Duck Coop

[MelissaMallard]

First of all, I ended up with a duck on accident. A 1-2 day old baby found me while camping, she stayed in our coat pockets throughout as we didn't have any other way of keeping her warm and it literally snowed the following morning. We live in an apartment, she's been living in a 50 gallon aquarium and it's getting small, FAST. I made a foolish decision to get her a friend, so now I have 2 ducks (the other adopted as the sole hatch from his clutch) I also don't know if they're boys or girls yet, but their feathers are coming in and I'm thinking this is how it's looking so far.

OK, Intro over... we just got approved for a house to rent. We have not exactly disclosed that we have ducks, and I don't want to spend a fortune making a complex duck house if we are asked to not have them anymore. I also want them to be pretty safe. We will be living in a city which is zoned for backyard fowl. The yard already has a pretty sweet spot I can secure with mesh wire to the inside of the white picket fence. An abandoned dog house can be modified to be a coop, and I can secure them in their coop at night. I don't see much in the way of daytime predators in the area (Sacramento area, California) but nighttime I'm sure there are plenty of urban wildlife looking for an easy meal.
My main concern is topping the enclosure. Topping it will make it pretty obvious something is going on. I don't think ducks will be a big deal, I just don't want to make it look awful. I'll add a photo of the enclosure which will be prettied up when we move in. I can plant it, add a pool and a secure night house. If anyone has ideas, tips, or design solutions to make the best of this, I'd LOVE to hear it. Thanks for reading through my very long post.

 

[TinyBirds]

I've found it's best to let ducks free range in daytime since they make such a stinky muddy area when in a small area. We have 3 ducks and i almost found them a new home due to the smell and mud. I would just use the dog house for a nighttime secure coop and add a door with hardware cloth in the middle for ventilation, plus a window too. Its hard to get ducks in their coop at night also unless thats the only time you feed them and they need to go inside to eat. If you get a small pool for them you just dump it daily, so get the smallest you can find so its easy to tip over. We got ours at tractor supply. Best wishes!

 

[AquaDuck]

Ducks don't need a big house, so the dog house is good for sleeping quarters. By topping, do you mean a roof over the enclosure? As long as they have a bush to lie under when it's raining, so I wouldn't think that's necessary. If you worry about flying predators, hanging a bird net over it will be sufficient.
They are, however, extremely messy and rather smelly if enclosed in a small area. So if you want to keep your duck-holding a "secret", you'll need to think of a way to change the bedding regularly. Think of where will you put the soiled part and where can you purchase new and store it.
Ducks don't HAVE to have a pool, but if they do, they make a huge mess around it. One way to do it is to keep a medium sized one that you put out to them a few times a week, fill up and empty outside the enclosure when they've had their bath. That way you can control the water-mess. (Always have a bucket of water deep enough for them to dip their entire head down in it, they need that to clean their airways.)
Good luck!