Enclosure ideas please?

duckcreekfarm

Hatching
Mar 31, 2015
5
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Can I get some assistance on ideas for a duck enclosure?
I got my ducklings before I built an enclosure... ignoring all advice about how stinky they are lol.
So now I am frantically building a duck pen. What I am currently setting up is a 6' by 20' chain-link run with an old goat shed on one end. The shed is homemade, about 4' by 8'. The run is covered with a long chain link panel.
My plan was to put 1"x 2" welded wire around the bottom of the run, about 2' high, with a skirt to keep out digging predators. But will this be enough to keep the bad guys out??
 
I covered mine top to bottom, with an underground apron, out of 1/2" hardware cloth, because predators absolutely can rip through poultry wire (I know you're not using that, but for anyone else who's reading), and because I'd seen stories on here about a raccoon or something reaching through a 1" or so opening and clawing at their ducks...one even said their duck's neck was snapped. :(
However... I don't lock my ducks up at night - they are free to roam their pen 24/7, which I feel good about. So if this is just a day pen you may be fine with what you're planning, I dunno...hopefully others will a similar setup will chime in. But I've had zero issues with predators with my pen for over 2.5 years now, which I think means I made pretty good design decisions. :)
 
Just want to emphasize that the hardware cloth cymbaline uses is metal.

Years ago I discovered that some plastic poultry fence is labeled "hardware cloth." That caused the death of some ducks - not mine, but someone who had read that hardware cloth was a good fence for ducks.
 
Put railroad ties around the inside of your pen, right next to the fence. Helps to keep digging predators out cos they have to dig farther to get in. I also put awnings around the top of the pen. I bolted cut up pieces of t-posts to each fence post in my pen at a 45 degree angle pointing outwards from the fence. Then I ran about a 2 foot wide string of chicken wire around those t posts. It looks almost like a prison except its keeping things out instead of in. Never had anything get in, even the fence climbing tom cat that eats everything in sight....
 

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