Getting Ducks- Need info

[Miss Lydia]

We actually had 2 rabid raccoons at our home. Even though our dog an cat had up to date rabies vaccine they had to go for another.

 

[DiYMama540]

Are there many left in your area now?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I rarely see them on the game camera or dead on the side of the road. Their making a come back though.

 

[DiYMama540]

Googled this and apparently they're still treating them all around my area. Said they're leaving bait stations with the vaccines in the woods for them. I'm sure that does have something to do with why I don't ever see them around here...

 

[Miss Lydia]

They may even be doing it here I haven’t heard anything about it though guess I’ll google too.

 

[3bird]

Anyone have ideas for duck houses, runs, etc?

Sorry I am late to this thread. We have six ducks (silver Appleyards) and live in Maine.

Our ducks have a 4'x8' elevated duckhouse attached to a 16'x8' covered run. They have 24/7 access to the run accept during the most severe blizzards. They also have free choice grain, grit and oyster shells in the run. We use a five-gallon heated water bucket, which we change twice daily.

There are four windows on the house to provide ventilation. They have sliding plexiglass windows for when it is storming (although two of the windows face the covered run and rarely need to be closed). We have a walk-in door on the run and a large tailgate door on the back for annual clean-out (we use the deep litter method in the house).

We situated our duckhouse next to the compost and the veggie garden, which make it easy to move old bedding from duckhouse/run to the compost and then into the garden. We planted a row of comfrey below (and slightly downhill) from the duckhouse/run to capture all those great nutrients. We feed them the comfrey in the summer and the rest goes into the compost. They also love to bed down in it on summer days.

We have supervised free-range time every morning and every evening (about an hour each time). During the summer, they free range with us most days as we work around the property. When we are not outside, they have a fenced area around their run where they hang out.

In the winter, we wrap three sides of our duckhouse in 6mm plastic. We used to bank with straw bales as well, but we don't do that anymore. As I mentioned before, they have a heated water bucket for their water in the winter.

We use Wyze cameras in the duckhouse/run to keep an eye on the them, and we also have lights that we only use in an emergency. We do have a Sweeter Heater in the house that they can use during the coldest times in the winter.

We added an "annex" last summer so we had a place to separate our drake when he's being a turd. We usually separate him with his favorite hen. I wish we had built a way to isolate a duck inside the duckhouse--that is our one biggest regret.

Overall, our duckhouse has worked very well for us. If you have any questions, please hesitate to ask. Good luck! Ducks are amazing.

 

[DiYMama540]

Now THAT is a duck house @3bird !! Beautiful! What do your ducks think of all that snow??

 

[3bird]

Now THAT is a duck house @3bird !! Beautiful! What do your ducks think of all that snow??

As long as they can get a swim in...

;-)

 

[Miss Lydia]

I kept thinking if they only had a sled! You could pile them on an pull them to the creek.

 

[3bird]

I kept thinking if they only had a sled! You could pile them on an pull them to the creek.

lol...Now that's a vision!