Topic of the Week - Duck Housing

[SimplyLivinthatFarmLife]

View attachment 1235618
Pic by @Valntyn
​

This week I would like to talk about a very important aspect of duck keeping: housing them! Ducks need a secure shelter to protect them from predators, the elements and provide a place for them to lay eggs. But what exactly are the minimum requirements for a duck shelter/coop? Show and tell me about your duck coops and shelters and give me your thoughts on:

- Types of housing
- How much room do they need in the coop/shelter.
- Nest boxes, how many?
- What do they need in the coop (bedding, etc)?
- What temps can they withstand in winter/summer and how do you keep them comfortable?


For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

Can't wait to read everyone's thoughts as I am considering getting ducks this spring.

 

[onaharley]

Making progress. All materials except hardware are free/salvaged. The floor is about a 40 inch square and it's about 3 ft high. One roof panel is hinged and folds down for people access for egg collection and cleaning. View attachment 1240136View attachment 1240137View attachment 1240138

Nice!!! Very nice! Keep up the good work!

 

[Lisa Tollefson]

My first post ever. I thought I'd post pictures as I like seeing others.
We moved into this house in early November and there was a dog kennel left behind. That became their night pen. There was already a roof on top but there was some gaps between the sides, so I attached 12" tall chicken wire around to prevent gaps. I also added about 2' of small wire mesh along the sides. I got my ducks from a friend who is moving and she said that raccoons will just reach in and break the necks of ducks and leave them there. It's been not quite a month and the fencing has worked well.

The floor on the other hand...is cement. I was just hosing it down every other day and it was great. Easy to care for and smell wasn't bad. Well I'm not sure if it was that or not but I found 2 cases of bumblefoot and a few that were on the way. So I then added a bunch of straw. I'm still trying to figure out what the plan is for "long term" bedding.

For the day pen, it was pretty inexpensive and fairly easy. We got a few rolls of 4' tall chicken wire. (We currently have about 150' being used). We got a number of the fiberglass stakes (I believe they are 1/4" diameter & 6' tall) and even more thin stakes. We threaded the big stakes through the chicken wire about every 10' and then put a thin stake every few feet. Hammered them down. We made a slight modification and added plastic tent stakes to keep the fence attached to the ground. (Yeah we found 1 to 3 ducks outside the fence area a few times. They were just quacking to get back in...)

I received 2 small nesting boxes with the ladies, but I also have a dog house set up with bedding inside. At first the ladies were all laying in the dog house. The eggs were nice and clean and I'd just lift the lid and go hunting Then they started laying mostly in the nesting box in their pen. After I added the straw, one (or more??) of the ladies dragged more straw in there. Now the eggs are much cleaner.

I also am a fan of kiddie pools. I currently have 2 in their day area. 1 is up on cement next to night time pen and the other is on a pallet. I posted on my Buy Nothing group and within a few days I had 5 unwanted kiddie pools/sand boxes!

And the ladies have kind of destroyed the day pen area but that's ok. It was super mossy and squishy and mostly weeds before. We'll just move the day pen around and replant grass! (For them to eat probably...)

 

[onaharley]

My first post ever. I thought I'd post pictures as I like seeing others.
We moved into this house in early November and there was a dog kennel left behind. That became their night pen. There was already a roof on top but there was some gaps between the sides, so I attached 12" tall chicken wire around to prevent gaps. I also added about 2' of small wire mesh along the sides. I got my ducks from a friend who is moving and she said that raccoons will just reach in and break the necks of ducks and leave them there. It's been not quite a month and the fencing has worked well.

View attachment 1240625

The floor on the other hand...is cement. I was just hosing it down every other day and it was great. Easy to care for and smell wasn't bad. Well I'm not sure if it was that or not but I found 2 cases of bumblefoot and a few that were on the way. So I then added a bunch of straw. I'm still trying to figure out what the plan is for "long term" bedding.

