Our old duck coop had seen better days, and after many years of use, it was time to build a new one. The old coop was originally built for egg laying chickens, then later modified for housing meat chickens. As new coops were designed and built (larger) our flocks increased in numbers, the old coop was once again modified to house our ducks which were raised for duck egg production.
The old duck coop was so old, it was falling apart, and we have reduced the number of ducks we have. Time for a new one!
The new duck coop has been designed smaller in size: 3’ x 6’ or 18 square feet, which has ample room for our 3 ducks that we now keep as pets. The new design features a “porch” area and a closed in area for shelter from heavy weather. The floor of the coop is concrete, and there are doors that open the coop on both sides to allow for easy cleaning and access. The metal roof is designed to allow our heavy snow loads to slide off, away from the opening doors. The new coop is also situated closer to our duck pond, and nestled between some trees for additional protection from the weather.
If you decide to build a similar coop with the same concrete pad, it will take (12) 60# bags of ready mix or (9) 80# bags. It cost more overall to buy the 60# bags than the 80# bags, but only by a few dollars and the 60# bags are easier to handle – that’s why I used them rather than the 80# bags.
I also bought a total of 16 KD studs (2×3’s), all 8 footers, and used up about 14 of them. I used 1 4×8 sheet of 3/8″ plywood plus a few scraps I had in the shop.
The first video (Part 1) shows the process of pouring the concrete pad for the new duck coop. The next video (Part 2) begins with installing the sill plates. The next 3 videos carry on with build through completion, and the end of the last video (Part 5) has us looking like the “Keystone Cops” as we scramble after he ducks, trying to get them into the new coop.
I drew basic plans for the new coop in CAD to use as a guide while building the new coop and these are available FREE (in pdf file format). There are three drawings. Simply click on the hyperlinks below.
Here’s Part 1 of the video series on the duck coop build:
Build a Duck Coop (Part 2):
Build a Duck Coop (Part 3):
Build a Duck Coop (Part 4):
Build a Duck Coop (Part 5) Epilogue:
