Topic of the Week - Duck Housing

[Eagle Flight Farm]

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to this thread. We are planning our duck enclosure now and have ordered Muscovy eggs from a nearby hatchery for mid-March. We will also be ordering either some Golden 300 ducklings, or Ancona ducklings, for eggs. We have a pond right outside our back patio door and we call it “duck and geese tv”. Many wild Mallards and 2 Canada geese come in every morning to spend the day and then fly away at dusk to, I believe, go to a nearby lake for the night. We have a significant predator load with snakes, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, skunks, opossums, raccoons, and Red-tailed, Cooper’s, and Sharp-shinned hawks, as well as Eagles that come to our area for winter. We had chickens many years ago in an enclosed run with an excellent coop/house type shed and even with hardware cloth and screening on every surface and buried 12” underground all the way around, the rat snakes would still make it into the house and run area and eat any egg they could find. The duck quarters will be closer to our house and we are planning their housing and run and hope to utilize electrical net fencing to move their outdoor ranging area frequently. I would love to let them free range and freely utilize our pond, but we need to reassess all our fencing and protection measures to eliminate predator attacks as much as possible. Thank you to each of you for all the information you share here and to all those that have asked questions previously, since they are many of the same questions on my mind.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sounds like you have planned and thought through everything before hand. Keep us updated.

 

[Lou LaRue]

Yes, I can get power to their night time house. Thank you!

They are really getting independent. They want to be outside all the time. Nights drop into the 30-40's here and next week is suppose to be another freeze, but these ducks seem like they are strong little duckies and I have seen ducks in snow, so...I think they will be fine if I can get them a safe sleepy house.

I realized at about 15 days old that these ducklings were going to free range. They already do not like the brooder and the new one in the garage is huge. They like it outside. Period.

So my run requirements got a lot easier and I had to do a redesign last night, not much run, focus on night house.

I am going to try and move them outside on week 4, which will be this coming Monday.

Here is a video this morning. I gave in to the screaming and we went outside for a couple hours. They were beat after and came inside with no problem.

They are so cute ! Let us know how the house is coming along!

 

[Lou LaRue]

This may be in the wrong thread, but what does angel wing look like? My ducks are 5.5 weeks old and the new feather shafts on their wings look like they are rubbing raw spots where the down is under their wings. I let them bathe today in their little pool outside the run, so I hope that helps keep them clean.

 

[CrazyBlaize]

I have three ducks. That I'm wanting to build a new dwelling for around our existing pond. I've attached a picture of the pond if anybody has any ideas shoot them my way please.

 

[Ajducklover]

We have four muscovy ducks, one drake and three hens.

They have a purpose-built coop with the sides some 6 by 9 ft, and an inner height of 6 ft, so people can stand inside without trouble. The pop door is large in order for a tall drake to walk in and out easily, 20 inches tall and a foot wide. In order to keep drafts out, a large box is hung outside the pop door, with the opening to the side, so the ducks have to make a 90° turn to enter or exit. The opening has a closable hatch. A small plank with smaller wooden steps added to it acts as a gangplank connecting the opening with the ground.

There is one large nest there, two feet by 16 inches. The opening of the nest is deliberately kept small, some eight by eight inches, to discourage the drake from entering and disturbing the hens and ducklings. The nest sits on the outside of the coop, and its roof opens up with hinges, making egg collection and cleaning very easy.

There is also a large natural log, perhaps six inches thick, put up as a roost. It's about two feet from the floor and six feet wide, stretching from one wall to the next.

The walls and the nest are insulated.

There is one ventilation opening high up on each of the shorter walls, each opening a circle of about six inches in diameter, covered by hardware cloth to keep predators out.

The walls and ceiling are painted white, and the floor is covered in tiles. The tiles in turn are covered in wood shavings. Wood shavings are also used to cover the bottom of the
nest.

One of the long walls has one large triple-glass window, stretching from roof to ceiling.

The hens only use the coop three times a year, when they lay and sit on eggs in the nest. When the ducklings are one day old, they leave the coop never to turn back. The drake never ever uses the coop. They all prefer to sleep outside, even in sub-zero temperatures. Sigh.

Weird. Mine are in n out of coop all day. When dark comes they go into bed. Any sign of anything flying overhead they go inside.

 

[DocRain]

We moved into our homestead a year ago October and it's been a major work in progress. Next to my shed is a lean to and will be used as a house for my Pekins. I bought 4 ft black fence to divide off the Indian Runners and Cayugas. I'm building a 3 pond system with valves and filters that will go to the irrigation. The chickens are in the center and have a half of the cabin with the guinea fowl hanging out in the rafters! We have 1 turkey her name is Gladys and she and her 4 mates that are on order will have their own run. Her house will be made from an existing steel roof that was on the property. There is also another roof that broke into 2 parts which will be made into two duck houses. I bought a lovely bench to put in the bird area so I can sit with my birds!

 

[Nero70002]

Our hens literally fight to lay there (which means one should perhaps provide scovy hens with more that one nest box per three individuals). No training needed.

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Those ducklings are adorable!

 

[laboroflove]

Thank you everyone who has shared your duck set ups! We have had muscovies for around 12 years. Just this past few months a pair of foxes wiped out almost our entire free roaming flock I have one hen left and two drakes (anyone need a drake?? ).

We ordered some Ancona ducklings that will arrive in April and my Muscovy hen is sitting on a nest. We also just purchased several Muscovy ducklings that are approximately 8 weeks old. We are in the planning stages of building the duck house/coop. We will separate the two breeds in two different housing areas.

I have an idea of what I want. The base will be cylinder blocks filled with pea gravel. The run walls will be hardwire cloth for the bottom 3ft then welded wire fencing for the top part (6ft tall). My ducks like to use the extra chicken nest boxes we have in the barn so I will build a house that we can walk in and place the nest boxes there.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I will post photos one we start the building to show the progress.

 

[african chickens]

so that was last spring during the winter we add tarps to the sides and we also added a slanted tarp from the barn down to the front of the cage maybe we should add a roof currently it houses 2 Indian runner ducks and 1 of the 2 jumbo Pekins shown above they do usually free range and arent locked in this small space all the time