Do-it-yourself duck house or how to build a duck house

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Many farmers and land owners are engaged in poultry farming. And among them there are many who raise ducks, and not chickens or geese, because these birds are unpretentious, they have tasty meat and they are able to gain weight at considerable speed. But for successful breeding, you must first build a duck house, or a duck house. There are certain building requirements that must be observed, and the design may differ slightly, depending on the breed chosen and the region in which the poultry breeder lives.

How to make a duck

Choosing the size of the room

Sometimes site owners choose not to build a duck house. This is usually done by those who have only 5-8 such birds in their backyard, and they do not plan to greatly increase the number. But it is better to make a separate shed for ducks, which would suit exactly their needs. And here you need to immediately decide what dimensions this room will have. It is necessary to decide at the design stage, so that later not to change the drawings in a hurry. You should immediately understand how much space will be allocated to one bird.

In theory, ducks can be somewhat condensed on the territory allocated to them. At poultry farms, they are allocated about 0.3-0.5 square meters. m, but on the site the birds will be cramped in such conditions. It is more desirable that 1 sq. m for each feathered inhabitant. Ideally, 1 duck should have 1.5-2 m2 of area. We are talking about an adult bird older than 2-3 months. Such a duckling is suitable only for general needs - additional space is needed for layers or queens with chicks.

Space requirements for ducklings

Before you build a duck house with your own hands, you need to choose a suitable place for it on your site. There are certain requirements, ignoring which can lead to sad results, but it is worth choosing a place after the owner decides on the size of the livestock, otherwise it may turn out that the planned building simply does not fit in the selected territory.

When the owner has decided what kind of herd he will have, you can choose a site for construction. It must meet the following requirements:

• The selected location should not be too humid, so swampy lowlands are not suitable. Ducks are waterfowl, but excess moisture harms them. In such conditions, ducks are more likely to get sick, their feathers fall out, and their food spoils faster.
• The duck house should be well lit, so you shouldn't put it in the shade. It is imperative to make windows everywhere, except for places for layers. Windows are usually cut in the east or south wall.
• The place for the duck house should warm up well, since its inhabitants love warmth, so you should not install it where the winds and constant cold are walking. For example, the southern slope of the hill will do. You can also put the shed in a lighted place, protected from the wind by trees or other buildings.
• The presence of a nearby reservoir is only welcome. It can be either a natural pond or a small hand-dug pool. It can even be made specifically for ducks. Many birds will only be happy with such a neighborhood. It is better to leave the duck dwelling from the side of the reservoir.

After a suitable place has been chosen, it is worth considering the construction scheme: how the house will look like, what materials it will be made of, and other important points. First, you need to decide what the foundation will look like. Secondly, you should choose materials for construction: wood, stone, concrete blocks, bricks or polycarbonate. Thirdly, you need to choose a heating system for the house. For some varieties, for example, for Indo-women, it is necessary to install additional heating so that they do not get sick in winter.

Foundation for ducklings

Some poultry farmers, who are starting the construction of a duck house, do not consider it necessary to make a strong foundation for it. But if there is a possibility, for example, of flooding, then the foundation is necessary so that the structure does not wash away. The ducklings must be raised to a height of 0.25-0.3 m. If it is one centimeter more or less, then it’s not scary. Usually, a kind of cushion of rubble or gravel is made, which is poured from above with cement. It is advisable to reinforce it with reinforcement for extra strength.

To prevent rats from gnawing through the foundation, you can resort to a little trick. Shards of glass and various metal rubbish with sharp edges are poured into the cement. In such a foundation, it is more difficult for rats to make moves. Some set up ducklings on stilts. This is done where floods are common. Such a scheme reliably protects the house from flooding. Making a house for ducks with your own hands, installing it on piles, is somewhat more difficult. There is a difficulty in installation and insulation.

Piling up the poultry house

With such a construction, the piles located along the perimeter are used as a frame for the walls of the room, and the internal supports hold the beams on which the floor will be attached. It will not be possible to make a brick or stone house on stilts, since its mass will be too large. On piles, you can make a wooden poultry house or a polycarbonate house, or a clay hut.

Since the duck house will have to be built at a height, it is worth deciding how the bird will enter. It is important to make a comfortable and non-steep climb, along which the ducks would fall into the home.

