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

[Kaessa]

Better drainage, and I would have actually spent the money to build a better house. A TALLER house. I have to crouch down (not just bend over) to get inside it to get eggs.

 

[Jessica89]

I wish I had two entrances as I have to separate the drakes and females. It's a nightmare at the moment!

 

[pigcoon]

..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.

Kim your post made me laught out loud!! Thank you so much for sharing your experience!

Can I ask about the section quoted above, why you had to put landscape cloth between the sand and the stone?

 

[pigcoon]

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?

I started out thinking the hens and the ducks would live together, then started to think harder about how the hens like things dry and sandy and the ducks like things really wet!! I wonder if my husband thinks I'm just dragging him along. He thought the ducks were a great idea when I said let's just let them share the chicken coop. Now he's out there building my duck dwelling....for my birthday!

 

[pigcoon]

That is a great looking little duck house! I am intrigued by the trex decking. Is that stuff expensive?

You're saying you hose it down; it's a composite, right, instead of wood? That's a cool idea.

Thanks for sharing that!

 

[Kleonaptra]

I started out thinking the hens and the ducks would live together, then started to think harder about how the hens like things dry and sandy and the ducks like things really wet!! I wonder if my husband thinks I'm just dragging him along. He thought the ducks were a great idea when I said let's just let them share the chicken coop. Now he's out there building my duck dwelling....for my birthday!

Well they do live together. I dont have much choice because the shed is very secure. Im planning a conversion of an old broken down stall out the back, top for pigeons, bottom for ducks or chooks but that will be awhile. In the meantime the most frustrating thing is the chickens will not perch on my perches....They balance precariously on the edges of my dividers, big wooden boards Ive put in to seperate nesting areas. I worked so hard to fix in big natural perches....They refuse to perch on them!

 

[mightymax]

@pigcoon ...
...The reason you normally put down landscape cloth before you lay down your river rock (or whatever), is so the weeds won't be able to grow up through your rocks. If you get a thick enough brand of cloth it truly acts as an inpentatrable barrier between the earth and what ever substrate it is that you're putting down on top of it. According to one manufacturer it will also keep your rocks from sinking into the ground below should you have a few days of heavy rain. Unfortunately I don't think the cloth manufactures ever expect their product to come in contact with my ducks, or as they're now better know as...tidalwave, tsurnami and hurricane...lol !!! Those ducks got their area so flooded and mucky just by playing in their pool that the first time I went in to clean it, I sunk in about 4 inches of mud and other debris that shall remain nameless (poop). Needless to say, that particular idea for a coop floor had to go, which by now, I knew was going to be a lot easier than shoveling it all around when it first showed up at our house. That's because most of the rocks had already sunk...lol !!! Anyway, I hope that answers your question and everything.

-kim-

 

[Irishsilk]

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? 

We have rubber horse mats for the ducks and chickens....and love them.
They do need straw on them to soak up the splats. We deep litter, which means I don't have to clean out. I just add a little straw regularly on the top.
I have cleaned out the straw once since November, and with 4 ducks, 5 chickens only took 3 wheelbarrow full. But they do free range during the day. I cleaned out the same way you would a horse....keeping the clean straw but removing the soiled. The chicken poo was all under the roosts, and the ducks poo was all in one area.
The stable is 12'x12'.
I don't move the mats, just remove the straw and hose mats in situ...then sweep the water out of the door. Couldn't be easier!

I removed the mat from under their water containers as it got very wet. Now the water they spill just drains down thru the stones.

I suppose the mats work same as concrete, but as we already had the mats in the stable, we used them. No regrets

 

[Irishsilk]

P.S.
also want to add that there isn't any nasty smell either, by regularly adding clean straw keeps it all smelling fresh.

 

[pigcoon]

Thank you Irishsilk. It sounds like you have a barn. What I worry about in the winter in New England is that I won't be able to use a hose to keep their pen clean. I hose it down every morning now (just a quick hose down) but it really keeps things manageable. I used hay for a little while in their "apt" but it got stinky really quick and I switched over to wood shavings.

I'm just thinking ahead to winter and wishing I had a barn!!