btrask
Chirping
Under the same premise as my Our First Brooder post, I did a ton of research to try and do the best we can. We have zero experience raising poultry but I can be handy from time to time. Two sections below; One on the coop (Err Duck House) and another on the duck run. Feel free to ask any questions! I still have my cut list too if anyone is interested in DIY!
Coop (Can I call this a Duck House now?): We knew our flock would be kept to 3 so something large was not needed. We also knew the ducks would have access to our yard to free range as much as we possibly could. Material is a big deal to me as I wanted something I could hose down as much as I wanted without impacting the structure. We decided on the New Age Pet ecoFLEX Fontana. I priced out a DIY option but the cost of this house (~$150 to my door) just could not be beat. Top that with a 10 year warranty and claims that people were getting replacement parts was all a plus. Anything local (TSC, Coastal, etc) was in the $400+ and was pretty high off of the ground for a duck house. I knew the roosting bars/nest wouldn't be used much but it was composite, had the footprint I wanted, removable floor, removable roof, and the price was right. The reviews were mixed which is typical.
Here is the completed product before we took it outside.
Construction was not too hard. Similar to Ikea furniture and no tools needed. I did read about the product possibly being brittle so we used a gentle touch. Honestly I think the product is a bit more robust that people think. You cannot pound on it with a hammer! However if something is not fitting, make sure it is the right part. Most is tongue and groove or is slotted to fit together. It is a tight tolerance (A good thing) so you may need to back out one side to get the other to fit. Dont force it in! It took two of us less than an hour. The one modification I did have to do is with the plastic fasteners. The threads had too much material which was easily remedied by a razor blade.
Dimensions, Weight, Notes: It boasts a 12 sq ft interior usage. Here are the dimensions per the manufacturer:
One thing I could not find were the actual dimensions of JUST the house and not the nesting box, and the height to under the front most part of the roof. This was important to me due to a custom attached duck run being integrated. So I took some additional pictures with measurements.
This is the width of the house from the extreme outside (Right hand side). Clocks in at 39.25". The interior measurement of the house (Between the angled pieces, one is shown is 34.25")
The overall width completed was just over 52.5", so the 52.8" specced by the manufacturer is correct.
From the floor to the bottom of the slide out roof is 27.5".
The unit is not really that heavy (I would assume 45 lbs?) but due to it being a fit together kit I moved it on a wheel barrow and then team lifted it in place. After moving it outside we have had decent days of rain here (Read: 1/2" or more) and it was completely dry!
Post install notes:
-The roof opens (Slides) FORWARD in three sections. I wish it hinged, but without completely voiding the warranty we opted to keep it this way.
-The little rotating latch block on the door is lackluster. We will use it for now but I forsee me retrofitting it with some sort of raccoon proof latch. This is not completely necessary for us since my duck run is 95% predator proof. more on that later.
-The floor comes out in three, tounge and groove pieces which is nice. However they have triangular cutouts for drainage/ventilation. They are large enough for small predators and other unwanted guests so I put hardware cloth adhered by silicon. I resisted the urge to drill/staple in case I needed to claim warranty. It worked really well! Images on request if you would like.
-Both the roosting box and roof have plastic fasteners with a 'tool' they came with. They are to be hand tight only. It comes with two 'tools'. Dont lose them!
Here is the floor looking from the top down on the inside of the Duck House. See the corners? Just hardware cloth cut and bent to form, with silicon. Still allows the floor to come up as needed.
Duck Run Substrate: This was harder just from analysis paralysis reading online! We wanted something durable, drains well due to our Oregon weather, ease of use for us humans, gentle on the ducks feet, and something that hopefully wont smell too ripe. We narrowed it down to three options: Deep litter, sand, gravel. Deep litter was out due to us not into composting and the possible ongoing cost of materials. Also with so much Oregon rain it seemed like it would turn to soup. Sand was great due to the integrated grit option and cheap ($2.50/50lb Bag). However after reading some people say it has to be sanitized and can smell and can get muddy. This turned our attention to gravel. We are lucky to have a couple landscape supply options we use often that had some nicely polished/smooth decorative pea gravel. The cost was actually cheaper than buying sand (For u-haul) Due to having 6" of depth to play with, the hose-ability, I can take a rigid rake to it, and take tons of hosing we decided to go this route. What about their feet! I was worried too. Craigslist pulled through with some great priced commercial kitchen/stall mats with holes. They are inherently non-slip and rated for outdoor use. Win win!
