What do you wish you'd done differently with your duck housing?

[pigcoon]

We are just building our duck area. I've read as many threads as I can find here about various designs and styles.

What do you wish you'd done differently with your duck space? I am thinking in terms of drainage, water management, feed bins, etc.

Our current plan is for a raised floor with an embedded draining 110 gal tub, a bedding box space enclosed, about 4 ft by 3 ft, fenced in with 1/2 inch wire, and a corrugated PCV roof.

Thus is for 3 pekins, females.

Let me know what you WISH you had done!!

 

[mightymax]

I tried the horse stall mats once, and let me tell you, once was enough !!! Have you ever tried to lift one of those things by yourself? Mission Impossible if there ever was one. They're like trying to move a small car !!! So I got the bright idea of cutting it half. Thought it'd be easier to haul around. And it was. It was like trying to haul around one half of a small car !!! They're not only heavy, they're awkward and cumbersome too. They don't do anything as far as helping with drainage IMO and since they're made with a type of rubber, if you nick it with a hoe or anything, your ducks will be drawn to that particular spot like ducks to a mud puddle, until they find a way to turn that little nick into another heinous hole in which they can play. On a positive note, they're much easier to lift when they're in a thousand little pieces !!! Which is exactly what it turned into once my geese got a hold of it. As for using any sort of lumber or lumber like material for the floor, my honest opinion is...don't !!! Even if you coat that thing with enough John Deere green or Rustoleum Red, it's still going to absorb, and more importantly, retain, just about every other drop of water that comes across it's path and once it's inside the wood, the only way to get rid of it is to remove it. The wood, that is...no other way around it that I'm aware of. You just have to pull it up, tear it down or light the thing on fire. Case closed. Time to rebuild. Well, before everyone writes me off as a Debbie Downer,
I would like to say that there does happen to be an option that I tend to favor and that is cement. Yep, It's the easiest thing I've found to clean, just hose it off when you hose your ducks off...lol !!! Just kidding. But really, it is the best flooring I've found and believe me, I've think I've just about tried them all...from having river rock hauled in to lay over the 3 cubic feet of sand that I had hauled in just before that only to have to sandwich some heavy duty landscape cloth in between the two of them, so I do speak from some experience. Now it could be that I just had a 'bad experience' with every single one I tried before I tried concrete, but those aren't even odds a loan shark would support so I'm not thinking that's the case. So please don't
saddle me with any expensive amenities for my dear ole' ducklings and ducks. Nope. Just throw me a bag of that $2.90 Quikrete, and I'll show you how to get down to doing some work.

-kim-

P.S. the opinions expressed herein are just that...opinions. They are not rules for which to go by when deciding what works best for you. They're only written to show the misfortune that I've encountered with these particular construction ideas. You may find that for your particular setup they work like a charm. They just didn't work for me, that all I'm trying to say.

 

[LadyIsadora]

This is such a tricky question as needs change depending on season and age of ducks. Ducklings were hard. Constantly adjusting to their growth rates, mess rate, appetite ETC.

Here are a few things I have learned: My ducks free range during the day, year round. They have a pond in one corner of the yard and their night pen in another corner of the yard. Their pen door is left open during the day so they can come and go as they please, but locked up tight at night. A person with a different set up may have different needs.

For my adult ducks: Build the pen on high ground- reguardless of materials/ flooring used. Drainage & cleaning are easier.
Do not put a pond/ pool in their night-time enclosure. The biggest messes are water messes & cleaning it out is a nightmare...
Drainage under drinking water bucket/ feed dishes. Lots of people do not put food or water in the duck night pen. I do. I just cant have my babies going thirsty. In one corner of their pen, I dug out a hole, filled with rock & gravel covered with a plate of expanded steel, screwed to a 2x4 frame. (it is what I had but plastic would probably be better) this REALLY cuts down on the water mess as well as making clean up of the food area easier.
RAISE their food dish, but keep it secure from tipping. I made my own set up on 2x4's & screwed through the dishes into the board frame. It works for me. Less mess.
Use a bucket, 1-2 gallon, for water, Not a shallow dish, Not 5 gallon. smaller spills, gets poopy, gets swam in, while with larger people have reported drowning, but again, this is for ADULT ducks.
A place to hide, but not too deep.--- My ducks love hanging out in the dog houses in their night-time pen. They lay in there most of the time. One is no problem, the other one I need a rake to reach to the back of, on my hands & knees, in the poopy straw. Not much fun.
They love to nestle in the straw. -Use it somewhere. They search it for bugs & nestle. adorable.
Roof! they need a roof! In summer they need the shade, in winter the warmth and protection in all seasons. I alternated aluminum and plastic panels for the roof so it still lets light in but there is also shade. It turned out to work well for all seasons. !
Ventilation! As tempted as you may be to seal their pen up tight in the winter, they NEED the ventilation.
That is all I can think of at this moment.
Hope something here helps.

