Love A Duck

Hello all (first post)

We've recently taken the plunge, purchased a chicken coop, waxed it and it's now largely ready for the arrival of 3 Khaki Campbells tomorrow.

I've purchased Storey's Guide on the android but I have two questions I hope I may ask of you more experienced folk here:

Do I need to put straw at the bottom of this coop? I'll obviously have bedding (wood shavings) in the house. But what at the bottom? It sits on a redundant door at present, avoiding the concrete underneath, seemed a better idea than lino.

The top right roof area of the coop is wire, rather than wood or felt. Should I cover it a little to give them a bit more protection when it rains? If I put straw on the floor it'll get sodden in no time. The ducks will be let out in the garden as standard but not all day every day in case of sneaky foxes. I may also build a run around it, but not immediately.

We have a feeder, water dispenser, bucket for washing, sand pit for a pond, layer pellets, need to buy some grit...

A supplementary question if it's not too cheeky for my first post: vegetable scraps?

Any tips you have would be most appreciated.

Many thanks!

Ben

Thank you Auntie Mogs, prettier than it is practical I think now it's arrived and been put together - it's softwood and so not sure about the longevity after a hard winter (or a normal British summer!)

It is certainly very pretty.   I can see a couple of potential problems with it though.

How steep is the ramp? Ducks don't have very grippy feet and if it is too steep or doesn't have grips on the ramp they might have a problem using it.
Ducks are amazing, entertaining loveable creatures but they can't half be stubborn. They are generally not used to ramps and don't naturally roost up somewhere so they can take a while to get used to where bed is. They often need putting into bed for a while till they get used to it which brings me to the second problem; that run doesn't look like it is going to be easy for you to get into to put them to bed while they are learning but I could be wrong!

I would put bark chip pings down on the run floor, it doesn't matter if they get wet.

As to veg scraps, it is officially illegal to give kitchen scraps to chickens, ducks etc. I grow much of my veg and they get kale, lettuce etc which they love. Used to spend ages cutting it up for them which is really unnecessary. I now just lob in a lettuce and it is torn to nothing in seconds, scarily like a vegetarian piranha feeding frenzy!

Hi Oakdalebirds - I wouldn't be surprised TBH, we'll have to see how it goes, treat it as the "training coop" (for me!).

Thank you Kate. Yes, they tend to congregate as far away from me as possible at the bottom far end, so from today I will not let them in of a night via the bottom part of the coop, but use a ramp on the outside (windowed) door entrance. I used an old basement step as the coop didn't come with a ramp for that part and placed wood along it. It's not too steep but they certainly take some herding!

Great tip on bark chippings, thanks. Whatever I put down seems to get pushed into a corner, straw, woodshavings etc.

When you mentioned, I remembered the thing about kitchen scraps. OK if it hasn't been repurposed, not OK otherwise.