Rate My Duckhouse!

[godelescher]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and thought I'd ask the forum for some advice.

I used to live on a farm and we had about 2 dozen chickens, a handful of ducks, and about a dozen cows at any given time. Since we had 10 acres and a barn, building a pen or coop wasn't an issue. They went wherever they went and made their way into the barn at night.

Now I have a small house with a small yard in a small town. A few weeks ago I decided to come home with 2 ducks because I miss having goofy uncoordinated animals that poop a lot.

I knew I had to build a duckhouse for them pretty quickly because if you sit quietly, you can actually hear them growing larger by the minute.

I whipped this out in a few days. It's 3' by 5' with a back porch that's 3' by 4' and has a small pool that's big enough for baths and splashing, and generally making a mess.

My next step is to put in a little white picket fence in front of the "duckbarn" that will give them a run of about 8' by 12'.

When my wife or the kids or I am out back, they'll have free reign of the back yard, but they'll just have the run, the barn, and the pool when unattended.

At night, they sleep in the barn with both doors shut. Eventually, I'll build a canopy over the pool and run wire around it to keep predators out, then they can have 24 hour access to the pool.

So here is my question: Does this seem OK? Do they need more space? See any flaws in the duckbarn I need to address? Any other issues?

I'm of the "Don't overthink it" school, but I want to make sure I've covered the basics.

 

[godelescher]

Bump

 

[fischnchix]

I like it. Might make one similar to it for a brooder or timeout coop. Miss having ducks but not the mess. Funny watching them go nuts after filling up their pool with fresh water.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Duck house looks great! Just one thing I noticed, if you have predators in the area you may want to change the chicken wire you have for ventilation to hardware cloth. Chicken wire is easily torn open by raccoon's and other predators.

 

[godelescher]

Duck house looks great! Just one thing I noticed, if you have predators in the area you may want to change the chicken wire you have for ventilation to hardware cloth. Chicken wire is easily torn open by raccoon's and other predators.

Yup. That's a good eye Mahlzeit. I'll be changing it soon. I wanted to get the ducks inside and the two ventilation areas were the only spots that weren't finished yet, so I used whatever was lying around. I'll make some new ventilation panels using 1/2" wire mesh this week.

Overall, I'm very happy with the duck house and the barn board siding looks nice in the backyard. I added a drain and ball valve to the pool and now my wife uses the duck's water to water her garden.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Almost Broke]

Love your duck house! I keep looking for the perfect duck house design. I just may have to borrow your design.

I especially like the back porch with the swimming pool. Did you use a mortar mixing box? That is what I use but having it recessed in a deck is a great idea.

 

[perchead]

I like it nice idea

 

[godelescher]

Love your duck house! I keep looking for the perfect duck house design. I just may have to borrow your design.

I especially like the back porch with the swimming pool. Did you use a mortar mixing box? That is what I use but having it recessed in a deck is a great idea.

Thank you.

It is a standard mixing tub from tractor supply. They had a bunch of different sizes and I just looked for one that would fit in the space I had available. This one was $20

If you recess it into a deck, my advice is to build up a lip around the cutout section that the tub's flange can rest over because otherwise, the weight of the water in the tub and the Summer sun softening up the plastic will cause the tub to want to deform and squeeze through the cutout.