My call ducks house! Plastic dog house with door.

[scooter1989]

How are these for ducks houses? I brought 2 of them off of Amazon.com, all of my call ducks fit in them quit well. They are plastic all weathers dog houses, that can be staked to the ground. they even have a floor piece on one half of the side you can take off and become a wired floor, which i like because I can put their water source there and it wont get the whole house wet or messy. Of course i will put hey on top of the wired flooring so it wont bother their little feets. I put lights in it to keep them warm outside.

One house holds five, the other holds six. After spring maybe each ones will hold eight LOL.

Here is my magpie call drake checking it out for the first time.



Here is the link off of amazon, where i got them
http://www.amazon.com/Large-Deluxe-...e+Plastic+Pet+DOG+House+All+Weather+Dog+House

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Cute design, the holes in the front will allow a raccoon to reach in and pull duck bits back out. Mink, weasels ect can fit in also. You can attach hardware cloth to the inside (not chicken wire) to predator proof the door. Remove the lights, ducks wear down coats and are PLENTY warm. Even for call ducks they small and you should look at getting a third and splitting them up even more.

 

[Going Quackers]

Cute design, the holes in the front will allow a raccoon to reach in and pull duck bits back out. Mink, weasels ect can fit in also. You can attach hardware cloth to the inside (not chicken wire) to predator proof the door. Remove the lights, ducks wear down coats and are PLENTY warm. Even for call ducks they small and you should look at getting a third and splitting them up even more.

Agreed. Now i admit i have NO experience with plastic housing but how is it for chewing? i know coons chew so do other predators? heck, even the dogs who they make these for... just asking because of the various strengths of plastics available today.

 

[Amiga]

CelticOaksFarm has some good advice, here, I would delve further into the question of temperature by asking how cold it gets where you are, and what environment these lovely little houses will be in. Will they be inside a barn stall, or out in the open? With just a few calls in a house, there could be temperatures that they would not withstand. Also, I feel there's thriving and then there's surviving. I like the thriving, and some smaller ducks can need additional heat. There are ceramic heating bulbs that don't cast extra light. And then there are other methods of heating. But it takes some thought, since bedding is so flammable.

I agree wholeheartedly that every gap needs to be covered with half inch metal hardware cloth, secured quite firmly. You might be surprised at how much force a determined predator can exert, trying to get to ducks. Also, as you mentioned, securing the little houses to the ground or platform matters. Once I lost a pet rabbit when a dog rolled the entire pen over and over till the pen shattered.

 

[tdgill]

it would be nice if you could put these in a predator proofed pen and leave the doors open to allow ducks access in and out

 

[scooter1989]

Hi guys, I did do some updates to the little houses I have. I put on plexiglass on the back of each door to keep them mean animals out lol. I also change the lights in the two cages with a 80 watts yellow bug flood lights. I live in Michigan on the south east side about an hour north of Detroit, the temperature this winter has been in its 20s and 40s sometimes colder and sometimes warmer. I had a Pekin drake for 9 years "who was named Paddy" that lived in a plastic dog house with no problems, he had died of old age this year, who I deeply miss and will keep him alive in my great memory..... The little houses are in outdoor pens with an open top, so I'll need to keep an eye out for hawks and owls.

I hope I'd answered everyone questions.

Thanks:
Scooter 1989

 

[Amiga]

Great! My next thought is - does the little house have sufficient ventilation? It may be more of a concern in the summer, but even in wintertime, fresh air is needed. So many considerations!

 

[scooter1989]

Yes the houses have three vents as you can see on by the door in the picture, one on the back of the house and one I made for the upper part on the door which is not shown on the picture because I updated them

What would be good for a wind blocker? I know the winds come from the south to the north here. the pen area they are in is all fenced up, they are the folding kind. I was thinking about using a tarp and stake the fence and that to the ground to help block the winds but I'm not to sure about it because I know winds like to push and blow the tarp away. Any suggestion?

 

[scooter1989]

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These are my ducks pens.

 

[scooter1989]

More photos of their pens