Duck House Location

[Doodles21]

I am hoping I can get some advice on the best place to build a duck coop. I have a natural 1 acre pond on my property and I was thinking that I would place it there so that the ducks could spend the day swimming and foraging. I am a little worried tho because it is wooded around the pond and we get a lot of wildlife (think raccoons, foxes, and bears oh my!). Also, we have two Canada geese nesting at the pond and I wasn't sure it they would cause problems with a small flock of ducks. Third, I've heard that if you let your ducks feed out of a natural water source such as a pond it can make their eggs taste 'fishy'. I'd appreciate any advice you could give, I'm really new to this. Thank you!

 

[tdgill]

Are you planning on securing them in the house at nite? I have seen floating duck houses and thought they were pretty cool! But I would think a racoon or some other predator could swim to it at nite if it wasn't secured. Also depending on how far you have to walk to get to the duck house to secure it at nite would be a factor in determining where I might want it myself. How tame are your ducks? I am surprised at how you can train them even if they are untamed.

 

[greyhorsewoman]

Our ducks free range on our pond and in the summer, I think they pretty much SLEEP in the water! I've never had much luck getting them in a 'duck house' but they will come to the barn for feeding morning and night. They stay in the barn most of the winter (when the pond is frozen over). And, no, their eggs don't taste 'fishy' ... they taste AWESOME. (Also, we do lose some to predators now and again.)

 

[Doodles21]

It is just a short walk from our house to the pond so that isn't much of a factor. I mostly want a secure pen/house for them because we do have a lot of predators in the area plus I would like to be able to collect their eggs without too much of an Easter egg hunt. We have an old dog kennel we are not using so maybe I will get my husband to move that down to the pond so I can try to secure the ducks at night. Thank you for the advice and I look forward to some nonfishy eggs in the near future!