View attachment 1240656

For the day pen, it was pretty inexpensive and fairly easy. We got a few rolls of 4' tall chicken wire. (We currently have about 150' being used). We got a number of the fiberglass stakes (I believe they are 1/4" diameter & 6' tall) and even more thin stakes. We threaded the big stakes through the chicken wire about every 10' and then put a thin stake every few feet. Hammered them down. We made a slight modification and added plastic tent stakes to keep the fence attached to the ground. (Yeah we found 1 to 3 ducks outside the fence area a few times. They were just quacking to get back in...)
View attachment 1240655

I received 2 small nesting boxes with the ladies, but I also have a dog house set up with bedding inside. At first the ladies were all laying in the dog house. The eggs were nice and clean and I'd just lift the lid and go hunting Then they started laying mostly in the nesting box in their pen. After I added the straw, one (or more??) of the ladies dragged more straw in there. Now the eggs are much cleaner.View attachment 1240668


I also am a fan of kiddie pools. I currently have 2 in their day area. 1 is up on cement next to night time pen and the other is on a pallet. I posted on my Buy Nothing group and within a few days I had 5 unwanted kiddie pools/sand boxes!
View attachment 1240671
And the ladies have kind of destroyed the day pen area but that's ok. It was super mossy and squishy and mostly weeds before. We'll just move the day pen around and replant grass! (For them to eat probably...)

Congrats on your 1st post!! It's a lot of fun here!!

 

[chickens really]

My first post ever. I thought I'd post pictures as I like seeing others.
We moved into this house in early November and there was a dog kennel left behind. That became their night pen. There was already a roof on top but there was some gaps between the sides, so I attached 12" tall chicken wire around to prevent gaps. I also added about 2' of small wire mesh along the sides. I got my ducks from a friend who is moving and she said that raccoons will just reach in and break the necks of ducks and leave them there. It's been not quite a month and the fencing has worked well.

View attachment 1240625

The floor on the other hand...is cement. I was just hosing it down every other day and it was great. Easy to care for and smell wasn't bad. Well I'm not sure if it was that or not but I found 2 cases of bumblefoot and a few that were on the way. So I then added a bunch of straw. I'm still trying to figure out what the plan is for "long term" bedding.

View attachment 1240656

For the day pen, it was pretty inexpensive and fairly easy. We got a few rolls of 4' tall chicken wire. (We currently have about 150' being used). We got a number of the fiberglass stakes (I believe they are 1/4" diameter & 6' tall) and even more thin stakes. We threaded the big stakes through the chicken wire about every 10' and then put a thin stake every few feet. Hammered them down. We made a slight modification and added plastic tent stakes to keep the fence attached to the ground. (Yeah we found 1 to 3 ducks outside the fence area a few times. They were just quacking to get back in...)
View attachment 1240655

I received 2 small nesting boxes with the ladies, but I also have a dog house set up with bedding inside. At first the ladies were all laying in the dog house. The eggs were nice and clean and I'd just lift the lid and go hunting Then they started laying mostly in the nesting box in their pen. After I added the straw, one (or more??) of the ladies dragged more straw in there. Now the eggs are much cleaner.View attachment 1240668


I also am a fan of kiddie pools. I currently have 2 in their day area. 1 is up on cement next to night time pen and the other is on a pallet. I posted on my Buy Nothing group and within a few days I had 5 unwanted kiddie pools/sand boxes!
View attachment 1240671
And the ladies have kind of destroyed the day pen area but that's ok. It was super mossy and squishy and mostly weeds before. We'll just move the day pen around and replant grass! (For them to eat probably...)

Sand is great...

 

[Lisa Tollefson]

Sand is great...

I appreciate the thought. I posted on the "Raising Backyard Ducks" FB page and it's interesting as there seems to be conflicting info about sand. Some say it's great and one woman shared input that said it's a bad idea. I might tend to lean away from it. We live in Pac NW and while our summers are lower humidity, the winters are pretty much constantly humid. I would think the sand would stay wet from November to May :-(

 

[chickens really]

I appreciate the thought. I posted on the "Raising Backyard Ducks" FB page and it's interesting as there seems to be conflicting info about sand. Some say it's great and one woman shared input that said it's a bad idea. I might tend to lean away from it. We live in Pac NW and while our summers are lower humidity, the winters are pretty much constantly humid. I would think the sand would stay wet from November to May :-(

I use it but my pen is covered and it's great here for me..Best of luck..

