New Duck Shelter

The ducks have been out of the bathtub and into an outside enclosure for about eight days now. I feel like a new woman...a woman who can sleep at night.

DH Matt and I found a 7.5' x 13' x 6'h kennel kit at Lowes, for $250. It took us a morning to assemble and another few days to gather extra materials...chicken wire for the top and bottom, tarps for their shelter. I ended up wrapping another 3' high layer of chicken wire around the perimeter base after I saw the ducks panicking and putting their necks out through the wires. Whoever coined the phrase "bird brain" knew what they were talking about. The result is rather like a Fort Knox for ducks...as it must be to foil the local fox. Of course, the fox is quite spoiled on cat food it collects from our back porch and probably can't quite collect itself to the effort of killing ducks.

I created a warm "house" for the ducks inside the kennel using two layers of hoop house. DH Matt and I pounded garden stakes into the ground, 2' apart (6 hoops) and set 8' 1/2" pvc pipe onto the stakes, bending them to form hoops. Then I set a second row of 10' pvc pipes 4" out from the first. I covered the first, interior set of hoops in heavy Agribon cloth for insulation, then layered a waterproof tarp over the second, exterior,set of hoops. I used 1/2" pvc pipe clamps to make everything tight. As it turned out, the ducks were agoraphobic so I had to cover the entire setup with an exterior tarp before they'd venture out of their shelter.

photos to follow (when Kodak dies and a better software company eats their meal)

As it turned out I was still rising early to feed and water the ducks. I regularly made my son a few minutes late to class due to duck tending. I had to serve them several times a day. Then my new feeder and new water unit arrived from Fleming Outdoors. What joy! I had ordered their 16 lb plastic feeder when I first thought of moving the ducks. Now their feed empties down for them automatically. And with the Low pressure Automatic waterer hooked up to a garden hose, the ducks are self-watered. I have a project in mind for them for a bathing pool, they do miss their nice warm twice daily tub baths. And I do still feed them bean sprouts, tomatoes or lettuce twice a day. They are rather spoiled duckies.