When installing piles, the upper 15-20 cm of earth is usually removed along the perimeter of the future building, then a hole is dug for each pile 0.7-0.8 m deep and half a meter wide. Crushed stone with sand is poured into them, and then compacted. This mixture should cover 10 cm of the bottom. Pillars are manually installed from above, after which concrete is poured into the pits. The floor from below is sometimes upholstered with roofing material and made in two layers. Between the bottom and the top layer, a heater is placed, for example, foam.

Building a poultry house for winter keeping

When building a room in which ducks will be kept, you need to think about how they will feel in winter. It is necessary to plan its device based on this very circumstance. And this applies not only to ducks, but also geese, chickens, quails or turkeys. The room for keeping feathered pets should be spacious enough, warm and well-lit. In order to spend less money on additional heating, the walls of the house should be made dense enough and not letting in drafts.

The poultry house for the winter keeping of poultry can also be used for year-round care of pets, although some site owners also make an additional pen in which the birds live in the summer. A winter house can be made of any material, it is only important that it is well insulated. And if ducks settle in such a barn only for the winter, then its size can be made slightly smaller than that of a summer house, because in cold weather the birds prefer to sit together using a smaller area.

Building a winter poultry house from wood

Usually, a tree duck is installed on piles so that the bird is not threatened by spring flooding. The frame of the winter wooden house for keeping ducks is made of strong and thick beams, securely connected to each other. When the frame is secured and installed, the walls must be installed. It is better to make them from boards or durable plywood: the material should not be too afraid of moisture. When preparing the drawings, you need to decide where the windows will be located. They need to be made large enough, but without unnecessary gaps.

The walls are made of 2 layers. First, the top layer is fixed on top of the frame, then the construction proceeds to the next stage - the insulation of the room. When making a duck with your own hands, you should not forget about this process. As a material for insulation, for example, mineral wool or even foam is suitable. The insulation is fixed inside and closes all possible cracks with it, then the inner layer of the walls is installed, which still needs to be painted with antimicrobial paint.

To avoid drafts, the outer side of the walls must also be processed. During construction, it should be covered with plaster and then whitewashed. Sometimes it is recommended to proceed as follows: first cover the board with dense plywood, then plaster it, and then apply a dense layer of whitewash over the plaster. If it was decided to make a poultry house from logs, then the gaps between them must be closed with tow or other similar material. But it is imperative to dig in the log ducklings.

Building a duckhouse from clay

It is quite possible to make a clay barn for the winter keeping of ducks. Building such a duck house with your own hands will not take too long. Its dimensions will be the same as any other bird building. Clay is often taken from the one that remains after digging wells, or collected along the banks of rivers and lakes. An unbaked clay structure is inexpensive and easy to make. In order to equip such a shed, you will need the following materials:

• wooden stakes, which will be the basis for the frame of an earthen barn;
• transverse wooden poles, reeds or even straw for transverse parts of the frame;
• regular clay (the more oily, the better);
• straw, sand and manure to create mud.

First, strong stakes are driven into the ground at a distance of 15-25 cm from each other. It is desirable to place them strictly vertically and at the same distance from each other. Then transverse poles, bundles of reeds or even tightly bound straw are woven into them. This is done according to the same principle as when assembling ordinary wicker baskets. A detailed explanation can be seen in the video. Small nails or ropes are sometimes used as additional fasteners.

It is necessary to check that on each wall the frame is equally dense and strong. The upper part of each wall can be secured with wooden beams connected to each other. After that, prepared clay mortar begins to be applied from the outside and inside. It is applied in layers, with each layer given time to dry. And it is necessary to apply clay so that there are no gaps. When the wall is relatively flat, it is covered with rubble. And then a waterproof whitewash is applied on top.

Preparing clay mortar for construction

The mortar is made from clay, sand, straw and sometimes manure.Of course, you will also need water. Clay, straw and manure are taken in the same proportions, and sand is half as much as any other ingredient. All components are collected in one container, and water is poured from above. After that, the mixture must be stirred until a homogeneous mass is obtained. After that, the mass is collected into a single whole and left to be stored for 4-5 days, then it is thoroughly mixed and crumpled again, but already in a dried state.

After that, water is added to the desired consistency, after which the solution is used for construction. When building a duck house in your country house, this solution can also be used to equip the foundation and floor in the room. You can make an unfired brick from the resulting solution. The required ingredient in this case is a wooden or metal mold in which the bricks are hand-molded. Once dried, they can be used for construction. After construction, a waterproof whitewash is applied.

