My Mandarin Duck Pen - During Construction - Photo Intensive

[Scott]

Quote:
No. For me, that would defeat the purpose of the wire floor. I had initially planned on building an on-the-ground aviary for the ducks, which was going to have a mulch or river rock flooring over dirt. However, after seeing how messy ducks are with water, I realized I wanted to go with on an above ground design. Its worked out really well and stays very clean. They can splash all the water they want, yet they do not come into contact with dirt/mud. There are wood chips in their shelter, however.

 

[Scott]

New photos added of the completed pen. All I need to now is move to its permanent location, add my mandarins, paint it, and add shingles to the roof.

 

[1lpoock]

That looks awesome...good work!

 

[jsvand5]

That is a really smart looking set up. Looks like you have thought of all of the ways to make it as easy as possible as far as upkeep goes. I personally prefer a more natural setup, but yours defintely has mine beat when cleaning day rolls around.

 

[Scott]

Quote:
I had originally planned on a more natural on-the-ground set up. However, I ultimately decided to go with functionality and ease-of-cleaning. I've been very pleased with this set up so far. I am actually going to add some potted plants inside the pen to provide them with some natural cover.

 

[Hattiegun]

So , these pens are really reallly nice.. BUT what do your Ducks do all day.??? Do they have a Run to put them
in some.. There's no room to run around??

 

[jsvand5]

Quote:
Probably a smart decision. Mine is a bit of a pain on cleaning day but I needed a bigger water source for the mergansers, and hopefully Smew if I can scratch a little extra cash together.

 

[Scott]

They do what ducks do: swim, eat, sun-bathe, sleep, etc. They are actually very active. Check out the video on my web page. Or on my youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/heliophion. The calls are actually let out to free range with the chickens occasionally. The mandarins on the other hand remain in their pen. They would fly off if allowed out.

 

[Scott]

Quote:
Probably a smart decision. Mine is a bit of a pain on cleaning day but I needed a bigger water source for the mergansers, and hopefully Smew if I can scratch a little extra cash together.

I will probably add a tree branch as well for natural perching. What are you using for your mergansers now? I have considered using a 80-100 gallon stock tank in the mandarin pen. It was obviously much deeper. However, mandarins arent diving ducks, plus it would have required additional support. So I went with the mortar tub... it has plenty of surface area for the few mandarins I keep. Plus it will be uniform with the call duck pen.

 

[jsvand5]

I dug out a big pond so I could see them dive. It's nice to have the big pond, but shoveling out the duck crap once a week is not too fun. If I was only going to have the mandarins I would have went with something closer to yours I think.