Preparing new duck house/pen for winter

[Duckworth]

My Welsh harlequins are 23 weeks old and just moved outside full time last week. Overnight temps are currently in the fifties and sixties F and days are sixties to low nineties, now, but will be dropping with the approaching fall. We get a lot of winter days with highs in the teens and lows around or below zero. The really cold weather doesn't usually hit until after Thanksgiving (US), but we generally get several weeks when the temps don't go above freezing and local lakes freeze over completely enough to allow a lot of ice fishing.

I built the duck house with R10 dense foam insulation in the floor, lower walls and ceiling and hardware cloth on the inner side of the studs of the upper walls for lots of cooling ventilation in the summer, which can exceed 100F. My plan for winter is to insert insulation into most of the hardware cloth windows and cover it with plywood panels from the outside. There will still be ventilation between the roof and the top of the walls and I can add or close up ventilation by how much insulation I put over the windows. Any advice about how to strike the right balance between warmth and ventilation in winter weather? There is no electricity to my duck house, though I could run an extension cord for a heated dog bowl for water in the pen.

This is my newly completed pen and house.

I still have to trim out the back doors and put the roofing on, so it's not completely done, but at least the ducks are out of the house. I had an injury that slowed me way down getting the building done. The floor now has a full covering of pine shavings and straw. The low side door on the pen and the back doors of the house have no footers so that any water can run out and cleaning is easier. The pen currently just has a tarp screwed onto the rafters, but I am going to put hardware cloth over the rafters, then put PVC corrugated panels over it for shade and shelter from rain and snow. I'm also going to put welded wire rabbit fencing over the hardware cloth around the bottom of the pen to discourage our dogs from attempting to join the ducks in the pen. We have a variety of wild predators here, including raccoons, raptors, opossums and an occasional fox. Construction cleanup is slated for this weekend.

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm new at this. My husband is allergic to chicken eggs and duck eggs are hard to find here.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

That looks pretty great to me

 

[chickens really]

Very happy Ducks....Nice..

 

[liamedson]

looks great. I was wondering about the ventilation balance as well.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ducks are very hardy and have that nice down under their feathers so as long as frigid wind isn't blowing directly on them they should be fine with an opening on the east or south side of their house for good air flow and the top ventilation to remove the moist air they will create. Which can cause frost bite to feet and legs. which bring up another topic I wouldn't let them sit in water over night if and when your temps drop below say high 20's because of pool water freezes that is when they can get frost bitten. I don't have water or food inside over night it just creates a wet frozen mess. Mine only get swimming water on days when it gets into high 30's and then it's a cement mixing tub since my spring freezes in winter.

Other than these recs, you have done a great job I hope you will post when completely done.

Beautiful ducks

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Hum. . we are building a duck house and run also. . we have two large windows on the east and west side that will be able to fold down with hardware cloth screens installed. . it is going to be made from tin outside and inside and have insulation between. We hadn't thought about boy ventilation up top. . . we won't have water inside. So do we need to add some kind of ventilation up top for in the winter when we close the Windows? You got me worried about the frostbite thing now lol.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Just cut some holes here is a good article
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop.47774/

 

[Duckworth]

Ducks are very hardy and have that nice down under their feathers so as long as frigid wind isn't blowing directly on them they should be fine with an opening on the east or south side of their house for good air flow and the top ventilation to remove the moist air they will create. Which can cause frost bite to feet and legs. which bring up another topic I wouldn't let them sit in water over night if and when your temps drop below say high 20's because of pool water freezes that is when they can get frost bitten. I don't have water or food inside over night it just creates a wet frozen mess. Mine only get swimming water on days when it gets into high 30's and then it's a cement mixing tub since my spring freezes in winter.

Other than these recs, you have done a great job I hope you will post when completely done.

Beautiful ducks

Thank you, Miss Lydia! I will take the water bucket out when it gets colder. The floor of the house is five inches above the floor of the pen, so no water from the pen can get into the house. All of the floors slope by a few degrees toward the northeast corner, which is where the water bucket is in the house. There are no footers on the back of the house, so there is nothing preventing any standing water from draining out under the back doors or the clean out door on the northeast corner of the pen.

I'm trying to figure out whether I can use any passive solar heating, such as a "soda can" heater to add heat to the house, especially early in the morning, when our temps are at their lowest and the sun will hit the east side of the house. Our garage is on the south side of the pen. The location was the only one that would allow us to seek a permit if we were to exceed the number of ducks our ordinance allows without a permit.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I really don't think you'll need heat as long as they aren't in a draft while in their house. They generate their own heat. Once it starts getting really cold give them an option of staying inside or going out and I bet they will come out even if they have to lay down with their feet and legs under them. I keep my houses open all day year round and mine would stay outside even when snowing or ice is coming down. They are nutty.

 

[Duckworth]

I really don't think you'll need heat as long as they aren't in a draft while in their house. They generate their own heat. Once it starts getting really cold give them an option of staying inside or going out and I bet they will come out even if they have to lay down with their feet and legs under them. I keep my houses open all day year round and mine would stay outside even when snowing or ice is coming down. They are nutty.

Thank you for this information. I just want to take good care of them.