Duck Shelter Advice

[cjhubbs]

Hey Guys,
A couple of months ago my mom bought me a pair of Pekin Ducks. So far we have been housing them with our chickens and are feeding them all a poultry feed; both of which have been going great so far. However as our ducks have grown my parents and I have realized that our 4x8 coop and 12x8 run are not big enough for 12 chickens and 2 ducks. At the moment I am working on selling two excess roosters that we have but am also looking for a duck shelter on craigslist. While looking today I cam across a "chicken coop" that someone is selling for $100 and I was thinking of buying it for them. Saying this is the first time we have ever owned any ducks I figured it would be a good idea to ask your all's opinions on the "coop" before considering to contact the seller. My biggest question about the coop is that it is a couple of feet above the ground and I was concerned whether or not the ducks would have problems getting into their shelter, even though as I have noticed they rarely use the coop they have. I am attaching the pictures below, please feel free to take a peek and comment on whether you think the shelter would work for some ducks. Thanks so much! Oh and I understand the run underneath is a little small and if I bought the "coop" I would definitely plan on making a much larger exterior pen with a kiddie pool or something. Thanks so much!

 

[Kevin565]

You'd have to replace the chicken wire around the bottom and the window because it's not predator proof. However, I think it has a decent structure that could be adapted to fit the needs of your ducks.

 

[Going Quackers]

You'd have to replace the chicken wire around the bottom and the window because it's not predator proof. However, I think it has a decent structure that could be adapted to fit the needs of your ducks.

I agree. I find angles and ramps depend on the ducks, my female scovies have on occasion checked out my standard hen coop(it's elevated and has a ramp) but the drakes couldn't navigate that if their lives depended upon it lol

You could always lower it down, making it less difficult for ducks to get up into and reducing the hardware cloth needed to pred proof it.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

I'm also in agreement that could be modified to work. About ramps, I have found here that my ducks are rather persnickety (fussy) about any changes that I make to their environment. So my point is that most likely anything that you do, you ducks will require an adjustment period.

 

[Going Quackers]

I'm also in agreement that could be modified to work. About ramps, I have found here that my ducks are rather persnickety (fussy) about any changes that I make to their environment. So my point is that most likely anything that you do, you ducks will require an adjustment period.

So very true, change the feeder and oh my! you have a bunch of scared feathered critters hanging in the corner. Ducks are routine animals, changes go over like a leaky cup.

 

[cjhubbs]

Thank you all so much for the help and advice. After reading what you all had to say and talking with my parents, I think I am going to go for the coop and will be emailing the seller later today. My next question pertains to locking the ducks in at night. Currently I lock the ducks and chickens inside their coop at night; however, if I get this new shelter for the ducks I was wondering if you thought it would be okay for me to allow the ducks to generally have free access to the small pen under the coop if I predator proofed it? I also was wondering if you all had any ideas for making the small pen underneath as predator proof as possible, and if you all think it would be a bad idea to make a larger exterior fence out of field fencing, t post and strands of hot wire? The ducks would only have access to that pen during the daytime and only when someone is home, but that shouldn't be a problem because somebody is always at home. Thanks so much for the help!

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

My day pen is similar, I think, but mine is 7' tall. Hardware cloth at the bottom plus 3 layers of chicken wire everywhere. Best idea is a hot wire around the top to discourage predators. The ramp incline looks to me like too much for ducks. What about just wrapping the underside of a dog house in hardware cloth, as barrier between the soil and the house?