This month’s “Cool Coop” will be much appreciated by the backyard duck enthusiasts of our Community! If you’ve never considered waterfowl – this setup just might change your mind. The creativity and uniqueness of this coop definitely rank it among our list of “Cool Coops”! Continue reading as Led Slinger shares the history and photos of – The Duck Fort
The wife and I were at Tractor Supply Co. one day and they had ducks and chickens for sale. The wife said she wanted some ducks and I replied, “If you get some ducks – then I get some chickens.” So from there we went home with a new hobby/responsibility.
I shortly begin building the first coop and I’m not sure of dollar amount to the tee, but most of the materials came from Lowes. The wire was given to me from a friend and the metal for the roof come from Classic Metals in Richburg. I built the chicken coop and Duck Fort myself.
Both coops have power ran to them for lights and the duck pond has power ran to it for the use of the pump in the pond.
The chicken coop and Duck Fort are separate structures, but both flocks free range every day together and return to their separate coops in the evening.
We currently have 8 Peking Ducks. 4 male, 4 female. We currently are only getting 2 eggs a day since we only have two adult females – 2 of the ducks were purchased in June. We were told they were 3 months old at that time. They should start laying soon. We don’t have any nesting boxes, but they normally go and lay under the covered part in the shavings.
A little more info of the up keep that we do: we clean out their water bowls every night. I created a PVC pipe feeder so that we don’t have to feed them every night. My wife just fills it up once a week and that normally lasts them with free ranging every day.
My wife cleans the pen every other day, but does one deep cleaning a week (draining the pond and scrubbing the deck and pond – also cleaning out the shavings). The current filter that we have does an okay job, but we plan on upgrading soon.
We also like to socialize them so normally my wife will go out in the mornings and afternoons and gives them treats. Their favorite is mealworms! We make sure that they have booster in their food so that we have healthy happy ducks.
This experience has been fun and a big learning process. We have enjoyed learning and providing eggs to family and friends!
A big thanks to Led for sharing his “Duck Fort”! – I’m sure it will inspire several folks to add backyard ducks to the mix! Watch for a future newsletter to feature Led’s equally impressive chicken coop!
If you raise backyard ducks, share your setup in a comment below and post photos of your flock on our Facebook page! Community Chickens – Facebook
If you have a “Cool Coop” you would like to share with the Community, email me at RNickols@communitychickens.com
Click on the link below for previous entries in the “Cool Coops!” series…
To view what else is happening at our Southwest Missouri property visit: the garden-roof coop
If you enjoy bird-watching (in addition to chicken-watching), I invite you to follow my Facebook page: Rebecca’s Bird Gardens
11 Comments
cool
Tell us about your feeder, if you don’t mind. We have a small flock of chickens and are always looking for better ways to care for the girls, while keeping the bills down. Thanks
We have chickens in a chicken house and 4 Rouen ducks, but our ducks have a make shift “home” that is an old rabbit hutch surrounded by a wire fence and their pond is a big rubber feed bowl with a rock in it for a ramp to get out! We have a pond here but it isn’t fenced and we have had trouble with predators and a couple of our dogs letting poultry run totally free. One of these days, we will fence in the pond and let the ducks have free access to it. The gate to the duck pen is a flat metal framed spring from an old baby crib, covered with chicken wire. Whenever I find one of those in someone’s trash or at a yard sale, I get it as I have several fenced in garden areas that use those as gates!
That is a fantastic home for the ducks. I could see it for chickens, with the pool being a dust bath area.
Can you tell us a little more detail about your pump system, and how, exactly, you clean the pond? Thanks for the information.
Hi Angela! I’m Led’s wife. The pump that we currently have is a smartpond 300-GPH pump. It came with a box and filters. I have to clean the ducks feathers, poop, and whatever else goodies they find every other day for the pump to continue to run. Once a week I will scrub the deck with dawn and diluted bleach. We have a sump pump that I use to drain the water from the pond I will also scrub with dawn and diluted bleach water, rinse and then let dry out while they are free ranging. Once it is time for them to go back in the coop I will fill the pond back up. Until the next time. Haha.
This is so unique. What “lucky ducks” (and chickens) you have. I love it!
Learned the hard way when I had ducks that a ramp to come out of the pond is necessary if any ducklings come along…had a little one drown because my water level became too low for him to make it out, and all I gave them to swim in was a dishpan sunk into the ground. Once I added the ramp, they were very pleased and no longer at risk. They’d still hop in from the rim, but all used to ramp to exit.
Okay, seriously? This is THE coolest duck pen I’ve ever seen! Great job to Led for building it and great job Rebecca for finding it to share with us! I’m sharing in fact on my duck page on Facebook now!
Lisa
I agree! Lucky flock to have such a nice setup – and an indoor pool!
Thank you so much Lisa! We take much pride in our coops!