MelissaMallard
Songster
- Jul 7, 2017
- 50
- 30
- 101
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.
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.