Chicken and Duck Coop Combo

[Beakertheduck]

Hello everyone, I currently have a small coop with chickens living above and the ducks living in the space below. This was just a temporary summer home for them. With autumn soon approaching, I need to build a winterized coop. I would like to see pictures and hear about your experience with combination coops. I know the ducks will make a mess and so they will be separate from the chickens but in the same building. Thank you for any input. Below is a rough idea of what I want to do with chickens on one side, ducks on the other, and some storage in the front.

 

[rjohns39]

I have mild 100 or so day winters--but I use a greenhouse that is sub-divided by breed with T-Posts, chicken wire, and bird netting, and the ducks get the lowest side. I use deep bedding and the ducks go through it quickly. I don't remove the bedding until spring, just keep adding every week. Also if you can devise some kind of "in bedding" swimming pool with a drain that goes outside the structure you'll be miles ahead. Something as simple as a 10-20 gallon plastic tub with a 2-4" drain and a shut off that you can access. Issue I had last year was I started with its bottom on top the bedding and pipe buried in the bedding, valve in a coffee can in the bedding. Before I got to the end of winter the bedding had over flowed the tub and I had trouble reaching the valve. I ended up replacing it with a new 20 gallon tub without a drain and only putting 10 gallons in it--but dragging a tub with 10 gallons of poopy water outside in the dead of winter to dump and clean was not my favorite thing to do. Technically, they don't need a tub--but I've found if you don't give them one, they'll make one out of the bedding.

 

[hobbyhomesteader]

@Beakertheduck you probably already built yours but in case you modify or if it helps others I thought I'd share what we did. We built a two story coop for our ducks and chickens. The chickens enjoy roosting up higher and the ducks prefer to be closer to ground level. The ducks get straw as bedding on their level so they can nest and be warm whereas the chickens have a roosting branch with shavings underneath on the upper level. The floor of each level pulls out like a drawer for easy cleaning and the lids of the nest boxes lift up like an accordion for easy access to eggs, etc. Everybody free ranges in the yard for the bulk of the day so we don't keep their pond inside the coop - just food and drinking water. I've been impressed that so far the ducks are actually willing to coop up and lay eggs in the bottom portion! At first they were unsure and I was finding eggs just anywhere in the pen, but as the weather got cooler they've started using it daily. The chickens are quite happy and took to it right away.

(Note: The window is so I can be sure the girls have all gone in for the night without disturbing them. We have straw as flooring in the main pen area in the photo but are switching to either sand or wood chips. Also the pic from the inside of coop was taken before I trimmed it out for a better seal where the wood pieces meet.)