How to Launch a Duck House Without Getting Wet

Today we were successful in many things.  Our beautiful duck house floats!  Yay!  First fear vanquished.

When I went online to look at duck houses and what I would want for a duck house, I was surprised to see that they cost between $1400 and over $2,000.  We made this one from scraps in our workshop, including old hinges to make the top flip open for cleaning and egg gathering, and a chain to keep it from tipping open too far and ruining the hinges, to the 2 inch foam insulation we used to make it float.

Of the many videos I watched of DIY duckhouses, they were launched by someone in a canoe, or used anchors, etc.  Personally, I did not want to get wet in the pond, so I devised a way to launch it without getting wet.  My husband did not want to get wet either, so he went along with my plan, even though I could see doubt on his face.  He bent two pieces of rebar in shepherd's crooks.  We hammered one into the ground on one side of the pond, and one into the ground on the other.  Then we put the duck house down next to one of them and ran the rope through the rebar and tied it to one of the eye bolts on one side of the duck house.  We walked the rope around the back of the pond, looped it through the other piece of rebar, walked it back, and ran it through the other eyebolt (not shown in the first picture.)  Then we pulled it snug and pushed the duck house into the water.  IT FLOATED!!!  YAY!!!

Since the rope was in a loop from one side of the pond to the other, we could just pull it one way until the house ended up in the middle of the pond.  In this way, we will be able to pull it back when we want to check for eggs or see if it needs cleaning.  SUCCESS!

Next comes the part where we get the ducks to want to live in it.  We went back to get the two ducks.  We had been moving the duck house further and further toward the pond and feeding them near it, so we had hoped for success.  However, we did not do it as long as we had planned, as we realized that they were eating pretty far away from their water, and ducks need water to eat. . .

So either it will happen, or we traumatized our ducks. . .but we will keep trying.  For this first time, we walked them back to the chicken coop they were used to.