Duck Pen Help

[Onlyducks]

This was when I started, and had half covered by a tarp, about 2 years ago I believe. I added 2 more 6ft panels on front and back just this last summer. I will try to get a photo of it now, I am sure I do, but it is in a couple photos since it is so long now, lol.

I have the red "barn" taken down to the ground now, with the dog house for the ducks. The chickens now have a different red barn for themselves with roosts in it.

My pen is made of chicken wire and snow fence. I had the same problem with the snow crushing the "roof" of snow fence if the snow was wet and heavy. I finally ended up using 1 inch rebar (like is used in concrete) that I bought at a recycling facility. It's heavy and required cutting with an angle grinde, and requires a sturdy post to support it. It would be complicated, to say the least. If you have much wind, there's really nothing that will hold a tarp down and not rip it. Wood for a roof will take more reinforcing—your chain-link panels are not designed to have a roof. Perhaps you could build a separate roof using 4 by 4 posts on the inside or outside of the pen. Anything like that is going to be expensive.

If your problem is mostly the wet and stinky nature of the area, I have both added drainage areas by digging a hole or ditch, filling it with rock and then covering the top with some dirt, and I have simply hosed the area down with a high pressure nozzle to decrease the smell. Pine shavings may help, though they, too, may just smell like wet pine. You could also use perforated PVC pipe and burying, leading the runoff out to another area. This is one way the areas around homes is kept dry when they have a water problem. It's cheap and easy to install, and your local hardware store could explain how to install it.