Duck house ideas?

[michellers]

We have been working on our duck run, but I am looking for ideas on the duck house for inside the run. I'm thinking of going with something similar to a wooden dog house, but my question is closing it up at night. We can add a latching door, but we would need some air ventilation, right? I only have two ducks.

What about lighting? I heard you don't want it to be too bright in there - including light from the moon, right?

I want to be able to insulate it for the colder, winter months. What about in the summer when it is hot? What's the best solution to that?

Do I need to have food/water in the duck house for the evening if they have free-access to it all day?

 

[Amiga]

We have been working on our duck run, but I am looking for ideas on the duck house for inside the run. I'm thinking of going with something similar to a wooden dog house, but my question is closing it up at night. We can add a latching door, but we would need some air ventilation, right? I only have two ducks.

What about lighting? I heard you don't want it to be too bright in there - including light from the moon, right?

I want to be able to insulate it for the colder, winter months. What about in the summer when it is hot? What's the best solution to that?

Do I need to have food/water in the duck house for the evening if they have free-access to it all day?

Hi, michellers,

Yes, ventilation is very important. For summer, a very sturdy-framed door covered with one or two layers of half inch metal hardware cloth might do it. That's what I have on the veranda door (porch attached to house).

In fact, I really liked using an attached, completely hardware-clothed porch - top, bottom and sides. For summer, the ducks had a big water bowl on the porch, so they could dunk in it, and the bottom of the porch is sand with a little sawdust on top. Easy cleanup, drains well.

The house and porch are under a sugar maple. Shade in the summer, very sturdy tree. The tree seems to like the duck poop and extra water, too.

I would not put it under a silver maple - those are brittle and tend to lose limbs.

I also put a shade cloth on the side of the house that gets summer sun when it's above 70F.

The roof of the house is opaque - polycarbonate corrugated roofing. I also use solar powered rope lights, so that I can see my way around the area at night. Flashlights scare the bleep out of the ducks.

Insulation can work both ways, keeping the house cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Some folks stack straw bales against the outside of the house especially the north side. Then you balance that with the tendency for mice to like those bales. So maybe you build the house large enough to accommodate some straw bales inside during winter.

When they are adults they can do without food and water for eight hours overnight. In summer, I still like them to have access to fresh water at night.

That said, I have tried out having them in the walkout basement pen year-round and it is working fine. The basement stays cool in summer, above freezing in winter, is spacious, protected from predators (at least so far they haven't broken in the windows). I can hear what's going on - oh boy, can I! But it is definitely not for everyone. We are just in a unique position that this works for us.