Our friends the Ducks

Keeping ducks may be an excellent way to save money, using your ducks as eggs suppliers. Moreover, there is an increasing interest in things "natural" and housing ducks in the garden is rapidly turning into a "must have".

To do that, an appropriate duck house is necessary, to let your ducks live as much more natural as possible. I have written ducks because ducks are flock animals and you must not house just one duck but a couple at least. Therefore, you must evaluate very carefully the sizes of the house you are planning to purchase for your ducks. First, you must consider that ducks' flock will expand in the next year.

Therefore, my first advice is that a larger duck houses may be convenient compared to two houses so I suggest to start with a larger duck house. However, if you are planning to house different breeds, I recommend having one house per breed, to avoid the possibility of confusing different breeds' animals.

The climate is another factor that may affect you choice. United Kingdom does not provide a mild climate and, especially in winter, ducks prefer to spend most of the time indoors. They therefore appreciate an environment providing extra space, especially because they muck out less frequently. Another factor that you must consider carefully is where you site your duck houses. Do not forget that ducks usually carry a lot of water in their feathers when they go in their house for the night rest.

I suggest therefore that you place the ducks' houses far from the pond (if you have any), which will allow your ducks to discharge some water before getting in the house. To this end, do not forget that your ducks must be closed in their house every night, preferably just before dusk, to avoid that night predators may kill them. As domestic ducks do not know self-preservation, shutting them in before dusk would be one of your duties because doing the same at dark would be more difficult, if not impossible.

In addition, I suggest that you detect two different sites in your field (or garden) where your duck houses can be moved in the different periods of the year. This will permit you to transfer the duck houses when the soil around gets too mucky, allowing the ground's recover.

Samples of duck houses: