OK... I've got a fair sized hatching operation going and I'm looking for ideas for grow-out housing. Right now I have 6 nice sized yards of various aged ducklings made from plastic garden netting each with their own size-appropriate splashing area and predator-proof "house" ( a large rabbit cage) which are all centrally located in a horizontal row with 3 yards radiating from the left and 3 yards from the right. If the babies are very small I can place a heat lamp directly on top of the rabbit cage to provide a warming hut when they get wet splashing and then overnight if temps necessitate. I have the next age up adjacent so they can share a heat lamp if necessary. I use an easy-up to provide rain protection over the rabbit cages. Once they're fully feathered I move them to a big yard with a hoop house that holds 40 comfortably. This is a rough sketch (rabbit cages are in blue, yards are white):
This has worked out extremely well if I only grow out about 50-75 various age ducklings. I'm at around 200 at this point and looking for a better idea for the housing. The yards seem appropriately sized with lots of room for them to run and play, but the houses get crowded quickly as the ducklings grow so I'd like to upgrade from the rabbit cages to a bigger DIY solution with it's own roof - but I really need to be able to rest a heat lamp on top of wire to make it as safe as possible and I love the open air of the cages during the heat of the summer. Also, once in a while a duckling will wedge itself between the cages even though I've bumped them right up against one another. They usually survive overnight if this happens but I'd like to eliminate the risk altogether.
One long house covered in hardwire cloth sounds great to me with a raised metal roof... not sure how to support that. Also noodling the possibility of a removable wire wall between houses so that I can increase the house size if a yard is empty. This happens as the season winds down and they've grown out bigger. By this time I've got them pared down to just the many girls and a few drakes I want to keep for breeding.
Any idea is welcome, pictures or sketches would be awesome. I'd like to explore everything before building out for next breeding season. I'd love a modular design that can be added-on as the brood grows but I worry about similar issued I'm having with the rabbit cages and those tiny spaces in between. The yards are temporary but I've come to terms with the fact that this big house will just have to take up space each off-season until it's needed again.
This has worked out extremely well if I only grow out about 50-75 various age ducklings. I'm at around 200 at this point and looking for a better idea for the housing. The yards seem appropriately sized with lots of room for them to run and play, but the houses get crowded quickly as the ducklings grow so I'd like to upgrade from the rabbit cages to a bigger DIY solution with it's own roof - but I really need to be able to rest a heat lamp on top of wire to make it as safe as possible and I love the open air of the cages during the heat of the summer. Also, once in a while a duckling will wedge itself between the cages even though I've bumped them right up against one another. They usually survive overnight if this happens but I'd like to eliminate the risk altogether.
One long house covered in hardwire cloth sounds great to me with a raised metal roof... not sure how to support that. Also noodling the possibility of a removable wire wall between houses so that I can increase the house size if a yard is empty. This happens as the season winds down and they've grown out bigger. By this time I've got them pared down to just the many girls and a few drakes I want to keep for breeding.
Any idea is welcome, pictures or sketches would be awesome. I'd like to explore everything before building out for next breeding season. I'd love a modular design that can be added-on as the brood grows but I worry about similar issued I'm having with the rabbit cages and those tiny spaces in between. The yards are temporary but I've come to terms with the fact that this big house will just have to take up space each off-season until it's needed again.
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