Mine like to be out too! Just scared of winter and it being so cold!
Ohhh! I’ve never heard of an automatic door. Lol but I would like them to be able to use the house whenever they want..
Lol! This type of thing is the only thing we have for now. I have been looking online for actual coops and stuff form cheap. Hopefully i come across something soon.I wouldn't recommend it because the ramp will have to be either quite steep or very long, and if you are already having problems getting them to sleep in a shelter at night, you don't want to make th process more unpleasant for them.
At our old house, the duck was low enough that until the deep litter bedding starting getting high, the ducks didn't need a ramp and even after, a short low one was enough. Now that we have moved to a farm and have more critters, we have several campers we've turned into coops, including one that the ducks sleep in.
Because of this, we made a set of stairs out of cement blocks for the poultry, including ducks, to use to get up and down into the coop. We didn't think this would be a problem for the ducks because they had used cement block steps before, albeit shorter ones.
Here's a pic:
View attachment 1206322
Th ducks do this sort of rallying jump-fly up the steps every night, and it looks like it takes some effort. In th mornings, they either trip down the steps, jump, or jump-fly down them (depending on their grace and dexterity, some use gravity more than others)
The camper-coops (hopefully) will be fairly temporary and when we design th next duck structure, it will be as close to the ground as possible because while the ducks can manage steps etc, they don't seem to prefer it. This is th experience I've had with my ducks, others may have had more successful experiences with their ducks using steps and ramps.
Last night was the first time they have ever been put inside for the whole night. When we let them out they seemed really thirsty and were fighting over the water bowl. Lol. They are used to being out all night doing what they want. Eating and drinking whenever.
Lol. They were totally fine when they got to get out. But I don’t think they liked being in there all night. lol
Exactly! I don’t want anything to happen to them! I just wish they’d use their house on their own so I don’t have to worry about putting them in for the night. But we are using an old dog house and they are not capable of using it by themselves. I think the door is too heavy.I stressed a lot about that last year when our ducks first started being locked in their coop at night vs bringing them back into the brooder in our house, but they were really too big for the brooder. Ultimately, I decided that its better for them to be upset about being locked up at night than to end up eaten by a predator.
