I've been slaving away the past week on a new Call duck pen. It's almost finished now - just needs to be stained to match our deck, needs some trim in a few places, and the entire "house" is going to be shingled...the ducks are locked in the house overnight; I realize that the chicken wire isn't predator-proof, but it's only meant to keep them in. We don't have a problem with daytime predators here (we have our 4 big dogs running all over the place during the day, and nothing messes with them!), just raccoons and one pesky skunk overnight.
Anyways, I was going to wait until it was completely finished before I shared it with everyone, but after a 7-hour round trip in the car yesterday, I brought home 4 gorgeous new Calls from duckluck to put in the new pen, and I just had to share!
Thank you so much again, duckluck, they're perfect! Here they are waiting for me to finish hinging the doors on before I put them in the new pen last night:
And here they are this morning, all moved in - the two pairs had never met before; there was about 5 minutes of feather-pulling last night, when the Whites established that they are the head birds of the flock, and now all is peaceful this morning. The kitty-litter pan for a pool is temporary - they're getting a bigger under-the-bed storage tote to swim in just as soon as I make it to the store!
The pair of Whites are named "Ollie" & "Mia", and the pair of Butterscotch are named "Butternut" & "Ellie Mae". They're all still pretty young, around 2 months old.
The new pen is portable, but it takes 2-4 strong people to lift it and move it to a new place. The ground where it's sitting now isn't 100% level, so I put some sandstones (which we have a plentiful supply of here!) in any little gaps I saw around the bottom. I didn't use any wire or flooring in the "run" area of the pen, because I want them to be able to eat grass and muck in the dirt unhindered!
After the long trip in the car yesterday, they sure were happy to see that pan of water this morning! They got down to business washing, primping, and preening right away!
Hope you all enjoyed! Once I get the pen completely finished, I'll add some more pictures of it. It's 6'x8' and approx. 4' tall, each end is hinged from the bottom to open, and held at the top with old-fashioned window clips (as is the little "duckie door" that the ducks use to get in and out)...the floor of the house is white acrylic, which will clean up really nice...I used mostly scraps we had lying around from other projects, so the whole thing, after all the hardware, cost about $40 to build. Here are a few pictures I snapped during construction:
Anyways, I was going to wait until it was completely finished before I shared it with everyone, but after a 7-hour round trip in the car yesterday, I brought home 4 gorgeous new Calls from duckluck to put in the new pen, and I just had to share!
And here they are this morning, all moved in - the two pairs had never met before; there was about 5 minutes of feather-pulling last night, when the Whites established that they are the head birds of the flock, and now all is peaceful this morning. The kitty-litter pan for a pool is temporary - they're getting a bigger under-the-bed storage tote to swim in just as soon as I make it to the store!
The pair of Whites are named "Ollie" & "Mia", and the pair of Butterscotch are named "Butternut" & "Ellie Mae". They're all still pretty young, around 2 months old.
The new pen is portable, but it takes 2-4 strong people to lift it and move it to a new place. The ground where it's sitting now isn't 100% level, so I put some sandstones (which we have a plentiful supply of here!) in any little gaps I saw around the bottom. I didn't use any wire or flooring in the "run" area of the pen, because I want them to be able to eat grass and muck in the dirt unhindered!
After the long trip in the car yesterday, they sure were happy to see that pan of water this morning! They got down to business washing, primping, and preening right away!
Hope you all enjoyed! Once I get the pen completely finished, I'll add some more pictures of it. It's 6'x8' and approx. 4' tall, each end is hinged from the bottom to open, and held at the top with old-fashioned window clips (as is the little "duckie door" that the ducks use to get in and out)...the floor of the house is white acrylic, which will clean up really nice...I used mostly scraps we had lying around from other projects, so the whole thing, after all the hardware, cost about $40 to build. Here are a few pictures I snapped during construction:
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