Share your duck coops!

[Niche Flock]

Hello!

I am seeking inspiration for duck coops. Layout, design, functionality, etc.

If you have pictures to share, that would be great! I am curious to know how others keep their ducks.

I live in NY and experience moderately cold winters & warm summers. I currently use an old walk in insulated cooler attached to a fairly large pen enclosed with wooden walls and a 1/2" hardware chicken wire front with gate. There is also an old sliding garage door attached to the ceiling that I can pull down over the chicken wire front in the winter to keep out the snow and drafts. They only stay in the coop overnight and are in my garden and a largebfree range grassy hillside during the day.

Any suggestions on nesting recommendations, layout, etc greatly appreciated!

I just want to know how other duck owners keep their feathered flock.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Please don't tell my husband that I am secretly planing my own duck coop and flock!!

 

[Niche Flock]

Ahahah, best of luck at keeping it a secret!!

Please don't tell my husband that I am secretly planing my own duck coop and flock!!

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Ahahah, best of luck at keeping it a secret!!

He already knows. But in denial phase. Or there will be no sugar tonight if you know what I mean!

 

[jofanx]

I'm in NY too (LI), and I use a shed, the interior stapled with hardware cloth to prevent animals from ripping into it (it's an old shed), and a kennel (also surrounded by hardware cloth) attached. I use a mixture of straw and wood shavings, and have three wood boxes for nests. The entrance to the kennel was just a square hole cut out of the side, and my husband made a guillotine style door.

The shed is 6x8 and I have 6 ducks, and the kennel is 4x6. I used two of the kennel panels for the top against aerial predators.

Ducks are pretty hardy, they keep cool during the heat (I give them a large tub of water) and warm during the cold.

 

[chickens really]

I have two Duck pens....One is a 10x10 Dog run with an extra large dog house that is insulated...In the winter I fill the dog house with straw, summer I use pine shavings...I wrap vapour barrier plastic on all sides to keep out the wind..All year it has a tarp on top to keep out rain...

My other is a Chicken coop that has the coop above the run..My Young Ducks live in that...They easily learned the ramp and go up to bed each night and I lock them in..That will also have straw bedding and vapour barrier once Winter is here....That pen is 4x12 and the top coop is 4x4...Ill see If I have a Photo to send?

 

[chickens really]

These are my Duck pens...

 

[Meg Muir]

Thankfully in S.A. on the coast we do not have snow so that isn't a factor for me. As well as limited predators which are mainly owls and neighbourhood cats, which stay out of my yard and far from my dogs, and I highly doubt my dogs would care, they have 3 cats of their own and don't understand animal territory. They just don't like human trespassers. This is the first enclosure I have built totally on my own. My husband was away so I just got on with it. I did have lovely plants and flowers everywhere which I learnt quickly you cannot have with ducks!! :-D so will put more grassy plants that they won't eat. You can see the before pics when I put plants in and then after a month of moving the ducks in! They used to nest on the roof of their shelter, but then I clipped their wings and now they sleep under the roof. In the blue barrel on the outside I grow feeder fish for them.

 

[Duckworth]

This is my new duck house and pen. I live in the Central Plains, with warm/hot summers and cold winters down to -10F. The house has an insulated floor, roof, and lower walls, with hardware cloth upper windows and one glass window for light in the winter when most of the hardware cloth windows will be covered by insulated panels to keep out wind, snow, and rain. Rolled roofing goes on the house this weekend, along with PVC roofing panels for the pen, since rain and hail are typical of storms here. The hardware cloth on the house windows is on the inside, to enable easy installation of the insulated panels from the outside. I caulked all of the joints and seams inside and out on the house to prevent water getting into the insulation inside the walls and floor and to prevent wind and drafts down where the ducks are during cold weather. I still have to trim and weatherstrip the back doors of the house.

The pen is 8 x 8 feet and the house is 4 x 4 feet x 4' sloping to 3' high for snow/ rain runoff. The house and pen floors slope slightly to the NE corner to prevent standing water and the doors at those locations have no footers to promote drainage. The house floor is five inches above the pen floor to prevent water from running from the pen into the house. The house abuts the north half of the east wall of the pen and a lean-to shed for bedding storage will take up the south half of that wall, so that the south-facing window of the house will vent into the shed in the winter to give plenty of ventilation without wind blowing into the house. The sides of the shed will be louvered to allow venting of moisture without wind blowing in. Bedding will be off the ground on pallets.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Looks great @Duckworth