If you have a small farm or just a water plan and would love to have Mallard ducks around, they will need a place to protect themselves from predators and you will need plans to build a Mallard birdhouse. Here’s a simple idea to help you build a great home of your own and give them the peaceful environment they need to nest and breed.
Build a floating platform
Protecting ducks from predators is the main goal of building a house for them to nest. Raccoons love to eat eggs and will find ways to get them. If you have a pond, a houseboat is a great option to provide them with a safe place to nest.
Use a thick styrofoam sheet and cut it in half. This will be great for keeping the nest house floating. Join the two pieces of Styrofoam with 2 pieces of 2×4 or plain boards, leaving a space between them. Once you have a solid foundation for the houseboat, build a deck on top of the Styrofoam with wooden planks. Make sure not to use pressure-treated wood, which is harmful to the environment.
Build a house to put on top
It will be much better not to have the duck house on top of the platform. The Mallard house needs to be elevated a bit, this is good for both a houseboat and a house on dry land. This is necessary to protect the nest from getting wet by rain and possible waves of water that reach the platform on windy days. For houses on the ground, possible variations in water elevation in the pound can flood the duck house after a major rain storm, so you need to take that into account.
How to make the nest
To build a nest for the ducks, get a plastic covered fence that is about tree feet tall by 5 feet long. Cover it with some straw hay and roll it into a cylinder about 12 to 15 inches. Roll it up completely and fix it to the fence to make it firm. Thigh bandages will do the trick. Install the nest on the floating platform giving it an elevation of approximately twelve to fifteen inches.
You can do this by installing two pieces of wood on the deck. They build a roof using two pieces of plywood and installing them on top of the nest in a triangle up to the platform. Make sure the roof is longer than the nesting tube to provide protection at the entrance and exit of the tube. This is a very basic design but one that will make wild ducks happy and be a safe place to lay their eggs. You can find other ideas to make a more elegant Mallard home and still make it with materials you already have around the house.