need ideas for intermediate housing

[HSerChickLady]

My ducklings have outgrown their stock tank brooder but their coop is not built yet and it's still too cold for them to be without supplemental heat here. I'm terribly short on space also. What are your ideas that will be cheap and give 10 sucklings more room to excercise while still letting me keep them warm enough. There's a slight chance i might be able to rig something up in our tack room in the barn, but it'll depend on how big the set-up is.

Thanks for the help. We had no idea they would grow so fast!

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

Yikes! Yes they grow fast don't they? Dog kennel, dogloo, doghouse... etc..

 

[QuackerJackFarms]

You could buy one of those huge tubs at walmart..

 

[HSerChickLady]

We have a large Dogloo i am going to see if i can borrow from our dog. She doesn't use it anyhow. Not sure how i could work their heat and pen yet though, or if i can even fit it in the tackroom. I don't want it in the main part of the barn because i'm afraid a racoon might get in there.

 

[mominoz]

What kind of ducks? I use a large tupperware for the first week for 10 or so,then I have a top of a car top carrier about 3ft. by 3.5 ft. this works for another couple weeks. Then I set up a rectangle of garden fence or hardware cloth (whatever I have) especially for goslings that grow really fast. I put scrap boards that are about 6-12' high around the sides of the fence and tie heavy paint cans or milk cartons as weights tied to anchor fence and boards together. (cans hold boards up next to fence so shavings stay in place. I can then still keep a brooder light attached to shelf rack next to setup.This is in my garage.
Or you could go ahead and buy a childs wading pool and use that adding fence or cardboard around if if needed....then u aren't wasting $ as you will need it anyway:0)

 

[AllCoop'dUp]

You didn't say how old they are. f you have some poultry wire or hardware cloth, you could set them up in an area inside your garage or outbuilding with electricty to keep the heat lamp on them. Or string some extension cords together to the area without electricity. If you have some extra traps to enclose the top and sides, you could even set this up outside with the heatlamp. I was going to say, make a small circle using bales of straw or hay, that would work too, hang the heatlamp from a pole supported by either a small ladder or sawhorses, but be careful with the heatlamp as to not catch the hay on fire. If you have access to even some wooden pallets, those would work. Just a few ideas I could come up with, without knowing your circumstances. Good luck.

 

[LaynaDon95]

I have "chicken" tractors that I keep my adolescent chicks in. (I haven't had ducklings yet, I just got adult ducks.) They were pretty cheap for us to build, but can be kind of time consuming. We used pallets and scrap wood from construction sites. We also were very fortunate and were able to get our hands on free corrugated tin, which we used for the roofs, but you could use tarps, feed sacks, anything waterproof really. We had to pay for the chicken wire and the things we used to put it together. (nails, screws, hammers, etc.) I know it couldn't be that cheap for everyone, but just thought I'd put the idea out.

If they can be in a sheltered area you could make something without a roof. Of course it would still have to have a top, but it could be made out of wire.
Here's a really lightweight, relatively cheap idea that I'm considering adding to my collection.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/content/knowhow/chicks/chicken-tractor-design