Raised Duck Pen w/ Plastic Pond and PVC Drain (Photos)

[Fay at Frizzled Feathers]

Thanks for checking out our website and so glad you enjoyed it . I still have lots of work to do on it and so many more pics to add.

If there is any seed we dont have listed that you are looking for just drop me a line. I so cant wait for Spring to get started on the garden !

Fay

 

[Overeasyplz]

Very nice Scott! I had never thought of raising ducks up off the ground. We always had them in a ground pen, a tractor type, and let them out during the day

 

[americana-chick]

A good friend of mine breeds ducks and the miniature ducks go in houses just like the one that you have, with the plastic pool, wire floor and shavings in the "coop". His ducks do very well on the wire and it also makes it very easy to clean but their plastic tub... not so much.

 

[pardygwyn]

I'm curious to hear more from Annie about using a setup like this for ducks that are heavier than calls, especially in regards to their feet. I have a couple of medium-weight trios and can imagine the pen they're in will get pretty nasty by the end of a Northwest winter... it would be nice to have a couple buildings like this to keep all of us clean and happy.

 

[cazoo]

In my duck aviary I sank a 625 gallon stock tank. The bulkhead fitting that is on the side to drain the tank I have a tank heater that keeps that water from freezing in the winter. I took a piece of 15-inch PVC pipe and made a vault to allow access to the heater from the outside of the tank. I drilled out a hole in the bottom of the tank and installed an additional bulkhead fitting. In this fitting I installed a 90 degree bend and ran pipe underground untill it daylighted by the wooded part of property. There is a ball valve in a another vault to open the drain line. I have not had any trouble flushing out the drain line of feather, poo or other debris. I put a stainer for a aboveground pool in the line to catch the feathers, etc. You may be able to use a fish tank heater to heat the 30 gallon motar tray.

I also installed a frost free yard hydrant by the tank to fill the tank/flush out the line. It has made taking care of the duck's "pool" muck easier. The hardest part was getting the lines through the chicken wire in buried underground around the outside of the aviary to keep anything from digging into it. Everything else was installed in a trench. I rented a trencher from Home Depot. I was able Tee off a water line running to one our other hydrants we use to fill our stock tanks for our horses.

Additionally, I compost our horse poo. I add some of the water I drain off the pool to the pile. It seems to give an added boost to the compost. I have several people who can't take the compost for their gardens.

I thought maybe some of these ideas may be modified and applied to what some of you have done or are doing.

 

[Scott]

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Thanks! I'm glad I went with off the ground. I had originally planned on the ground, but after seeing the mess they made in the chicken house and pens when they were younger, I am very thankful I went with this design.

 

[Scott]

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it sounds like you have a nice set up? Do you have any photos?

 

[BeccaOH]

Just for your reference, I'm posting a picture of my pen in winter mode. The tub is currently empty of water, but has a layer of straw. The drain pipe is short, and I catch water in a bucket. I can enter the closed area through the rear and put their food in there. When laying, that is where I usually find eggs.

Here is the white and magpie clan. They look to be in need of a bath.

 

[Scott]

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That's a great set up, Becca. I can see the drain pipe. I considered using one like that... its better for hooking up a hose than the one I chose. What are the dimensions of your pen? 4ft by 10ft?

I definitely need to make a latched door into the outside pen area like yours, but I think it will be hardware wire framed with 2x2s. Eventually, I plan to make a couple more like the I recently finished.

 

[BeccaOH]

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It is actually 4x8. It fit on my trailer perfectly.