Making a duck house with your own hands: photos, drawings and step-by-step instructions
For breeding any poultry, you will first need to create a capital structure in which the animals can feel good throughout the year. Creating a room for ducks and indoor ducks (ducklings) with your own hands from improvised materials and tools is a fairly simple task. It is only important to correctly develop a project, draw up a drawing and select materials, taking into account the climatic conditions of your particular region.
Before figuring out how to build a duck house in the country or in a suburban area, you need to familiarize yourself with several requirements that apply to the room, regardless of the climatic conditions and the species of birds that are supposed to be kept there:
The area of the duck house is calculated as follows: 3 adult ducks live on 1 square meter.
- First of all, you need to decide on the size based on the area that you are ready to allocate for the duck house. The rule, which is derived from many years of farming experience, is: no more than 3 adult ducks should be placed on 1 m 2.
- The minimum area of the room should be like a room in the house: 16 m 2. It is not worth building less, because otherwise it will be rather stuffy in the duckhouse, and the birds will feel crowded and may begin to conflict.
- Since ducks are kept on the floor, and not on poles, like many other birds, special attention must be paid to the surface: the floor must always be dry and warm, even in the most severe frosts.
- Maintaining a constant temperature and humidity level (minimum 5 ° C and maximum 65%, respectively) is a very important requirement for a capital structure. From this point of view, you need to take care of the thickness of the walls, provide for the creation of natural ventilation in advance.
- It is very important that the duckhouse has a sufficient number of windows - usually 2-3 small holes are made, the total area of which is at least 10% of the total area of the walls.
- In regions with harsh winters, a vestibule must be provided in the room, so that when entering the cold air does not immediately penetrate inside.
- Next to the duck house, you need to provide a place for a summer aviary, where the ducks will get immediately at the exit.
Important. Even the orientation of the building to the cardinal points matters: the entrance and windows should be located on the south side so that the birds get the maximum amount of sunlight - this is good for health.
Types of ducklings
Basically, the variety of types of premises is associated with the choice of material and its dimensions, depending on the number of heads. However, two large groups of structures can be distinguished - summer and winter ducklings.
The duck house can be summer or winter.
This is a variant of a temporary structure that needs to be erected in the summer so that the ducks can walk, swim and eat greens as often as possible. This has a very beneficial effect not only on the rapid weight gain of the bird, but also helps to strengthen its immunity. In addition, the taste of duck meat, which had the opportunity to eat in their natural environment and swim in water bodies all summer, is much better.
A summer duck is a pen that can be done in just a few hours.
To make it, it is important to choose the right place:
- it must be even and dry;
- be located in the open sun;
- at the same time, have natural or artificial sheds so that birds can take refuge in hot weather;
- if possible, have a small reservoir where ducks can swim and feed on small aquatic animals.
The sequence of actions is quite simple:
Interestingly, farmers often build such pens when they buy a large batch of ducklings for which a major duckling is not yet ready. They are kept in the pen temporarily until the winter premises are ready. Capital summer enclosures built next to the main ducklings are discussed in the corresponding section.
Note. It is necessary to put a drinker and a feeder in a summer pen - along with greens, the ducks will need a small amount of regular food. It is better to change the water daily - it heats up quickly under the open sun.
Winter duck
All other types of premises are winter ducklings. They are the ones that are most often referred to. They are permanent structures intended mainly for comfortable wintering of ducks. At the same time, the winter ducklings are always combined with the summer ones. This means that in summer, birds should have free access from their premises to the aviary, where they will walk, feed on greenery and swim.
You can also make separate pens, which will be specially designed for ducklings. An important advantage of such structures is that they are mobile: it is easy to take the pegs with a net attached to them and move them to the right place.
The photo shows a drawing of a warm duck house with a walk.
Preparatory stage
During the preparatory phase, it is important to follow these steps:
- Choose a place for the future ducklings.
- Determine its size based on the estimated number of livestock.
- Select construction material and finishing materials.
- Pick up all the tools you need.
