great home for ducks, try telling them that

[wefroggy]

I have 10 ducks, muscovies, pekins and runners. They are our free ranging during the day and I herd them into a pen at night for safety. It is starting to get cold up here so, we built them a large house for the winter. It has an open door, lots of fresh warm inviting hay in it, and most importantly it is not right under where the turkeys roost. My turkeys roost in the scrub trees that are in the duck enclosure, and in the morning my lovely white ducks come out of their pen covered in turkey droppings. I am having a heck of a time getting the ducks to even look in their new house. I have tried food, I have put a couple in there during the day to explore, absolutely no interest.
Any ideas?

 

[Denninmi]

I don't think there is any way to entice them to use it if they don't want to. I did the same thing last winter -- built them a really nice house, and they never ever went into it. Even in the coldest nights of winter, they just piled into the corner of their enclosure and ignored the insulated house full of straw. They did manage to tear part of the sheathing off of one side (well, my poor carpentry skills contributed) and had a great time eating the pink foamboard insulation, consuming a large part of it in one day. I was sure they would die, but they seemed to suffer absolutely no ill effects from consuming pink foamboard. I guess Owens Corning makes a non-toxic product.

 

[Wifezilla]

Do you have some kind of fence panel or gate or something? Herd them all in to the house at night and put the gate up. Do this for a week. After that...I guess they will decide...LOL

 

[katharinad]

They are not used to sleep in it and fight it. I would just build a couple of A-frames so they can take cover, but do not feel locked in.

This one I've build for about 15 dollars. It does have a back wall, but you can keep it open on both ends. It easily flips over for cleanup underneath. Just add straw and they can keep warm nicely.

 

[wefroggy]

I guess I will try to close them in for a few nights and then let them decide. I do like those a frames, but the 'big house' is already built. I found 2 frozen chicken eggs in there this morning, so the chickens like it I guess.