Duck house and coop ideas?

[Quacking ducks]

Hi, I am getting ready to build a new duck house and pen. what do y'all think of a cement floor? what have you use? and what do y'all use for roofing? shingles? sheet metal? wood? what do people use for walls? I need to build before winter and it needs to last a while. any ideas? thank you

 

[CoriM]

How many ducks? How big will you make it? What's your climate?

 

[CoriM]

Here is what we built. We live in the woods, so it has to be predator proof - well that's true pretty much wherever you live, and probably that, along with a place to keep dry and sheltered are the most important aspects. The hardware cloth goes about a foot under the ground and a foot out. We built this for 6 ducks but soon it will house 8. I wish I had made the inside sleeping space a little larger - it is about 4x12. It has a plywood floor covered by stick on linoleum tiles. On top of that I put shavings and clean those every day. No food or water goes in that area and I have a little door that I shut between that and the run when the ducks go in at night. In the run it is just bare ground, half covered with a tiny pond and pea gravel and the other half covered in shavings that get wet and have to be scooped and replaced quite often. It's not the best, but I've tried straw and same thing, only harder to keep clean and dry. No matter what ducks are messy and a lot of work to take care of - they must be worth it! We used a tin roof. I live in the Pacific NW and it rains here a lot. My ducks go out and free-range in the yard once or twice a day, and I also have a tractor that I can put them in out there so they can be in grass several times a day - because that's what they really want to do - be outside and forage. Due to predators I have to always be outside watching my ducks when they're in the yard, or have them in the tractor. Everyone's situation is so unique, you'll find a lot of different houses that make sense for different people. Good luck!

 

[Quacking ducks]

How many ducks? How big will you make it? What's your climate?

I have 9 ducks right now but I want to expand to about 12-15 Ducks. For the ducks house 8x12 or 10x12 and for the pen 10x10 or 10x12. I live in eastern Kansas

 

[Quacking ducks]

Here is what we built. We live in the woods, so it has to be predator proof - well that's true pretty much wherever you live, and probably that, along with a place to keep dry and sheltered are the most important aspects. The hardware cloth goes about a foot under the ground and a foot out. We built this for 6 ducks but soon it will house 8. I wish I had made the inside sleeping space a little larger - it is about 4x12. It has a plywood floor covered by stick on linoleum tiles. On top of that I put shavings and clean those every day. No food or water goes in that area and I have a little door that I shut between that and the run when the ducks go in at night. In the run it is just bare ground, half covered with a tiny pond and pea gravel and the other half covered in shavings that get wet and have to be scooped and replaced quite often. It's not the best, but I've tried straw and same thing, only harder to keep clean and dry. No matter what ducks are messy and a lot of work to take care of - they must be worth it! We used a tin roof. I live in the Pacific NW and it rains here a lot. My ducks go out and free-range in the yard once or twice a day, and I also have a tractor that I can put them in out there so they can be in grass several times a day - because that's what they really want to do - be outside and forage. Due to predators I have to always be outside watching my ducks when they're in the yard, or have them in the tractor. Everyone's situation is so unique, you'll find a lot of different houses that make sense for different people. Good luck! View attachment 2865016

What size is your run?

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I don't think cement is recommended as it can be hard on their feet - ducks seem to get bumblefoot easily.
For my ducks, I upcycled a playhouse. It sits on a pallet with a wood floor. I painted the wood with waterproof paint. I have the windows secured with hardware cloth and some blocked off for winter.
It's at least 4x4. It sits in a run that is 20x20. The ducks live on one side and my chickens live in the other.

 

[Duckiiess]

I would love a cement floor, and have thought about doing so to my coop in the future.. just have it sloped to one side for drainage.
Currently my coop floor is gravel, then chips over the top. It works ok, but shoveling out the old chips is kinda annoying to do without getting a bunch of rocks in it too.
Have seen other good designs with vinyl or rubber roll flooring too.
My roof is galvanized sheet metal, got the plain one and painted it myself to save $: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Union-Corrugating-3-17-ft-x-8-ft-Ribbed-Metal-Roof-Panel/3318504
The walls are just 1/2" plywood cut into 8" laps, then painted. I used tractor paint from tractor supply for the roof and walls, much tougher than regular house paint, just less colors available.. but I think the blue coop with a red roof looks pretty good

 

[CoriM]

What size is your run?

My run is 10x14 and the duck house is 10x4. I have three pekins, so on the bigger size, and two welsh. I'm about to add three more smaller ducks, which will be the max I would have in my space. I say go as big as you are able to - you won't regret it. If I was doing it again for my ducks I would make the inside house 10x6 and the run a few feet bigger - mostly because of my duck's personal issues, I often have the run separated into two sections with a little fence.

 

[telandra2]

My coop is half of a cement floor walk-in basement. No noticeable foot problems after a year, but they free range outside all day and just go in to sleep. The poop wet does soak into the cement despite shavings and you can't just sweep it all away due to the cement texture. I've tried a cheap steam mop for sterilization, but again the cleaning pads stick to the cement texture. So, scrub scrub scrub. (A roller scrubbing vac might work, not spending 200 to test.)

There are still lots of flies and deep layering isn't an option.

I tried some 6ft puppy training pad blankets on top of the cement. The blankets need to be shook/dumped clean of poop piles and its still a LOT of leftover poop to wash every day so am back to compostable shavings. They did work fine during the 3 days I tested.

Currently 12 Anconas. I've been debating trying linoleum next.

 

[Revarded1]

I'm in the middle of finishing our duck pen and coop for our 3 week old ducks to move into. We have 8 and want to have 12-16 in our permanent flock. I live in central Georgia so the climate is mild and rarely freezes... almost never snows. My property is in town so there are not many predators.

The pen is 30'x16'. The coop is a covered A-frame tall enough to walk in and about 8'x11'. The bottom is hardware cloth on the ground. I might put down gravel under the hardware cloth, but haven't decided yet.