REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR DUCK PEN. If space is not be a problem for you, you can obviously build a pen as big as you like. As a rule of thumb allow at least 8 sq. meters per pair of which 2 sq. meters per pair should be water. The water does not have to be very deep – 50cm to 1 meter deep is ample. If you have diving ducks then you might want to give them a bit more depth. This is the ideal situation but if you cannot afford to built such big dams then your ducks will make due with the amount of water you give them. Just realise that you will have to clean your dams more regularly.
I started out with one small dam and as I got more ducks I built more small dams but they got dirty so quickly and I had to keep draining them. That was until January 2006 when I built a new big dam and connected some of the smaller dams by trenches. I bought a pump and now I circulate the water and it stays clean longer. The upside of this was that 3 pairs (that have never bred before) started breeding within 2 weeks of installing the big dam.
See to it that there are plants and trees with enough shade during summer. If there is not much vegetation the best is to start planting some before you bring in the ducks. Any plants with tough leaves would do but no poisonous plants or ones with thorns. Check at your local nursery what is best.
Plan where you want to build your dam and plant some wetland plants like reeds, bulrushes, Louisiana Irises and Diathus. The fencing should be about 1,2-1,5 meters high and the best is to use the wire mesh with the holes not bigger than 20mmx13mm.
I know other breeders who made an aviary for their ducks and I think it is a fantastic idea – if you want to spend that kind of money. They have used a shade netting which is light weight and very strong. The benefit of an aviary is that you can control access of especially flying predators from your ducks as well as keeping other feeders like doves from eating your duck’s food. It will also deter cats from jumping over your fence but I am not sure that rats and mice will be thwarted by this. They will just chew their way in.