A New Home And A Few New Residents

 As we started building a rough version of a duck house , we realised that it just wouldn't be big enough, fox proof or solid enough to last a few months let alone a years... so this one was scrapped!

 And it was off to the local second-hand yard and the purchase of a few old 2'x3' pine studs and a large pallet. We needed to buy a box of nails and some screws from the hardware store and we were ready to knock up a duck house in a couple of hours!

 

Used up so old plywood sheets that had been in the shed for awhile to line the inside of the walls, floor and ceiling. Luckily we also had just the right amount of colourbond sheeting lying around to cover the walls and the roof

 Found a great place to store the old doona that has been hanging around the shed too, it has been cut up and is now the insulation in the walls of the duck house. Should keep them nice and warm in winter and cool in our hot summers.

 

We have removable axles and wheels on the house so that we can relocate it around the vegie garden for when we need to rotate the beds. This also meant cutting new gates in the fence so that the ducks can access the house and at the same time making sure the foxes can't gain access to our ducks and our chickens.

 

It took a lot longer to build than I thought, but we finally finished and moved the house into place at the side one of the vegie gardens. Shuggie was inside to check out his new 'digs' and seemed to like what he saw... well if he didn't like it I told him it was the pot instead of the house... heeheehee!

 

Next thing was to sink a large black polytub into the ground and presto! instant duck pond. Now that everything is in place and secure we were able to get Shuggie a couple of girl friends. So we hope to have duck eggs soon!

So now the 4 gardens surrounding the chook house will have 2 vegie gardens going and a run for the ducks and the chickens, which will be rotated 3-4 times a year as required.

You have to love nature, with a little helping hand!

Meet the Ducks, Disco and Shuggie

A local woman who sells chickens (and also supplied us with some of our hens) found out that we had Plymouth Rock hens and asked us if we would sell them to her but we kept them ourselves, however, after two have passed away due to old age and the last one not getting any younger she offered to take her in exchange for two pullets.

We ended up with two young ducklings (she knew I had a duck before and love the taste of duck eggs), Shuggie and Disco.

Poor Shuggie was gravely ill after a week of being here and we thought we would lose him/her (lost control of the legs and wasn't eating a lot) but after 2 weeks... what a change. still shaky on the legs but every day was a big improvement.

It's amazing just how quickly they grow. they now live in the opposite veggie garden to the chooks and have plenty of shade and protection from the numerous hawks and from the many pigeons that are now hanging around after the chook food that doesn't get eaten due to the bird netting we have installed over the gardens.

I spent Saturday designing and building a Duck House that can be moved from garden to garden as required. Cutting the wheels of the bottom of the old BBQ allowed me to create the perfect mobile Duck Home...