top flips up to lay on the other half. We put 6" X 12" X 2" thick concrete patio blocks around the outer perimeter of the pen to slow down the burrowing predators (no sign of any messing with the pen). The floor of the pen is just dirt covered by pine shavings. I didn't line it with any hardware cloth or other type of fencing. I used pressure treated 2X4s for the supports. The one thing that I would do differently is make it taller. 5' or 6' tall would be much better. 3' high is pretty short especially when you have 3-4" of pine shavings in there and you need to catch one of the ducks. The seem to know that it is difficult for people to maneuver in a space that low and run there when we need to catch one. I would still use 3' hardware cloth on the bottom of the pen and something less expensive on the top part (maybe 2"X4" welded wire or similar).

We also have two 10'X10' goose pens that I made using a dog kennel. I then ran 3' hardware cloth over the bottom part of the pen to keep away raccoons and built a top to keep them safe from climbing or flying predators. That was a lot faster to construct and cost about the same.

We are currently building a 20'X20' duck/goose pen out of two dog kennels. I am still working out how to keep the predators away. Might use electric fence. I can post more information as I progress if there is any interest.

Brian