What's best on floor of ducks' house?

[FisherMOM]

I love that duck house Celeste... I have to build one inthe next few weeks.

Great name too..Celeste... it is my youngest daughter's name too!

 

[Celeste]

Quote:
The odd thing on the roof is a roof vent. The chicken coop has one as well as the goat house. They help immensley with letting the heat up and out in the summer. We have decently harsh winters here and during the winter months I put a thick layer of straw in there since I can't hose it out. I love the rocks during the summer as it is such a quick clean up and helps keep the bugs down.

The side without the door and the front will get boarded up this winter so that there will be no drifting underneath as we do have pretty good wind during storms. I have all animal housing set up so nothing opens to the west as that is typically the way the wind blows in. During the winter there is a back door on the house that opens into the goat pen. This will be left open so they get their water from a heated water dish outside so no ice issues inside the house.

 

[Celeste]

Quote:
Thank you! Good luck building yours, I had fun building ours.

 

[Heather J]

My ducks/geese all sleep at night in a secure pen, with a lean to made of straw bales and a piece of sheet metal for a roof, but they never use the lean to except when it's hot for shade (shade is at a premium at my place sine there were no trees at all on the property and the ones I planted are still tiny.) In the winter I have to add layers of straw to the run every few weeks or it becomes a poopy runny mess with melting snow, and lots of big birds, but it's easy to fork up in the spring. We had a pretty mild winter last year (seemed like we got lots of snow, but it never went below zero--and I watched that thermometer like a hawk). I'm thinking of building a slightly more stable shelter for them before the real cold hits so I can add a heat lamp if it gets bitter out there.