Duck Run Structure: I got crazy and taught myself SketchUp. I have a bad habit of miscalculating materials needs and measurements. By modeling it beforehand not only could I see what it looks like, but I could use it to create a cut list. The frame is 4'x8' with a height of ~4'. Base is made of ground rated pressure treated 2x4's. Rest of the frame is 2"x2" pressure treated. 1/2" Hardware Cloth for any open area you see INCLUDING the floor. The top 'lids' are roughly 4'x4' square and hinge up. The gate is 2' across. Idea is to have easy human access. The smaller square is the Duck House 'Adapter' and has a non-hinged, double latched lid. The large portion was easier. Adapting it to the ecoFLEX Fontana duck house was harder. I have to account for easy human access to open the door daily but still have clearance for the forward sliding roof. Attaching the hardware cloth I used galvenized staples. Screws used were stainless decking screws (Overkill, but I love no rust!). Another feature was portability/future use. Every panel is separate so if one breaks I can easily unscrew it and change it out. Also if it needs to be moved I can always deconstruct it. The base has a hidden feature; 100% hardware cloth! I wanted to keep my digging to a minimum and had the extra 4' cloth, so why not? Good luck digging through now predators! We also used landscape fabric to keep the gravel from sinking down into the earth.
SketchUp render of the duck run. Gate on the right, lift up lids, Duck House 'adapter' on the left.
Most of the frames ready for hardware cloth.
Two bases and mated to the Duck House. Sorry no pictures of the hardware cloth, but I promise it is under the landscape fabric.
This took .95 yards of gravel. Remember how I said I am bad at measuring? My estimates were .45 yards but I got a yard knowing I could put it other spots if needed. Man was I glad to get the entire yard. Another tip; Put down gravel BEFORE your frame if you can. Way easier to dump/spread without a frame. We mounded the last little bit in the middle so when the frame added another 1.5" of depth we could level it out.
Setting out all the pieces for construction! We put the cloth on the inside for aesthetics. Something tells me the ducks wouldnt care.
Ta da! This was before latches and gate install.
Here are the stall mats. Still decided if we want to cut them down or leave them like this.
Bonus construction break picture.
Roofing? We purchased some nice looking red corrugated steel roofing. Once we put it on, it made the run look weird. So at this time we kept it off. Still not sure what to do about the rain situation. I do know we need shade. For these first little bits (Since they are still in the brooder) we have been using old towels or landscaping burlap. Luckily the farm store had some 75% shade material. Thinking of cutting it and making it secured to the top but not to a point it impacts our ability to access the run.
Post install notes:
-The latches on the lids are Safety Gate Hooks . They are simple eye hooks but have a rather strong spring loaded latch. Figured a raccoon (Or kid) could not defeat them.
-The gate latch I think I need to double up. It is just a sliding latch. Any idea if a racoon can do the down then slide motion?
-I added some 1' gussets out of scrap 2x2 I had to strengthen the lids (One gusset in each corner) and the two small panels by the gate. This helped tremendously! I also noticed since I used a single screw to hold most 2x2's the tension of the hardware cloth allowed the material to rotate. The gussets stopped that.
-The gravel and stall mats so far are AWESOME. After each day they go out (We have had a nice warm patch of 70+ days!) I just hose it down. No puddles or anything!
Coop (Can I call this a Duck House now?): We knew our flock would be kept to 3 so something large was not needed. We also knew the ducks would have access to our yard to free range as much as we possibly could. Material is a big deal to me as I wanted something I could hose down as much as I wanted without impacting the structure. We decided on the New Age Pet ecoFLEX Fontana. I priced out a DIY option but the cost of this house (~$150 to my door) just could not be beat. Top that with a 10 year warranty and claims that people were getting replacement parts was all a plus. Anything local (TSC, Coastal, etc) was in the $400+ and was pretty high off of the ground for a duck house. I knew the roosting bars/nest wouldn't be used much but it was composite, had the footprint I wanted, removable floor, removable roof, and the price was right. The reviews were mixed which is typical.
Here is the completed product before we took it outside.
Construction was not too hard. Similar to Ikea furniture and no tools needed. I did read about the product possibly being brittle so we used a gentle touch. Honestly I think the product is a bit more robust that people think. You cannot pound on it with a hammer! However if something is not fitting, make sure it is the right part. Most is tongue and groove or is slotted to fit together. It is a tight tolerance (A good thing) so you may need to back out one side to get the other to fit. Dont force it in! It took two of us less than an hour. The one modification I did have to do is with the plastic fasteners. The threads had too much material which was easily remedied by a razor blade.
Dimensions, Weight, Notes: It boasts a 12 sq ft interior usage. Here are the dimensions per the manufacturer:
One thing I could not find were the actual dimensions of JUST the house and not the nesting box, and the height to under the front most part of the roof. This was important to me due to a custom attached duck run being integrated. So I took some additional pictures with measurements.
This is the width of the house from the extreme outside (Right hand side). Clocks in at 39.25". The interior measurement of the house (Between the angled pieces, one is shown is 34.25")
The overall width completed was just over 52.5", so the 52.8" specced by the manufacturer is correct.
From the floor to the bottom of the slide out roof is 27.5".
The unit is not really that heavy (I would assume 45 lbs?) but due to it being a fit together kit I moved it on a wheel barrow and then team lifted it in place. After moving it outside we have had decent days of rain here (Read: 1/2" or more) and it was completely dry!
Post install notes:
-The roof opens (Slides) FORWARD in three sections. I wish it hinged, but without completely voiding the warranty we opted to keep it this way.