- Draw up a project and a drawing of the structure.
The tools for creating a duckhouse are the usual construction tools with which they build any shed:
- screwdriver, electric drill, grinder;
- hammers, ax, saws;
- tape measure, level, rope, ruler, pencil;
- fasteners (bolts, screws, nails, screws, metal corners, staples).
As for the choice of material, this item depends directly on the specific project of the room:
The calculation of the amount of material and, accordingly, the estimate of the project is based on the parameters of the structure and the surface area of the cinder block, timber or frame wall.
Do-it-yourself duck building: step-by-step instructions
The construction of a duck house is in many ways similar to the construction of a capital barn in terms of the main stages and work technology. The difference lies in the last stages: the duckhouse must be carefully equipped inside, ventilation must be provided, lighting is carried out, the walls and floor must be insulated, etc.
Erection of the foundation
First of all, you need to lay the foundation. Building a shed on a foundation is a much more correct decision than building it on the ground: water will constantly evaporate from the soil, increasing the moisture inside. In addition, it is planned to build a duckhouse for many years to come.
It is enough to create an ordinary strip foundation:
- The territory is being prepared, the corresponding markings are being made.
- The trench must be made at least half a meter deep and wide.
- Further, a wooden fence is laid from the inside, concrete is poured, carefully leveled. At each stage, the quality of the work should be checked using a building level.
- The solution hardens completely in a few days.
First of all, you should make a foundation for a duck.
Reference. Since the ducks sleep on the floor, laying a monolithic foundation is impractical - the concrete gets very hot both in winter and in summer. It is also important to fill the space between the foundation tape with a layer of sand and gravel. In regions with harsh winters, it is good to use expanded clay: it keeps heat well.
Walling
This stage directly depends on the chosen material. Cinder blocks and frame are laid on the base using standard technology.
If it is planned to erect a frame structure, it is constructed from wooden beams:
- A lower beam and vertical supports are placed - load-bearing elements of the structure.
- The lower and upper strapping is made. All elements are connected according to the groove-groove type or by means of metal corners of appropriate dimensions.
- All intermediate supports are placed with a maximum pitch of 50 cm to make the structure more reliable.
Floor and roof construction
For ducklings, a pitched roof is most often used - as a standard, a roof is laid out of wooden beams with intermediate steps that correspond to the supports of the walls. For large structures, gable roofs are erected, which are made using the same technology.
The roof of the duck house can be gable or pitched.
As for the floor, on one side you can leave a dense mound of expanded clay, which must be well leveled and poured periodically as it subsides. On the other hand, you can design a wooden flooring - wood keeps heat well. In this case, all the bars must be carefully treated with a protective varnish to avoid rotting.
Important. The walls and roof are insulated with a special material. Usually mineral wool is used, which, unlike foam plastic, is good at allowing moisture to pass through. A layer of waterproofing is also used, with which the walls are covered from the inside.
At the final stage, holes are made for windows, doors, the doors themselves are installed and windows are mounted, and a ceiling is laid on the roof.
Internal arrangement of the ducklings
The internal arrangement of the ducklings is quite simple in comparison with the premises for other birds:
Summer corral around the duck
It is not necessary to build a foundation for a summer enclosure. Moreover, the birds must have constant access to greenery, so the less the surface is exposed to, the better.
Currently, several options are used for the construction of a summer room:
- A traditional paddock made of timber frame and metal mesh stretched over it. Not only the sides are placed, but also the upper overlap, on which plywood or film can be laid to protect the ducks from rain.
- A polycarbonate summer duckhouse is very simple to build, but it will be quite hot for the birds in it - therefore, the doors must always be kept open.
In the video, the farmer talks about how to properly build a duck house for keeping ducks.
Thus, creating capital premises for breeding ducks and Indo-Ducks is an essential condition for keeping them. Even in regions with mild winters, large temperature fluctuations can sometimes occur, which adversely affect the health of birds. It is better to take care of such situations in advance and not breed ducks until a safe house has been built for them.