Ducks wont roost ha ha)...need house and run ideas

[prov31gal]

my husband is trying to figure out a good housing situation for ducks, weve never had ducks before , they are ancona. i know they are poo machines, and messy to boot. i know they are good forragers, weeders and bug eaters, i know they dont like to come in at night, but that isnt an option, something will most assuredly eat them. so that is ALL i know about ducks, so , what type of housing do you reccomend? we plan on letting them roam most of the day and closing them in a house at other times. should the house have a run? whats the best type of housing for ducks? i live in wv, and right now there is 4 feet of snow on north mountain, so winter is cold. chickens have never minded ,is it pretty much the same for ducks? any info would be great! and pics too, to get ideas!

 

[hankus]

Mine roost in a wood box that is 30 inches X30 inches and 18 inches tall with a 15 inch door. Just something to slow the wind and rain, but neither really seem to bother them very much.

 

[jbear]

Hi~we have 5 call ducks with our chickens.. and NO slugs in our yard! lol! and you aren't kidding they don't roost! Ours camp out RIGHT by the door to their night-pen until someone puts them away.. cute, but stubborn. all the chickens are always in the hen house sleeping already....

Their night-pen is just a very simple pen within our chicken yard that has straw/shavings on the ground and a dog-igloo for extreme weather shelter. There is also a roof over their entire night-pen. It's really pretty small, about 8x8x3. I have seen pictures in books of things for ducks/geese to go into at night. One of them looked a lot like one of those garden shed things that would hold like your rakes, shovels, etc along side of your garage or something. It would probably be pretty quick to build (or craigslist!) something very similar.. The ducks are super unaffected by any sort of nasty weather.. in fact it is pouring down rain and windy and they are out there doing their lil duckie dances while everyone else is hiding in and under stuff... hope that helps some. they are much easier to house than the chickens I think. It seems they really only need protection from predators and very extreme weather.

 

[camalianus]

The only ducks that roost are Muscovies, but they need wider roost. Their claws are perfectly designed to hold them.