Duck House made from pallets - estimated $100

[Mother_Hen2011]

Kudos to you my chicken and duck friend! This a marvelous idea!

I need to build and extra coop for my mating pair of Buff/Orpington ducks but dont have the money to do so... I wouldnt even know where to get the pallets. I am in the New Mexico area and it would be great if you could give me some pointers!!! My ducks and chickens free range from 6 am till they feel like going inside which is normally around 7ish. Any ideas?

 

[Hawkeye95]

hey it's coming right along! I hope it holds up really well to the wind you'll be seeing soon. Can't wait to see more pics as you keep going! Funny about the doors and the birds not wanting to get close. They get really freaked out with the smallest changes.

 

[ChickInDelight]

Mother Hen, one source of free pallets and sometimes other lumber and shavings is our local Stair (building) company. The have bins for folks to browse and pick up wood for burning or whatever.

The majority of my pallets came from a local saddlery after their annual tent sale. Keep your eyes open - they are everywhere!

Restore sometimes has them - always free.

Try UPS or any place that hauls stuff. They are shipping pallets. Also, you may just search the internet for wood pallet. I found a page of the most glorious pallet creations. You may find a re-use advocate in your area that will show you where to find.

Funny thing, after I started building, I noticed there were some very old pallets in the junk pile of this farm where I live. Some are oak, some are pine. If you are taking them apart to use the boards, I recommend getting newer pallets.

Most importantly - have fun with it!

 

[Mother_Hen2011]

Quote:
Thanks ChickInDelight

Wonderful advice! We have a few pallets here on the 2 or 3 acreas we rest on...And Ive recently been trying to figure out what to do for ducks. I get ideas like crazy and than they never really pan out lol (I do almost all my coop and and pond building even though I have strong husband. lmao) But ya know it is what it is lol and I make the most of it.

I cant wait to see when your coop is all done and finished!

Thanks for all the wonderful advice!!

 

[gryeyes]

I am old and fat and built two coops, a duck house only chickens used, and transmogrified a plastic Little Tikes playhouse into a grow out coop. Each project took me FOREVER. Rest every forty-five minutes at least, stare at the stuff during the week unless I saw a simple task to handle, work on the coop(s) one day of a weekend and recover on the second day.....

But I built 'em. Hooray for me!

Hooray for you, too! That's far more complicated than anything I assembled or built. Very impressive. And the best part? They occupants could care less how the structures look! They just need cover and security; if a hummock of grass serves as a bed during the day, and the back porch works for night-time sleeping, then a structure such as the one you built IS the Quackmire Downs Mansion, akin to one of Hearts' castles.

 

[cooprunbuilder]

good imagination!

 

[ChickInDelight]

First Coat of paint

The mallards who likely have no intention of using Taj Mahduck. (The 2 Pekin drakes no longer leave the fenced yard. I will likely make them the first prisoners for a few days - soon I hope.)

I am seriously considering solar powered motion-detector lights on the back of the house.

 

[PtldChick]

Quote:

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga.

 

[ChickInDelight]

Tis funny how fate plays such a large hand in projects unplanned.

Mysteriously, my tarp mail order seems to have disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, as my effort to secure against predators increases (with an apron of chicken wire and gravel at the base), it seems rather silly to have a flimsy top.

I also really, really like to be able to work the rake inside PoDuck Manor while standing outside. Crawling in and out of the little duck door wore on me very quickly.

I was very excited to see Restore get about 100 2x4s, so I maintain hope that a large shipment of weather-treated plywood will land any day. Restore also has these nifty rakes that can also pick up stuff.

So.... the latest plan is to make a plywood roof where some of the lower sections are on hinges so I can easily rake and scoop while standing outside the House of Duck.

Some of us just learn as we go. Mistakes pave the way to success.

The roofline is the prettiest part of the structure. I really like the texture in the cheap sides, but they need to be under an overhang.

Meanwhile, my 2 Pekin drakes insist they want to stay within the small chicken-fenced backyard where they stomp all my flowers to death. I left some 4 foot weeds in one section that is a favorite with all the ducks and chickens. Something tells me that while I wait for plywood to fall from the sky so I can complete Quackmire Downs, I will end up throwing up some pallets covered with green plastic fencing and ugly black metal roofing for the ducky darlings next to the chicken hutch where they have chosen to sleep. That will undoubedtly drive them back to the stone porch where they were making a nightly mess (before I terrified them with the painted shutters of their intended new home).

Nothing will convince me otherwise: the ducks know EXACTLY what I want them to do AND will continue to do the opposite!!!