FLOATING DUCK HOUSE
At the request of a friend, I’ve built this floating duckhouse to shelter his semi-domesticated ducks from predators and the harsh winds we sometimes experience here in Tennessee during the surprisingly cold winters. The structure consists of a four foot octagonal (across flats) house mounted on a six foot octagonal (across flats) platform, utilizing styrofoam blocks for floatation. The house is constructed of three inch tongue and grove flooring for the sides and is attached to a 2X4 spider frame, which makes this an extremely robust structure. The windows were cut from plastic diffusers salvaged from discarded fluorescent light fixtures and glued into rabbets routed into the perimeter of the window openings. Atop the house sits a cupola that incorporates four solar powered LED lights that are activated at night via photocells. The lights and associated electronics, including the solar panels and circuit boards, were removed from old path lights originally used for lighting walkways at night. Looking closely at the roof of the cupola you can see the small solar panels which recharge the AA batteries and also houses the photocells.
The seemingly endless numbers of compound angles required in the construction made this an enjoyably challenging project, especially in constructing the roof frame and mating the cupola to the roof. I don’t believe any of the joints required a simple straight cut! That is, of course, excepting the hidden feed drawer I’ve incorporated into the base molding of the house that would allow the owner to provide dry feed (which, incidentally, is cat food) to the ducks residing inside the house. The feed drawer was a final afterthought at which point I felt I should conclude the construction of the duck house before I got the inkling to build furniture for the birds!
Happy woodworking!
Time to Build: 51-100 Hours
Difficulty: Difficult
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