This morning I put up a make-shift swimming pool and plastic netting enclosure for the ducks to use, just outside of their coop. They make such a wicked sloppy mess of their bedding in the area around their water bucket that I figured it might be better to have the watering area outside of the coop, at least during the warmer months. Next week I'll put together something more solid and attractive, but today I was in the mood and just used what materials we had on hand, including emptying out a big red tote that usually holds all of our Christmas decorations but now subs as a swimming pool.
We hope to put a fence all the way around the yard this summer so that the ducks can roam freely and safely in the yard and garden during the day. I still have some work to do on the coop, like finishing the roof off with some greenery, and I hope to finish that up this week as well.
We clipped their wings before setting them loose in the swimming area, although Kim's duck, Daphne, is so fat that I doubt she could fly without some assistance from a jet-pack.
We're getting two eggs a day from them now, which is pretty cool and has me thinking that a couple more layers might be worthwhile.