-The little rotating latch block on the door is lackluster. We will use it for now but I forsee me retrofitting it with some sort of raccoon proof latch. This is not completely necessary for us since my duck run is 95% predator proof. more on that later.
-The floor comes out in three, tounge and groove pieces which is nice. However they have triangular cutouts for drainage/ventilation. They are large enough for small predators and other unwanted guests so I put hardware cloth adhered by silicon. I resisted the urge to drill/staple in case I needed to claim warranty. It worked really well! Images on request if you would like.
-Both the roosting box and roof have plastic fasteners with a 'tool' they came with. They are to be hand tight only. It comes with two 'tools'. Dont lose them!
Here is the floor looking from the top down on the inside of the Duck House. See the corners? Just hardware cloth cut and bent to form, with silicon. Still allows the floor to come up as needed.
Duck Run Substrate: This was harder just from analysis paralysis reading online! We wanted something durable, drains well due to our Oregon weather, ease of use for us humans, gentle on the ducks feet, and something that hopefully wont smell too ripe. We narrowed it down to three options: Deep litter, sand, gravel. Deep litter was out due to us not into composting and the possible ongoing cost of materials. Also with so much Oregon rain it seemed like it would turn to soup. Sand was great due to the integrated grit option and cheap ($2.50/50lb Bag). However after reading some people say it has to be sanitized and can smell and can get muddy. This turned our attention to gravel. We are lucky to have a couple landscape supply options we use often that had some nicely polished/smooth decorative pea gravel. The cost was actually cheaper than buying sand (For u-haul) Due to having 6" of depth to play with, the hose-ability, I can take a rigid rake to it, and take tons of hosing we decided to go this route. What about their feet! I was worried too. Craigslist pulled through with some great priced commercial kitchen/stall mats with holes. They are inherently non-slip and rated for outdoor use. Win win!
Duck Run Structure: I got crazy and taught myself SketchUp. I have a bad habit of miscalculating materials needs and measurements. By modeling it beforehand not only could I see what it looks like, but I could use it to create a cut list. The frame is 4'x8' with a height of ~4'. Base is made of ground rated pressure treated 2x4's. Rest of the frame is 2"x2" pressure treated. 1/2" Hardware Cloth for any open area you see INCLUDING the floor. The top 'lids' are roughly 4'x4' square and hinge up. The gate is 2' across. Idea is to have easy human access. The smaller square is the Duck House 'Adapter' and has a non-hinged, double latched lid. The large portion was easier. Adapting it to the ecoFLEX Fontana duck house was harder. I have to account for easy human access to open the door daily but still have clearance for the forward sliding roof. Attaching the hardware cloth I used galvenized staples. Screws used were stainless decking screws (Overkill, but I love no rust!). Another feature was portability/future use. Every panel is separate so if one breaks I can easily unscrew it and change it out. Also if it needs to be moved I can always deconstruct it. The base has a hidden feature; 100% hardware cloth! I wanted to keep my digging to a minimum and had the extra 4' cloth, so why not? Good luck digging through now predators! We also used landscape fabric to keep the gravel from sinking down into the earth.
SketchUp render of the duck run. Gate on the right, lift up lids, Duck House 'adapter' on the left.
Most of the frames ready for hardware cloth.
Two bases and mated to the Duck House. Sorry no pictures of the hardware cloth, but I promise it is under the landscape fabric.
This took .95 yards of gravel. Remember how I said I am bad at measuring? My estimates were .45 yards but I got a yard knowing I could put it other spots if needed. Man was I glad to get the entire yard. Another tip; Put down gravel BEFORE your frame if you can. Way easier to dump/spread without a frame. We mounded the last little bit in the middle so when the frame added another 1.5" of depth we could level it out.
Setting out all the pieces for construction! We put the cloth on the inside for aesthetics. Something tells me the ducks wouldnt care.
Ta da! This was before latches and gate install.
Here are the stall mats. Still decided if we want to cut them down or leave them like this.
Bonus construction break picture.
Roofing? We purchased some nice looking red corrugated steel roofing. Once we put it on, it made the run look weird. So at this time we kept it off. Still not sure what to do about the rain situation. I do know we need shade. For these first little bits (Since they are still in the brooder) we have been using old towels or landscaping burlap. Luckily the farm store had some 75% shade material. Thinking of cutting it and making it secured to the top but not to a point it impacts our ability to access the run.
Post install notes:
-The latches on the lids are Safety Gate Hooks . They are simple eye hooks but have a rather strong spring loaded latch. Figured a raccoon (Or kid) could not defeat them.
-The gate latch I think I need to double up. It is just a sliding latch. Any idea if a racoon can do the down then slide motion?
-I added some 1' gussets out of scrap 2x2 I had to strengthen the lids (One gusset in each corner) and the two small panels by the gate. This helped tremendously! I also noticed since I used a single screw to hold most 2x2's the tension of the hardware cloth allowed the material to rotate. The gussets stopped that.
-The gravel and stall mats so far are AWESOME. After each day they go out (We have had a nice warm patch of 70+ days!) I just hose it down. No puddles or anything!