 

[TLWR]

I'm quite content with our duck house and it has been a few years now.

We made it from 2x4s and fence boards. The front side of the roof is hinged so both front sides open for easy clean out. The floors are left over trex decking spaced a screw width apart for easy cleaning. I painted the interior walls with exterior paint to protect the wood a bit. Th entire roof is vented at the top and where it meets the walls.
I have a small section of floor cut out and used hardware cloth and placed a water bin that hangs on a 2x4 there so they can still get water in their hut, but not totally drench the place.
I use a concrete mixing pan as their nest box and place pine straw in it and that's usually where they lay their eggs. When I open the roof in the morning to clean, I grab the eggs and then hose is out.

It gets hosed out daily.
It has held up well.

 

[pigcoon]

THanks Kim--I just saw your post now! (not sure why I didn't get a notification).

Well here is what we did (pics below). I can already see why some members just went to concrete!! So far our run has been working out well and the girls love it!

I do hose down the painted plywood every morning and then use a squeegie to move the water off it. So far I have been draining and rinsing the big tub once a week and this seems to be keeping things clean enough!

I really appreciate everyone's guidance.

 

[petcrazy]

This is the coop I just built. Still finding things that need changing, but so far it's great and critter proof.

 

[pigcoon]

Has anyone used the horse stall rubber mats in their duck coop to help manage everything and to be able to take out to clean?

 

[Kleonaptra]

I have a big shed with a concrete floor. I thought concrete would be perfect with bedding on to, but the shed floods in heavy rain, so they are now up on pallets, pallets are covered by chaff bags covered by bedding. I have renovated in one nesting area, one drake run and a pile of perches for the chickens. I usually only have to hose the front area down, and if something gets too messy I can just take out a chaff bag and put in a new one. About once a month I do full clean out, everything comes out, washed out. Then put back together. I wish id actually thought about it instead of just saying, yeah, they will all just live together, why not?

 

[Pekin1999]

I have a jumbo pekin that is ten weeks old. I also have 2 month old Canada geese and they almost seem the same size! Anyway, i don't know if this pekin is male or female I previously had thought male but since a new male Cayuga has been added into the flock this pekin has been getting mated with non stop! This Cayuga does nothing but eat drink sleep and mate. It's endless, it was so aggressive that it drown its last mate. My pekin is getting skinnier and hides a lot now. The pekin is such a beautiful duck and it honestly loves people more than any of my ducks. What do I do? I'm ready to shoot the Cayuga and find out what Cayuga duck tastes like.

 

[KhakiKristi]

This IS interesting--so many different ideas to consider. Just wanted to add a few things that we have experienced. My boyfriend has been building a "duck pen in progress" for the last few months and changes whatever is necessary as the need arises. We are both new at duck keeping so that's the way it's been. He attached some chicken wire to dog fencing up against the house and propped it up inside so I can stand straight. The ground was grass/gravel already so we left it like that. Of course when I dump their pool they make mudholes but we filled some in with wood pellets that turn to sawdust when wet and it works great. The ducks don't like rooting around in it and it soaks up the water. We do leave at least one mud puddle for them to play in for awhile then fill when it gets too deep. Also we put a wood ramp, flat rocks, bricks and stepping stones in around the pool and they use it like a sidewalk and steps to get in and out easier and also to control mud. I just hose it all down daily when I change the pool water. And we have some tarps over the top for shade. It's been a few months now and there is no muddy mess and no smell. That might change when the rainy season comes but it's been good so far this summer! Lol Since this picture was taken there is more rocks and stepping stones around a larger pool but you can get an idea how it looks.