Well, it's almost complete. The ducks and chickens are able to live out there at least, and no longer have to reside in my garage - a situation I think we're all happier with!
Both the ducks and chickens reside here, in separate evening quarters. My plan had been to divide the structure down the middle with wire, as I had taken seriously the advice from many that ducks and chickens aren't suited to living together. However, they have all been getting along quite well so, for now, they will share the same "yard" area. They eat the same food and I think all my ducks are hens, so no mating problems. I'll be watching for problems though.
I'm pretty proud of this structure. So far we have about $20.00 into it, for door hinges and a couple braces. All the lumber was scrap from household projects and our neighbor's scrap pile. We even made due with all the screws and nails we'd saved over the years. We will need to buy plywood for the roof (right now it's just a tarp) and will need wire and 2x4's to frame in the front. To start with I am just using that plastic wire you get from Wal-mart for the garden. Since we don't have racoons and such the wire isn't such a big deal.
My husband works from home, so during the day the birds are let out into the backyard to wander and graze. A friend donated some metal fence posts and some shrimp net to make a regular fenced in yard for them. That will go up soon.
So, here it is in various stages. And yes, the inside is lavender and purple!!! We used paint that was leftover from painting a bedroom. Unfortunately we ran out on the duck side, so I'm going to use some extra green paint I have for that.
Here's the beginning building:
Starting to frame up the roof of the duck house and floor of the chicken coop (no, it's not square. We didn't level the ground under the duck house because it slopes toward a good drainage area.):
The framed in chicken side:
The finished product (duck house on left - note the storage on top of duck house for feed and hay):
And the final product with a happy flock:
Comments, questions, criticism and accolades are more than welcome!
Both the ducks and chickens reside here, in separate evening quarters. My plan had been to divide the structure down the middle with wire, as I had taken seriously the advice from many that ducks and chickens aren't suited to living together. However, they have all been getting along quite well so, for now, they will share the same "yard" area. They eat the same food and I think all my ducks are hens, so no mating problems. I'll be watching for problems though.
I'm pretty proud of this structure. So far we have about $20.00 into it, for door hinges and a couple braces. All the lumber was scrap from household projects and our neighbor's scrap pile. We even made due with all the screws and nails we'd saved over the years. We will need to buy plywood for the roof (right now it's just a tarp) and will need wire and 2x4's to frame in the front. To start with I am just using that plastic wire you get from Wal-mart for the garden. Since we don't have racoons and such the wire isn't such a big deal.
My husband works from home, so during the day the birds are let out into the backyard to wander and graze. A friend donated some metal fence posts and some shrimp net to make a regular fenced in yard for them. That will go up soon.
So, here it is in various stages. And yes, the inside is lavender and purple!!! We used paint that was leftover from painting a bedroom. Unfortunately we ran out on the duck side, so I'm going to use some extra green paint I have for that.
Here's the beginning building:
Starting to frame up the roof of the duck house and floor of the chicken coop (no, it's not square. We didn't level the ground under the duck house because it slopes toward a good drainage area.):
The framed in chicken side:
The finished product (duck house on left - note the storage on top of duck house for feed and hay):
And the final product with a happy flock:
Comments, questions, criticism and accolades are more than welcome!
