Housing for ducks they need to get out of the hen house

[Dorothy1324]

hey just wondering if anyone had any ideas for housing for ducks we now have 12 muscovys and have always housed our ducks with our chickens with no trouble but we have always had only 3 or 4 ducks at a time and now that we have 12 the hen house is just a disgusting mess all the time and i need to get them out so the hens will feel comfortable laying eggs in the house again and i will not have to go scrape an inch of yuck of the floor every other day. and what i don't know is how much shelter they really need and how to make them go in there own shelter instead of the chickens shelter they seem to like the cold just fine but predetors are a problem and i need to keep them safe (oh and not a whole lot of money to spend on this)

 

[ChickenToes]

They don't need anything fancy, as they can tolerate the cold better than chickens can.

A lean-to or a 3 sided shelter would work, but the best thing to do is to build them a small coop. Predators are always a problem, but winter is a particularly bad time for predators.

Our duck coop looks like a large doghouse. You'll need to herd them into the coop at night, but after 2 or 3 times doing this they'll get the hint and go in the coop on their own.