Ducks evicted from bathtub!

[momma's chickens]

Oh wow, that is terrific looking. Makes me very jealous for my ducks.

Just kidding, but you have some lucky duckies!!

 

[love-my-wolves]

Wow, now I want ducks, too!!! I need 2 of those enclosures, one for ducks, one for my 3 turtles. You have any free time???

Steph

 

[dehave]

Will that kind of fencing keep them in? What is it called if I were to go look for it. We have five foot chain link around our property for predator protection, but I would like to section off a place for the ducks. That looks easy and cute. You really did an awesome job. Can I be one of your ducks please? I want a pool!

 

[pookiethebear]

The place looks fantastic! How do you plan on keeping the rocks/pond area clean? Do you have a gate to get in every night to close the coop door?

 

[moenmitz]

Uh oh! My husband is gonna be mad at YOU! No way is his dog house/kiddie pool idea gonna be good enough for my quackers now! This is SO awesome! You did a great job!

 

[sBrickmanHouse]

I know, crazy, isn't it? I can assure you that WE are not living nearly as well as our ducks! Their digs are nicer than the house! Seriously, though, thank you all for your kind comments. This is our first foray into keeping waterfowl, so we were kind of flying by the seats of our pants. We'll let you know if it functions as well as it looks!

As far as the fence, it's just 2 foot high garden fence that's sold in rolls, I think as garden edging. We picked it up at our local Lowe's. I looked on the Cornell Duck Research Project page, and it says 2 feet should do it for heavy breeds. The fencing is still kind of a work in progress. The ducks are housed in a fenced acre of our property, which also contains a small hobby orchard. We wanted the ducks for pest control in the orchard, but I kind of needed a temporary way of keeping them contained until they knew where "home" was.

It was easy to put up (just screwed together as many sections as we wanted, and screwed it to some wooden tomato stakes we pounded in the ground), and it does keep them contained, at least at this stage. It may not as they get bigger, but hopefully by that point they'll have free roam of the full acre. We don't have a gate, because it's only about knee high, so we just step over it to get in and out.

As far as keeping the rocks and pond clean, we sank a submersible sewage pump into the pond, and hooked the outlet to a hose and sprinkler in the orchard. When the pond gets dirty, we'll pump it out, using the water to irrigate the orchard, and refill it. When we did our test run with it, it only took the pump about 15 minutes to drain the pond, and the hose about an hour to refill it, so it should be an easy thing to do as we're doing other chores in the yard.

Right now we're working with just a hose and some extension cords, but assuming it works as it should, we'll trench electric for an outlet and a hose bib out there for a more permanent hookup.

Thanks again all for the compliments!

 

[dixygirl]

That is an ideal setting for ducks. I hope for my duck's sake that I can make something at least half as attractive for them.

 

[ronshoney]

Very nice. Gives me ideas that dh won't like.

 

[sara]

What a nice set up for your ducks!

 

[A Carolina Chick]

wow!