Water porch - Ducks

[Tahai]

Hi, Duck Lovers!

I've read that several of you have water porches for your ducks...I'd love to see some pics, please. I'm working on the design for mine and need inspiration.

(I apologize if this thread already exists. I didn't feel like digging through a few hundred posts just to make sure )

Thanks ever so much,

Tahai

 

[Amiga]

Sure!

(uhm, I watched the tutorial yesterday . . . apparently it didn't stick. I'll figure this out and post the images when I do. I still like the new BYC - just find the image stuff is over my head right now.)

 

[dumb_cluck]

Amiga, to upload an image, click on the far left icon in the text editor. If you hover over it, it will say "insert image".

The next screen you get will be a window to browse your computer or import a URL.

If you leave the click box checked (save copy to my default album, it will save it on BYC.

Just where, I'm still looking for that!

 

[dumb_cluck]

Found it! Go to "your profile" scroll WAAAAY down. it's near the bottom!

 

[Amiga]

Basement watering station




Outdoor veranda on the right, attached to Little Fort Knox - just a 4'x8' porch - now it has a slanted roof on it to keep it dry(er).



dumb_cluck - thanks! I had found my old uploads album, just couldn't figure out how to get images from it into the post. What I did (perhaps the long way) is open a new tab with my profile, go to the upload album, right click on the image, copy the address, go to the reply I was posting, click the insert image button, choose url tab, right click in the address field and choose paste. Voila!

 

[dumb_cluck]

Amiga, your welcome!

And, you did it the right (and only) way to insert. Congrats!

Boy, this new format is a stinker at times.........

 

[Tahai]

Hi Amiga,

I'm looking at the Little Fort Knox pic...Is the floor wire mesh? If so, how far off the ground is the mesh? How do you clean underneath it, if it is?

Also, how big is the porch area, and how many ducks does it service?

If you had the opportunity to rebuild it, what, if anything, would you change in the design?

Thanks!

Tahai

 

[Amiga]

Tahai,

the 4'x8' veranda is a good size porch for up to about fifteen runners tops. I plan to keep no more than that. Twelve would be optimal, I think. I have nine runners and two buffs now. It is attached to the 4'x8' duck house, and as a nighttime shelter only, 64 sf is good for overnight, based on my experience. Most of the time we have had nine or ten runners in it. It is the spring/summer/fall shelter, and is attached to a 160 sf day pen with fence across the top and coated chain link fence underneath, attached at the sides for security.

The veranda is attached at one end to the house. At the other end is a door. It is covered top, bottom and sides with half inch hardware cloth.

The floor has half inch hardware cloth along the bottom. I covered that with a few inches of sand. I then put an inch or four of sawdust.

Here's the management: when in use, I use a cultivator to fluff the top two inches or so of sawdust daily. Once the top layer of sawdust gets so full of droppings that it develops an aroma (not quite stinky, but not fresh), I shovel the top layer out and put that material on the compost pile. Then I replace it with fresh sawdust pellets, stir them into the material underneath (about an inch or two), and we go again for a while. Mild weather it could be weeks, high summer, or stormy wet times, might be once a week. The nose knows.

Here is why I do this: I am working to keep nutrients cycling through our place. The nearby sugar maple can benefit from the moisture and the nutrients. In turn, it actually takes up some of those so I don't have to deal with as much. When the moisture and nutrients get ahead of what the maple and soil organisms can take up, that's when the stuff goes to the compost, which becomes my fertility material for the garden.

So far, I have not found myself rethinking the design. I sometimes want to add a rainwater collection system to the back side where the roof slants, but then I decide against it because the sugar maple benefits from that runoff. And it does not get swampy, as I thought it might. It's well drained soil, which is a great blessing.

By the way the front and south ends of the veranda have cinder blocks sunk about eight inches into the soil as predator discouragement. The other side has concrete pavers and heavy (10 to 15 pound) stones in a skirt about two feet out from the edge. That's because of tree roots. I did not want to kill the tree that shades and protects the ducks. So far so good.

 

[Tahai]

Nice. Thanks for the info. I'm planning a water porch for 10-12 ducks, so a visual is great, and the size info is gold.

I had considered a rain barrel, too, but my duck house has a shingled roof, and I don't feel comfortable using that as drinking water for the ducks.

 

[yoyosma]

Here's a picture of our 4 X 8 water porch, attached to a 4 X 8 night coop; for our 5 Welsh Harlequins. (The box on the outside is the nest box.) (And that's our big dog inside- which never happens now that we have the ducks!)
It has a bottom of hardware cloth, dug down about 12 inches and attached all around to pressure treated wood.
The coop floor is concrete, sloped toward the open doorway between coop and run/water porch. The floor of the water coop is similar, I think, to Amiga's- gravel and sand topped (during the winter, anyway) with about 4" of sawdust.
We made it be a walk-in height because it really didn't cost that much more, and it makes it so much easier to clean.
They pen up happily in the evening, so I guess they like it!