The Duck Box

Here's something I finished this week that doesn't have anything to do with quilting.  It's a new home for my ducklings.

I made the duck box for free (except for the hinges and one 2x4).  I got a bunch of free wood on Craigslist.  This wood was a bunch of billboards!  Great paint on the outside!  I'll eventually put a sheet of metal on the top to help slow down weathering to the roof.  The duck box sits on a "table" that is for training dogs in agility.  It is nailed to it but I drilled a hole in the bottom for water drainage for the ducks.  (Also in the background right is an a-frame that was a dog agility course item.  It will be the roof to my simple a-frame building that will be made this summer.  I will need help from my husband to get it into the fenced area.) (Dog agility items were free on Craigslist too.)

You can see the red in the background of the first picture of the other building that I made (also by myself) from other billboard pieces for the chickens.

The long electric cord is for a simple heat light.  The ducklings were two days old when I got them.  Today in Ohio it snowed!!!  Yes, SNOW in May!

You can see the sides are tapered so that the water runs off the roof.  I had to have my husband help me with this.  I wanted to have all my fingers after cutting the used 2x4 with a power saw.

It is sectioned off into two sides right now because Varigated (yes, I name some of my chickens by their color...) hatched three chicks.  Here's her half.  The board on the right is just fitted.  I can pick it up and move it without nails.  (Thanks to my careful measuring, cutting, and piecing skills I learned during quilting.)

On the left side is a hinged door.  I will build a wide ramp for the ducks after school is out.  Varigated and her chicks can already get in and out without the ramp, but they still need one to avoid injury.

Here's my four Ancona ducks.  They are at the awkward state right now.  The one on the left is mostly "blue" (meaning grey in the duck world.)  Two others are spotted.  One of the four is a male!!! Hopefully that will mean ducklings next year.

I wasn't going to get any more ducks this year.  I had two ducks until the day before I got these.  Sadly, one duck was eaten by the mama fox.  Ducks are social and could become sick or depressed if they don't have anybody to share their days.  They will be introduced to my other duck soon.