Petey got five Indian Runner (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) for our lower garden this season. He has had ducks in the past, but we didn’t have them in the garden last year. They are excellent foragers and we hope they will be decent egg layers. We will probably eat them at the end of the season.
Having the ducks gave me the opportunity to build a duck hutch. We didn’t need anything that would last forever. I went for economy and time. In all it took me less than 10 hours to build and less than $15 posted against the garden budget.
I built it entirely out of pallet wood, which we have plenty of from the waste of our factory. The roof is made from tin I salvaged (which is also plentiful here). I had to combine three separate pieces. I learned that Henry Wet Patch and Gorilla Glue are my friends for a leakfree roof.
While in the process of constructing the hutch in East Wind’s General Shop the electricity went out due to a storm. It is amazing how productive you can be with electric drills and scary to experience how much more labor and skill would be needed for a simple project like this without the infrastructure of our industrial civilization.
Quack!