Love this thread! I've always wanted a Wood's Open Air Coop for my community ducks. But we already had a barn and two empty horse stalls. It was easier to predator proof the two horse stalls, than convince hubby to make me a whole new building. Now that we've had it for a year, I think I like the stalls better than I would have liked separate buildings. Most of my ducks are for show and need to be in separate pens for breeding season, so the community stalls are nice for winter because they are so big. During any weather over about 50 degrees, for my comfort not the ducks LOL, they go out in movable walk in pens we got from Stromberg's Poultry. I really like it with ducks because there's always grass under them. We upgraded the zip ties and changed to 1/2 "hardware cloth on the outside around the bottom. Most of our daytime predators are hawks and Eagles, and the occasional owl. So far we haven't lost a bird. Since some of the birds were purchased as adults last fall, we move them in a mega tote with a top, back and forth from stalls to the daytime location. There's another unintended benefit. Since we have to pick them up twice a day to move them, we see every bird and have noticed with this minimal handling, the adult birds have become more tame. My Indian Runners are very friendly, despite everyone always saying their Runners are nervous and not friendly. I think it's the daily handling.
