Don't want a chicken coop, I want a duck coop...

I've looked and looked and all I can find is chicken coops. Anyone know where I can get some ideas for a duck coop?
I only have 2 ducks but I don't want them in with the chickens (way too messy).

Are their coops basically a chicken coop? are there any special considerations that need to made to a chicken coop to make it a duck coop?

I was thinking of just making a coop that sits very close to the ground with 1 nest box and place for food & water (for winter months). They will be free ranging with the chickens during the day and have a kiddie pool to play in. The nest box will be 2 foot square and the entire coop will be 4 x 6 feet (making it out of wood pallets that are 3 x 4).

A duck coop can basically be a chicken coop without roosts. Many people don't offer water inside, to help keep things dryer. An old dog house works just great. I got a Tuff House dog house off of Craig's List very cheaply, and used it for my Saxonies and Appleyards. When I sold them and got my WH's, I was suprised that they were able to get up into my regular chicken coop. The doorway is up a couple of feet, and I don't have a ramp.

We had ours in a big wooden doghouse that was inside a pen with a little kiddie pool in it.

Before I got ducks, I looked at plans for chicken coops, and then built them a big one with a ramp to make it easy to go inside. After I got the ducks, I realized I'd wasted a lot of time, money and labor building it full-height, because, as someone already mentioned, ducks don't roost, and don't use a lot of vertical space!

Ventilation is also important if they will shut in at night. They produce a lot of ammonia. Good luck!

I cant realy help you with photos as I have a HOUSE that I keep my ducks in. I know alot of people use plastic dog houses to lock their ducks up in at night if they are going to be in a secure area of a night. Some also use wooden dog houses. There are a few photos on here of peoples duck houses. If you type it into the SEARCH bit up in the top right it should give you a bunch of posts with pictures.

Here is a conversation in which I posted some quick pics and a description of our duck house.

Hope it helps.

The Dutch door is a blessing, by the way.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4090349

I did add a plexiglass drop ceiling to keep it warmer. That still was not warm enough for a few of my pampered duckies, so they spend the coldest months in their walkout basement pen. It works fine that way. Especially this past winter, with three feet of snow on the ground. wow.

Wow! That duck house is amazing Amiga! I am going to copy that idea! My husband is a design engineer and I sent him those house pictures. He will have to incorporate a light for heat in there somewhere as our winters get really cold (-30 C). I see your house is up on bricks. There is just the one exit/entrance? Would you see a benefit of having 2 entrances? Do the ducks happily go in there?

We have a large pond and I will allow the flock to be free during the day...its just at night having them come in so I can shut them into the house. I guess getting them on a feeding routine where I feed them in the evening in their house would be the best method. Otherwise I will have to shut the house and have them be free close to the shoreline so they could swim on the pond to escape predators.

Leyan

Amiga, that duck house is beautiful! However, if you want something less fancy than Amiga's set up but larger than a dog house- you can do what my hubby did for me.

He built our run out of PVC so it is light and portable. During warmer months it is attached to a large duck house built especially for them...nothing special, but 4 walls a floor and ceiling. That is all they care about. The door in front is just big enough for them to go in and out, and there is a larger square door in the back that we use for cleaning and collecting eggs. In the winter, we move their run into the garage (yay PVC!) for safety issues (high predation time) where they use an old dog house (which they LOVE!!!)

Here is a pic. Granted, the pen has since been modified this spring to have WIRE netting on the walls vs the plastic bird netting we had and we attached an electric fence to it after we lost my favorite ducks last winter. Lesson learned, raccoons are even smarter than given credit for... And that nasty pool is gone! We finally built a pond for them.

Pardon the murky water, but well, you know ducks!

I have a few pics of our duck house/coop on my BYC website. I kinda adapted them from some chicken houses that I saw and liked. However, I made it fairly mobile with 5 - 10" heavy duty casters from Harbor Freight and it is open inside with no nesting boxes. I am really only gonna use it for keeping them safe at night so the sq/ft per duck might be kinda low since it is only 4' x 7' and there will be 8 ducks. I also went overkill with 1" & 1.5" rigid foam insulation in the walls and ceiling to keep it warmer in the winter and hopefully cooler in the summer.

Oddly enough looking for "duck coop" on a google image search doesn't return much usable. I did try "duck hut" though, after telling it that I'm NOT looking for "duck hunt" game images, it returned several.

Seems hard to find information on duck housing in general compared to chickens.

I've got 10 Welsh Harliquin coming soon and two unknown yellows sitting beside me now. Will be building a 4x8' duck hut similar to this for them, with a section of roof that lifts for egg access.

http://www.portablelivestockshelters.com/Floating_Duck_House.html

Figure it'll be 4' x 8' long on skids with a 2' short wall and 3' tall wall with a 16" section of roof hinged at a side along the 4' wall to allow for 4 next boxes. Still planning it all out.