More progress on the duck house project.

I painted the underside of the floor. It won’t be seen, but the paint will help protect it from ground moisture:

And painted under the awning:

Righting it again, captured by the duck (aka Pepper) cam:

We bought a custom-painted sign from Etsy, from the same person that did the chicken coop sign. The sign says “The Boonducks, est. 2019”, with yellow duck images. Jenn chose that as the name of the duck house, as a duck pun on “boondocks”, since the duck house will be in the area of the homestead we refer to as “beyond the pond” or “the back 40”. I also installed the duck door opener:

The opener with the door closed:

The opener with the door open:

Pepper strolling past the duck house while I was having lunch:

I then stapled wire hardware cloth over the two vents:

Here’s the hardware cloth on big vent:

And the hardware cloth on the small vent above the maintenance doors:

The view from outside:

The big vent closed:

Partially open:

A closer view of the vent and cover, showing the bolt and holes to enable opening to various levels:

The power cord cover, which is held in place with small tabs:

Next up was attaching hardware to the doors, starting with the small treat door; hinges, handle, and a roller catch to hold it closed:

The same for the two cupboard doors; it has roller catches mounted under the shelf. I’m not going to add a bolt or gate latch on these doors, unless the roller catches prove inadequate (raccoons can be very clever, but I think this should be sufficient):

Attaching the four maintenance doors:

Me attaching the maintenance doors:

The maintenance doors installed and closed:

They are in four parts to allow a variety of access. Here’s one maintenance door open, by undoing one bolt, enabling a quick peek or dropping in treats etc:

The top two maintenance doors open, by undoing two bolts, which will be useful when the ducklings are young, preventing them from escaping:

The left two maintenance doors open as a single unit, by leaving their bolt closed, and just undoing the lower bolt. This will be useful for quickly reaching eggs not in the nesting boxes (ducks tend to lay anywhere… though admittedly so do our chickens):

All four maintenance doors open, enabling full access for cleaning out etc:

I then put the inner floor in place, added the waterer, and installed the camera mount. Here’s the view from the camera:

The camera & waterer, with the doors closed, and wires routed via hooks into the cupboard:

Next up: roofing!