Duck run

[bluebird]

My ducks kinda have a sassy walk. They look to move their tail all around like a squirrel lol

 

[CarleeAnn]

My ducks kinda have a sassy walk. They look to move their tail all around like a squirrel lol

Ducks are so goofy! I wasn’t really asking how ducks run, but how to build a run for my ducks; but now that we are on the subject, here’s a video of my babies:

 

[3bird]

We cannot dig ourselves to make a skirt in the ground to prevent digging of predators as we are renting the property. The ducks will be locked in the shed at night (or anytime we aren’t home really) and the shed is on a cement slab so we aren’t too concerned about things digging in.

We added a predator apron around our run, which has worked great. No digging, but good protection from digging predators.

 

[bluebird]

Just trying to broaden the title lol

 

[MissMonty]

We personally have ours in our chicken coop currently (big coop divided in half, although the chickens do what they want and are usually on the duck side lol). We plan to get goats this spring and when we do we plan to "free range" the ducks a bit and at night they'll have their own stall in the barn to go to. This way I can give them a bigger water trough to swim in and not worry about chickens committing suicide.

We currently do not plan to have our run covered and we have 6 ducks. We generally do not have a predator problem here because of our dogs are VERY vocal (4 huskies hahah!)

Our ducks are super messy so the chicken run and coop is a wreck thanks to them. Hopefully them having more space will help us out!

 

[3bird]

One thing I'll add is that I'm SO glad we covered our run based on where we live!

 

[CarleeAnn]

One thing I'll add is that I'm SO glad we covered our run based on where we live!

Do you like it covered because of the snow? We don’t get snow here in the Greater New Orleans area really, but a lot of rain. I assume covering it would have at least kept things a little drier.

Where we are moving to supposedly gets lots of snow even though it’s only 45 minutes away! It’s between Lake Maurpas and Ponchatrain so I assume it’s mainly lake-effect snow but alas, snow is snow and it would be nice to have a cover.

 

[CarleeAnn]

We personally have ours in our chicken coop currently (big coop divided in half, although the chickens do what they want and are usually on the duck side lol). We plan to get goats this spring and when we do we plan to "free range" the ducks a bit and at night they'll have their own stall in the barn to go to. This way I can give them a bigger water trough to swim in and not worry about chickens committing suicide.

We currently do not plan to have our run covered and we have 6 ducks. We generally do not have a predator problem here because of our dogs are VERY vocal (4 huskies hahah!)

Our ducks are super messy so the chicken run and coop is a wreck thanks to them. Hopefully them having more space will help us out!

We figure our two dogs will help deter predators, plus we are outdoors people so we should too! Our Great Pyrenees and Pit are mainly indoors though, but I’m sure we will have them outside to assist with the ducks more once we move. Where we currently are we let the ducks free range when we are out with them and that definitely gives their yard a “break”. Our dogs come out during this time too and do great with the ducks!

 

[3bird]

Do you like it covered because of the snow? We don’t get snow here in the Greater New Orleans area really, but a lot of rain. I assume covering it would have at least kept things a little drier.

Where we are moving to supposedly gets lots of snow even though it’s only 45 minutes away! It’s between Lake Maurpas and Ponchatrain so I assume it’s mainly lake-effect snow but alas, snow is snow and it would be nice to have a cover.

I think we'd like the covered run even without snow. Our guys freerange with us in the summer when we are working outside, but the birds of prey make it so that we don't really leave them out unattended. That means they do spend significant time in their run, and the roof keeps it from becoming a messy mud bowl. I watch what they do outside the run on a rainy day.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

@shawluvsbirds maybe you could give some advice?
She just finished her duck palace...It's awesome!