Sounds like you have a great spot to put up some boxes!
You can use just about any plan you find on the internet. We have modified ours a little and I think our latest design improvements make it a lot easier to clean out.
Important things to remember are the hole should be 3" with elongated sides to about 4". There needs to be access for the ducklings to get out, we usually make shallow cuts with a table saw about half an inch apart on the front board from the bottom up to the hole. Some of our boxes have hard wire squares but I prefer the cuts as no chance for the birds to get hung up. We also use a round 2" metal pole which keeps predators out. If you attach to a tree, you'll have to wrap the tree with sheetmetal to keep out racoons and such...
We also now mount our front board so the edges are exposed and the side boards fit inside of them. This allowed us to make a bias cut on the front board at 45 degrees. Make sure the cut is made so water runs over the cut, not into the box! The smaller bottom piece of the front should go up under the longer front piece. We had 2 of 50 made wrong, had to seal them! The bottom board at the front is then held by 2 construction screws, much easier to remove with a cordless drill and clean out the box each spring. You can also see how full the box is as you add wood chips.
Email me at
cansosd@shaw.ca if you would like some pics.
Dan
