Ideas for making duck pen "duck friendly"

[Bigcreekpeafowl]

We recently hatched out 10 Muscovy ducklings this spring.
Used to have them in the 1970s and 1980s until they got a wide spread disease and wiped them out fast. This was a widespread kill of muscovies in our area.

We have raised them to their present age of 3 months. My how they have grown.
We are thinking about slowly letting them have some free range time around the barnyard but put them in their pen at night. The pen is about 30x30' with a enclosed house for protection.
We have a large lake but it is about 150 yards from the house and we are afraid to put them on the water because of predators.

We bought two of the large plastic kiddie pools for them. But would like anyone's input or suggestions in fixing the pools and areas up for them.
Does anyone have suggestions for step or ramps they use for the ducks to be able to easily get in and out of their pool?
When you think of duck a lot of people think water. We want them to be happy, but safe too.

I welcome suggestions and advice.

 

[Going Quackers]

We use cinder blocks for our muscovy to get in/out of there kiddy pool.. 3 in total.. one inside the pool.. 2 outside.

 

[scubagirlwonder]

We bought a few "paver" type stones and stacked them to make a small staircase for them to use....problem is, they don't use it, they just fling themselves over the side of the pool to get in and out....silly duckies!

We even had a few in the pool for them to rest on, but they didn't seem to like those either....

 

[dianaross77]

I have pavers/concrete lawn edging. Mine don't use it either. They can hop pretty darn well. Nacho is two months old and jumped straight up and out the top of his house when I had the lid off!

 

[Bleenie]

My Muscovies LOVE to dive under the water and swim in circles around the pool so I usually only keep bricks in the pool when I have small ducklings around... I don't know how many times i have seen them run right into the bricks under water, lol.

I am currently tearing down and rebuilding my chicken/duck yard and have been thinking of buying some large bushes/shrubs to plant in their yard. They love the shade they provide and they also hide under them when a hawk or Eagle comes around. My problem is that I have a pair of African Geese that want to chew Everything up, they killed one of my dwarf azaleas and have trimmed up the lilacs

.... I think I will have to go with a large Rhodendron or two, if I can't find anything else at the nursery. I REALLY wanna plant grasses but the geese will demolish them

.

 

[Bigcreekpeafowl]

Thank you one and all for replies.
We are in the process of fixing up the pool with steps. Without a boost they can't make it into or out of the pool yet.

Will try to focus on getting some kind of vegetation to grow in the pen
If we start letting them out during the day that might give something green a chance to grow.
They are excellent eaters. Love bread.

Thanks again!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
Mine love bread too, just becareful not to give them much or you'll have porkers instead of duckies..

 

[crj]

I have 3 pools for my ducks and geese and each one has a step system and they all use it. I built a step out of wood. Just a 2 x8 will do with 4x4 pieces for legs. I also have a crate in front of that for when they were babies. I still have it at one pool. One pool only has a short crate as the step. It's a plastic crate that would have held cans.

The chickens are on the step. The chickens and geese grew up together and couldn't figure out why there friends were in the water.

Behind the goose you can see the step set up.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

We use these

The lips of the pools fit over the edge of the dog bed. They are called cool a roo dog beds and come in a few sizes.

 

[Jobells110]

I read put chicken wire in the pool will help them out. I put half in and half out. I also have a few logs outside the pool. They usually just jump in put have used the chicken wire to get out.