My husband had this idea to use a truck box as the main structure for our new duck house.  He found one on eBay for a good price so it was cheaper and faster than building something from scratch. We went to pick it up from behind a warehouse down in Camp Washington and the guys used two forklifts to get it onto our trailer. It was a somewhat terrifying ride home with that big thing swaying behind us but we made it. Then the next big question: how do we get it off the trailer?

Give him time to think and my husband will always come up with a plan. He knows a lot of the tow truck drivers in Cincinnati from work so his plan evolved into this: hire the best of the best to come out and pull the truck box onto his truck. Then he’d move it over to the foundation we built and push it on.  

Here you can see him lowering the bed so he could get it under the truck box and wench it up onto the truck. 

Because we were on a hill the box started to lean a little – moment of panic!  Luckily we had a huge tractor with loader on hand to support one side and keep it stable. 

Finally they got the box on and the driver moved it over to the foundation. 

It took the help of the tractor/loader to get it lined up just right but by dinner time it was in place. Success!

Now the modifications begin:

• Adding a simple solar system for power
• Building another automatic door to let the birds in and out 
• Wiring up a few lights 
• Cutting in some windows for ventilation 
• Adding a sloped roof and water collection system then feeders and waterers inside
• Building nesting boxes along the edge of the floor
• Then finally fencing it all in

The plan now is to fence in the whole field behind the pond along with the pond so the ducks will have access to the water. 

So much to do!  I’ll keep you posted as it develops.