Work on the arrangement of the premises for ducks

The first thing to think about is how to arrange the windows in the room. The number of windows depends on the size of the room, and their number can vary from 2 to 7 pieces. Be sure to make at least 2 windows in the south wall. The window frame is carefully adjusted and insulated so that there are no cracks. You can view the available photos and videos to find out how. The window itself is made of glass or polycarbonate. It is advisable to put two glasses so that the air gap between them works as an additional insulation.

Special attention should be paid to the roof. The roof can be either one or two slopes. But it is advisable to make it inclined in order to avoid leakage. To protect against water and cold, the roof should be made multi-layered. From above it is covered with slate or tiles. Sometimes polycarbonate is also used for this purpose. 2-3 layers of roofing material are laid under it for additional insulation, and already at the very bottom a wooden ceiling is made, which should be covered with waterproof paint.

Heating and ventilation

To spend less money on the heating system, it is imperative to insulate the room. Windows and doors should be sealed around the perimeter with mineral wool, foam rubber or other similar material. The floor and roof should also be insulated, and oil fireplaces or infrared lamps are suitable as heaters. Moreover, the lamps can be used for additional lighting in the room. The number of lamps is selected empirically. The temperature inside must be at least 5 ° C.

For ventilation, two pipes must be installed in the room. Their length should be the same and equal to 2 m. One pipe should be located lower and closer to the floor at a distance of no more than 0.3 m. It should be placed in the far corner from the bird, where the ducks will not be disturbed by drafts. The second pipe is fixed slightly higher and is located where birds usually rest. Through the first ventilation pipe, clean air enters the room, and the second is needed to draw out carbon dioxide and ammonia vapors.

With the described system, the air circulates constantly, and the room is always ventilated. This is very important for egg production and health of the feathered ducklings. To prevent rain and snow from getting inside, the tops of the pipes should be covered with special small covers. They are made in a conical shape so that moisture does not collect on them. In large farms, a similar system is additionally equipped with fans that accelerate air circulation. But this should be done only with a large number of duck herds.

Polycarbonate duck

Some poultry farmers are trying out a polycarbonate house structure. Usually, cellular polycarbonate is used, which has better resistance to temperature extremes and keeps heat well inside the room. It is also lightweight, provides good lighting (no extra windows needed), and is great to clean.Any dirt is easily removed from it, which also attracts many owners of summer cottages.

But polycarbonate also has its drawbacks, which you should know in advance.

This material is vulnerable to exposure to certain substances. In particular, this material is destroyed by the action of cement mortar and various alkalis. It is negatively affected by ammonia and its derivatives, but many ammonia fertilizers are created precisely from poultry droppings, so the room should be cleaned regularly. And you also need a well-thought-out ventilation system - then ammonia vapors will not accumulate inside and will not harm either the ducklings or their pets.

Due to the fact that polycarbonate is lightweight, a foundation is often not made for it. First, a wooden frame is assembled for the building. It is better to make it from durable beams that will not break due to bad weather. It is possible to use metal profiles for these purposes, but it will be more difficult for a beginner to cope with them, then the frame is sheathed with pre-prepared polycarbonate panels, which are fixed with bolts and nuts or screws. After that, you just need to caulk the cracks, and the duckling is ready.

Summer duck pen

If there is enough space on the site, then its owner is recommended to make a summer pen for ducks in which the bird can rest during the summer. In it, you can also make nests for layers, dig a pool and equip a walk. A separate summer enclosure will simplify bird care and improve the conditions for keeping the flock. By the way, such an aviary is suitable not only for ducks, but also for geese. But in order for the bird to be comfortable in it, it is worth starting the construction wisely, otherwise there will be no benefit from the corral.

First, it is worth choosing a suitable site for the future aviary. It should not be flooded with water or suffered from heavy winds. The walls of the pen are usually made of metal mesh. This is essentially a large cage that needs to be protected from the elements.

If the pen contains a queen with ducklings, then it is advisable to make its walls from a fine mesh, through which the chicks cannot crawl. On a small paddock, you can install a roof that would protect from rain, or cover it with a part of the enclosure where the young are kept.

The area of ​​the enclosure is calculated as follows: for one adult duck there is at least 1.5 square meters. m of area, so such a summer cage turns out to be very large. Inside, the ground should be level (so the ducklings don't stumble). Grass is encouraged as ducks love to nibble on fresh greens. The presence inside an artificial or natural reservoir is only welcome.