 

[Conan]

I appreciate the thought. I posted on the "Raising Backyard Ducks" FB page and it's interesting as there seems to be conflicting info about sand. Some say it's great and one woman shared input that said it's a bad idea. I might tend to lean away from it. We live in Pac NW and while our summers are lower humidity, the winters are pretty much constantly humid. I would think the sand would stay wet from November to May :-(

I like straw and pine chips. Once your ducks cover it in a nice layer of poop, add another layer and so on and so forth until spring - then I muck it and use all that great organic matter in the garden. If you have lawn clippings, they work beautifully in summer as well. Just don't put any seeded grass clippings in your garden beds (learned that the hard way)

 

[3bird]

I'm loving this thread! Thanks everyone for taking the time to post.

We are new to ducks this year and built their house/run this spring. The design is our own based on loads of research here and elsewhere.

The house is elevated and measures ~8'x4' with four windows, a sliding door to the ramp that goes into the run, and a tailgate back door for clean out. It is uninsulated at this point. We use the deep litter method, which started with several inches of shavings and is now several inches of straw on top. They generally make their own nests in the straw in the duckhouse and lay there, but they have been periodically making nests in the straw underneath the duckhouse and laying there.

The run is ~16'x8' if you include the area under the duckhouse. There is a small "pond" (~10 gallons) in the corner that we have not used since before freezing temps. They now get their water from a large heated bucket that has most of the top blocked by a piece of ply so they can't get in it. In the run, they get freechoice feed (pellets) in a rubber pan, as well as free choice grit/oyster shells and cracked corn when it's uber cold. The floor of the run is covered with straw, which is several inches deep at this point.

We use a couple of wifi cameras to keep an eye on them and watch for any predator issues.

In the winter, we bank straw bales around part of the run, which makes the whole area underneath the house enclosed.

We also have plastic on two of the sides of the run. We generally leave the duckhouse door open, although with some -10 F temps this winter, we have locked them in a few times at night.

They get time to run around outside the run in both the morning and the evening, but it's been pretty snowy and cold, so they have not always been up for their usual adventures.

 

[chickens really]

I'm loving this thread! Thanks everyone for taking the time to post.

We are new to ducks this year and built their house/run this spring. The design is our own based on loads of research here and elsewhere.

View attachment 1241550

The house is elevated and measures ~8'x4' with four windows, a sliding door to the ramp that goes into the run, and a tailgate back door for clean out. It is uninsulated at this point. We use the deep litter method, which started with several inches of shavings and is now several inches of straw on top. They generally make their own nests in the straw in the duckhouse and lay there, but they have been periodically making nests in the straw underneath the duckhouse and laying there.

View attachment 1241545

The run is ~16'x8' if you include the area under the duckhouse. There is a small "pond" (~10 gallons) in the corner that we have not used since before freezing temps. They now get their water from a large heated bucket that has most of the top blocked by a piece of ply so they can't get in it. In the run, they get freechoice feed (pellets) in a rubber pan, as well as free choice grit/oyster shells and cracked corn when it's uber cold. The floor of the run is covered with straw, which is several inches deep at this point.

View attachment 1241547

We use a couple of wifi cameras to keep an eye on them and watch for any predator issues.

View attachment 1241548

In the winter, we bank straw bales around part of the run, which makes the whole area underneath the house enclosed.

View attachment 1241554

We also have plastic on two of the sides of the run. We generally leave the duckhouse door open, although with some -10 F temps this winter, we have locked them in a few times at night.

View attachment 1241549

They get time to run around outside the run in both the morning and the evening, but it's been pretty snowy and cold, so they have not always been up for their usual adventures.

View attachment 1241553