Duck Coop Help

[TimandHisThreeDucks]

Hello! This is my first time officially registering on these forums however I've been using the advice people have given on this site ever since I got my first ducks 2 years ago, and I have to say - this place is a godsend. I'm so thankful to the community here for all the wisdom I've gained over the years.

I have 3 ducks - 2 pekin girls and a mallard boy. We moved out to the countryside with my family 6 months ago and we have 5 acres so we let them free range and now I'm battling a ticking clock.

A rather large red fox is continuously making rounds here and attempting to kill my ducks. The ducks sleep right next to the house, conveniently by my window - so any time I hear one of them give an alert quack I jump into action. Good thing I'm a night owl.

I'm not always on time. This fox has tried to kill my ducks 5 times. And that's just a fox. We've had a coyote and a hawk also try to kill them. A few days ago I saw a horrific sight of one of my girls in the foxes mouth by the neck half way down my yard when I came out. I yelled and he dropped her and she came running back to me. And just earlier tonight he tried to strike again but it wasn't able to reach them in time when I came out. It's a miracle I still have them all.

I can't keep doing this.

I need some good advice on creating a duck pen for my 3 ducks. I don't want to create any fencing or whatever I see around the usual duck enclosing - I need some advice on constructing a fort Knox looking building my ducks can retreat inside at night and I can open and release them to the yard in the mornings. No room for a fox to get inside.

If anyone could share their expertise and provide me some resources - that will be a huge help. Please keep in mind I'm a total newbie at anything about pens so the more thorough the better.

Thank you

 

[CrystaBub]

Hi!!! Good idea to secure those duckies and FAST! I think this link provided great info on predator proofing. I also have almost every predator that likes to eat ducks so I lock up tight at night. Super tight. I can’t free range here either because of predators so my ducks get walked several times a day. Good luck and hope you share some pics of your predator proofing work. Are they locked up somewhere tonight? https://www.cwrescue.org/predatorproofhousing

 

[Cayuga momma]

Locking them up tight at night is the way to go. Unfortunately foxes can be hard to catch. I use a 10'x10' shed. Mine free range during the day, but they also have a run I can secure them in if a predator is trying to get them.
I have a rottweiler that is very protective of my ducks and chickens. He has kept all daytime predators away. Do you have somewhere secure you can keep them at night until you get a coop built?
Almost any kind of structure can be predator proofed. Getting hardware cloth for ventilation and holes is important too.
I hope your duckies stay safe!

 

[Duckworth]

My duck house has served us well for the last two years. It is 4x4’ and has a sloped roof to allow snow and rain to run off. It has solid lower walls and hardware cloth upper windows. There is a duck door and the whole back side opens up with doors for cleaning. My house opens into my duck pen, but the same design wouldn’t have to. I have a drawbridge style door, but because it gets icy here, that door wouldn’t open and close reliably. Right now. I just screw a wide board over the doorway every night and unscrew it in the morning. Not ideal, but it gets the job done.

I used star-headed screws to put my house together. My floor and walls are insulated against the cold and having both the inner and outer walls makes them stronger. I have HWC only on the inside of the framing, but if I had reason to worry, I could put it on the outside, too, to double the protection. I might also use welded wire fencing for the outer windows for extra strength. I did use one prefab glass 4-pane window on the front.

My house is set on four concrete deck anchor blocks, which lift it a few inches off the ground at the front and, because it is on a slope, have the back cleanout doors higher off the ground making it easier for me to access.

All of my pictures show the attached duck pen, but I built the house first, then built the pen as an attachment to the house. Sorry, I didn’t use a plan. I just imagined the framing in my head and built it, starting with the floor, then framing the walls with 2x4s and then adding plywood for the interior walls, cutting insulation to fit, then putting on cedar fence slats for exterior siding. I caulked and painted everything because it can get very wet here.

We are under 8-12 inches of snow right now, so it would be hard to get better pictures.

The next picture is one I took before building the pen and before installing the hardware cloth or getting the rear doors hung. I had to get gate hinges for the back doors in order to get them to close fully. Fender washers are great for securing HWC to framing with screws. The starhead screws are a lot easier to drive with a cordless drill driver because the don’t strip easily.

This is the whole setup, since predators are a constant issue here.

I hope this helps.

 

[Cjsquiggle]

I lost a duck to a predator and it was horrific enough that now there’s a MASSIVE dog crate with hay inside my garage. That’s the night time house for my Pekin (we lost her companion so getting her a new friend) I got the biggest crate they had at tractor supply. It was great bc it came on sale bc was a return. She goes in there and it’s in the garage so she is plenty safe. I can’t ever loose a duck like that again. I know that might not be something everyone can do but for us it works well and we can check on her at night without going outside. She also crate trained herself? It’s a big crate plenty of space but she doesn’t go bathroom when she’s in there? So we hardly have to change the bedding. We don’t give food/water at night. She doesn’t seem upset by it.

 

[Ohmyheart]

My duck house has served us well for the last two years. It is 4x4’ and has a sloped roof to allow snow and rain to run off. It has solid lower walls and hardware cloth upper windows. There is a duck door and the whole back side opens up with doors for cleaning. My house opens into my duck pen, but the same design wouldn’t have to. I have a drawbridge style door, but because it gets icy here, that door wouldn’t open and close reliably. Right now. I just screw a wide board over the doorway every night and unscrew it in the morning. Not ideal, but it gets the job done.

I used star-headed screws to put my house together. My floor and walls are insulated against the cold and having both the inner and outer walls makes them stronger. I have HWC only on the inside of the framing, but if I had reason to worry, I could put it on the outside, too, to double the protection. I might also use welded wire fencing for the outer windows for extra strength. I did use one prefab glass 4-pane window on the front.

My house is set on four concrete deck anchor blocks, which lift it a few inches off the ground at the front and, because it is on a slope, have the back cleanout doors higher off the ground making it easier for me to access.

All of my pictures show the attached duck pen, but I built the house first, then built the pen as an attachment to the house. Sorry, I didn’t use a plan. I just imagined the framing in my head and built it, starting with the floor, then framing the walls with 2x4s and then adding plywood for the interior walls, cutting insulation to fit, then putting on cedar fence slats for exterior siding. I caulked and painted everything because it can get very wet here.

We are under 8-12 inches of snow right now, so it would be hard to get better pictures.

View attachment 1684453 View attachment 1684454
The next picture is one I took before building the pen and before installing the hardware cloth or getting the rear doors hung. I had to get gate hinges for the back doors in order to get them to close fully. Fender washers are great for securing HWC to framing with screws. The starhead screws are a lot easier to drive with a cordless drill driver because the don’t strip easily.
View attachment 1684455
This is the whole setup, since predators are a constant issue here.
View attachment 1684458

I hope this helps.

What is the floor in the run with the pool made up of? I want to do something similar.