Duck house questions

[QuackAddict91]

Greetings all! I am new to BYC and I currently have 2 KC ducklings (6 weeks) and 6 more on the way!

I have built a 400 sq ft day pen behind my barn/detached garage that is fenced in with hardware cloth. I have also built a 4x8 duck house to lock them in at night for protection.

My question is regarding the placement of the duck house, currently my plan is to keep the duck house in my barn and cut a duck door that goes into the day pen behind the barn. Does anyone have experience with keeping their duck house in the barn?

My main concern is ventilation. It is a 60x24 building, uninsulated, with sheet metal walls. It lets in a good amount of air, and has a gap running the length of the roof on both sides. It stays dry and doesn't get stuffy. Any suggestions or knowledge would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

It sounds ideal really, the duck house should also have great ventilation and windows covered in hardware cloth so they can have adequate air. If you can provide pictures of your set up that would also help.

 

[DucksOhio]

Congratulations on your new ducks! Your housing setup sounds very good.

 

[DuckyDonna]

my 3 duck houses are in my barn. As soon as you post pictures I can probably help with ideas.

 

[QuackAddict91]

Thank you!! This is my first time raising ducks so I want to make sure I do my set up right.

Here is the house still under construction. This is the back with the cleaning door open. I am planning on putting 4 windows with hardware cloth as mentioned for good ventilation the front has another smaller door that will go to the outside

And this is the outdoor pen I've been working on! It used to be an old dog run but I tore the old fencing off and am in the process of getting it predator proof and putting a top on! I'm hoping by this time next week it will be finished and all cleaned up!

 

[DuckyDonna]

Nice outdoor pen, looks sort of like mine. You will need something over the top though with might not be that hard to do if you do it coming off the barn. My sides are like yours and I couldn't tell if you've got the cloth going down to the ground or not but it's necessary to stop predator digging.

As far as the house I think you are going to be sorry if you don't hinge that roof because climbing through that little door to clean every day is going to get old real fast! Trust me on that! The first pen we built was actually supposed to be a rabbit pen and it's a backbreaker for me to clean and I've probably got permanent brain damage from hitting my head on it so much.

So my situation is a bit different from yours but similar. Ours is a big old pole barn that had an opening in the back of it which we figured was where they parked a tractor, trailer or just piled up junk. The opening is facing south which is good during the cold months. We started with the little pen on the left, the next year was the pen on the right and just recently we filled in the middle with the last pen. On the last 2 pens we made them taller than me thankfully! We've come a long way!

and now we have this

 

[BelleAcres]

Looks like a nice setup! I have my ducks in a similar setup. I framed out an 8x8ft room in a shed that I have, then I cut a small duck door in the exterior wall that leads out to their run. A few things that have worked out well for me with this setup
-I made a 4ftx4ft area in their run with over 1 ft of coarse gravel for their pool area to facilitate water drainage and prevent mud.
- I made a simple rain barrel with a 55g food grade plastic barrel. Used 1inch PVC that I had laying around to direct water from the gutter to the barrel. Since their coop is far away from any hose access this makes watering them so much easier (at least in the warm seasons). If you have a roof to collect rain from I highly recommend doing this.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Looks like a nice setup! I have my ducks in a similar setup. I framed out an 8x8ft room in a shed that I have, then I cut a small duck door in the exterior wall that leads out to their run. A few things that have worked out well for me with this setup
-I made a 4ftx4ft area in their run with over 1 ft of coarse gravel for their pool area to facilitate water drainage and prevent mud.
- I made a simple rain barrel with a 55g food grade plastic barrel. Used 1inch PVC that I had laying around to direct water from the gutter to the barrel. Since their coop is far away from any hose access this makes watering them so much easier (at least in the warm seasons). If you have a roof to collect rain from I highly recommend doing this.

I love that idea, it would be so cool if we could direct all the rainwater off the barn roof and into their pool area or something like that. Sadly we don't have gutters on the barn so not sure how we could capture the water.