Building a summer duck pen

It is not difficult to make a corral. There is no need for additional skills or expensive materials.

For the construction of such an aviary, not too many materials are required. You will need pillars, fine-mesh metal mesh and roof material. All this is easy to buy, and some of the materials already have many in the courtyard. Any sufficiently strong pipes or even wooden beams or logs are suitable as pillars. First, the perimeter of the future corral is marked, then holes of the same depth are pulled out in the marked places. Pre-prepared pillars are installed in them.

Then you should pull the mesh over the posts. This process is not so complicated, and even an inexperienced owner of the site can handle it, you just need to make sure that there are no gaps under the net through which the chicks could crawl. If such gaps do appear, then you need to close them with sheet metal, plywood or other similar material.

After the fence has been installed, a wicket is installed in the selected place. The mesh is simply cut through, fixed to the frame with a latch, after which a wicket is obtained.

Preparing duck nests

In order for the birds to be able to lay normally, they need to equip separate nests for these purposes: this will increase egg production and allow you to control the process of obtaining eggs and hatching chicks. Regardless of whether the nests are installed in a summer enclosure or in a winter building, they are made according to the same principle. Each nest should be located where no one will disturb the brood hen. This means - at a certain distance from the entrance to the premises and from the main gathering of all birds.

Nests should be located as dark, dry and relatively cool as possible. The hen should not be disturbed by harsh sounds, parasites, rodents and even other ducks. Even a closed plywood or wooden box with an entrance hole is suitable as a room for the nest. The entrance should be located so that the bird can safely enter, but so that the eggs do not roll out of the nest. The box should not have any extra gaps, and it should also be filled with dry straw for bedding. The bird will do the rest on its own.

Swimming pool in the summer pen for ducks

Ducks, like geese, are quite capable of doing without a pond or stream near their home, but if there is an artificial reservoir in the same pen with ducks, then their maintenance will be somewhat simplified. The only birds that do not need a swimming pool are Indo-females. All other species of birds of this species will be happy to splash in the pond dug for them. But before you start digging, you need to think over the entire structure as a whole, because otherwise the pool may be useless and even harm the feathered pets.

The first thing to think about is the size of the artificial reservoir. It is worth looking at the dimensions of the purchased inflatable pools. Roughly, the reservoir will look like a round hole with a diameter of 2-2.5 m and a depth of 50-60 cm. It should be dug either within the summer aviary for birds, or near a capital duckhouse for year-round keeping. It all depends on where the bird lives in the warm season. In winter, the pool is useless, so at this time it is better to drain the water from it.

How to dig a duck pool

The easiest option is to dig a hole with a smooth bottom, line it with durable plastic and fill it with water. Polyethylene should be fixed with stones or bricks, and dug around the edges, for reliability, after which you can draw water into it. But there is one problem here: in summer the water will surely bloom and various dirt and debris will inevitably fall into it. In addition, manually scooping the water out of the pool will be very inconvenient. And here there are two options that the owner of the site can resort to.

The first method that many pool owners resort to is to buy a drain pump. With its help, you can scoop out all the water from the bird's reservoir, and then completely clean it out.

Another option is to dig a separate drainage system for it along with the pool. This method is somewhat more complicated, but some poultry farmers choose it. With a proper location, the drainage system will also serve for watering the garden. Here's how it is described on the duck breeder forums:

“It is not difficult to make a drainage system for a duck pond, but the pond itself should be located at a certain elevation. A trench breaks out from it, into which a pipe with a valve is laid. The pipe should run at the level of the pond bottom. Several branches are made from this pipe with hoses of a smaller diameter, which are laid along the site. And when you need to drain the water, the valve opens and the water is drained into the area. The heated water is perfect for irrigation, and the emptied pond can be cleaned and re-filled. "

Conclusion

Building a duckhouse is not the most difficult thing, but it requires a responsible attitude towards oneself, because the comfort of the bird depends on the quality of the dwelling.And this means that the better the conditions, the faster the ducks will gain weight and the better they will rush, so every effort must be made to make the ducklings comfortable and comfortable for its inhabitants. So to all who are wondering how to build a feathered duck house, one can say only one thing: the comfort of birds should be in the foreground, and only then everything else.