Do you lock your ducks up every night??

[mamaof2wi]

We have 3 mallards and 3 buffs and we lock them in a house we built from a pop up camper. We have oue fair share of predators here in east Texas at night so we decided the own we built isn't protection enough for them. We have HUGE hogs that run through our property a lot and will tear up fence. We completely gutted the camper and made 4 laying boxes and added some ventilation windows. We even put in a little fan to constantly pull in fresh air at night. They are a little spoiled

Oh what a great idea to use something like that. Pics?

 

[purslanegarden]

It really depends on what *might* come around. Predators aren't just the ones you have spotted hanging around your yard. You could get some random one passing through now and then.

Or maybe it's the same variety as you've always seen, but one particular one might be really hungry or aggressive and not give up. Or over time, there is some weakness in the coop and something finds that weakness and uses it. Our bird friends could be safe for weeks or months and it just takes one night to find out how unsafe their home was.



When they are free-roaming during the day, we can't protect them as well from an opportunistic predator, but at night, we should be able to have more confidence that they are locked up, safe and sound. Of course, if we're in bear country like some people are, even a bear might mess up your plans, but at least you could say that you have protected your birds as best as you can for almost every thing you can think of.

 

[leanntorina]

This was before it was 100% finished out. The roof is white and is trimmed out white now.

You can kind of see the beds in the camera pictures. Our girls are laying for their first time so I put a baby monitor I had out there to keep an eye on them at night.

 

[farmkat55]

We are new to ducks...not animals as we have had them all of our lives, just ducks in particular. We will get our chicks next spring, but we vowed we would not have any birds until we could have as predator proof coop as we could! We do lock our ducks up at night! They are out loose during the day, all day...but at night they are waiting at the ramp of their house for us to let them in!