Floating gazebo????

[1eyejer]

Im thinking about making a floating gazebo/shelter in the middle of the pond...will the ducks use it , im thinking it will also keep them safe from animals at night?

 

[slightlyscrambled]

oh that would be nice!! be sure to post pics if you make it!

 

[xke4]

Here's mine. Not a gazebo but a safe structure away from coons and coyotes. Ducks and turtles use it.

 

[FenDruadin]

THAT is WAY too cool. Wow. Do you have plans to share?

 

[xke4]

Thank you. Unfortunately, no. It was made for me by my handy friend. It supports his weight with just sheets of styrofoam under the base. A door on either side so they weren't spooked by the dark inside. Shingles on the roof. The house actually lifts off the base for storage in the winter. We tie it to trees on either side of the pond so it stays away from the shore and the predators.

 

[gryeyes]

Here's a link to a "how to" for building a duck house intended to float on a large pond or a lake:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4451013_build-wooden-duck-houses.html

I am building the duck house for my two Cayugas, but for a solid ground installation, not floating.

 

[UGAchick]

What a great idea!!! I am wondering how you gather the duck eggs, though...

I saw an ad on CL for a plastic dog house. I wonder if I can just make a platform for it to float on and put it in my pond.

 

[QuailQT]

Quote:
That is what I'm wondering too.
I have an idea, but maybe it is stupid as I've only just bought my first ducklings yesterday-Khaki Campbells) so I don't know a lot about ducks yet, but.....
what if you made the house long enough to fit a long snow sled inside with one short end, the other short end open (for the door) and two long sides, then mount a clothesline pulley on the inside, opposite the open end and down low (about 5 inches from the floor-however tall the sled is).

Then attach one end of the rope onto the sled beside the pulley and the other end on the front of the sled (after running it through another pulley on shore attached to a post or something?).)

Then when you wanted to get your eggs, you could just pull the sled out to you and it would be like a boat.

Then you could pull the other cord and the pulley would guide the sled back into place like nothing ever happened. (It would probably be a good idea to have your ramp here too for the ducks to get into the house and it would ease the sled into the house easier too.)

Would that work? Would they lay in one of those rectangle shaped sleds? Are ducks really fussy? (I don't think that my breed of duck lay on their eggs anyway, so maybe they wouldn't be as fussy.) The long sleds have deeper sides and probably wouldn't disturb the nest as much is what I was thinking.

Like I said, it may be a stupid idea, but it's somewhere to start.

Please let me know what you think, before I build something. (I won't need it for a little while, but I would like to build a house that I can place on a floating base and I need to know if the sled idea would work or not.
Thanks!

 

[dandefrancis]

Our duck gazebo

 

[GloryGirl]

Such cool ideas! Makes me wish I had a pond for my ducks.