Duck house: hardware

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:

Painting bottom

And painted under the awning:

Painting under awning

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

Righting

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:

Opener with door closed

The opener with the door open:

Opener with door open

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

Pepper

I then stapled wire hardware cloth over the two vents:

Attaching hardware cloth

Here’s the hardware cloth on big vent:

Hardware cloth on vent

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

Hardware cloth on vent

The view from outside:

Hardware cloth on vents

The big vent closed:

Vent closed

Partially open:

Vent partially open

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

Closer view of vent

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

Cable cover

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

Treat door

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):

Cupboard

Attaching the four maintenance doors:

Attaching maintenance doors

Me attaching the maintenance doors:

Attaching maintenance doors

The maintenance doors installed and closed:

Maintenance doors 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:

One maintenance door open

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

Top maintenance doors open

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):

Left maintenance doors open

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

All maintenance doors open

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

Camera view

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

Camera & waterer

Next up: roofing!

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