Do ducks go into coop at night?

[jmc]

This would be essential to our proposed 'duck conversion'.

We are crawling with just about every kind of predator here (that inlandd MA can offer, anyway).

If we had a flock of ducks that couldn't be LOCKED into coop at night, that would be a real problem. They would truly be...........sitting--then DEAD--ducks!

Again, we want Khakis at least for now. They will be in a (possibly divided) 1296 sq. ft. run (36 x 36).

If we had to chase them into coops at night, that would be an irritating, but maybe acceptable alternative to having them go in on their own.

Nice thing about our chickens, and prob. yours too, is that they go into the coop at night on their own.

So, will ducks do this?

 

[greyfields]

Ducks can be trained to "go to bed". When I had fewer, I put them away every night. They eventually put themselves in the shed and I just had to lock the door.

I now have 30+ ducks and 50+ geese on the ground, who all sleep as a flock. I don't lock them in as they are adequately defended by those numbers, or at the very least I hear it if something's going wrong.

 

[jmc]

Thank you, Grey.

I kinda thought that could be done.........

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

When I first let my Muscovies out they ALWAYS returned to the interior of the run.

Now their free-range 24/7 so they retreat to a tree nearby.

My pekins always returned to the run at night, I am guessing because they couldn't fly.

 

[DuckLady]

It only took about 2 years

, but my ducks and geese will head to their enclosure when I holler "Bedtime!!"
When we were training them, we used a long bamboo stick to herd them. We can grab the bamboo and raise it pointed straight up and they will head to their area, too.

Of course if they feel we are putting them to bed too early, they will revolt by scattering all over their 2/3 of our acre. They find it quite amusing.

 

[APage]

We have 3 mallards . . .they used to go in at night but now kind of roam around as I hear them talking outside my bedroom window at night sometimes . . .they do sleep in the shed with the calves at night occasionally as I've seen them huddled in the corner sleeping when I go out to shut the coop door before bed.

 

[feathersgalore]

I put mine away at night. Sometimes if I'm late they are waiting outside the barn but other nights we have to herd them inside.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

I have two mallards that go into the coop w/the chickens at night or whenever there is a hawk around. When they were younger they wanted to stay out and I'd have a time of it getting them to go in. One night they went into the inclosed run so I let them stay there knowing they would be safe enough. A family of racoons came visiting that night and knocked some boards over trying to figure a way to get into the run & to the ducks. Well, those two boys go into the shed on their own now without any trouble.

 

[miss_jayne]

mine put themselves to bed every evening just like the chickens.

we say, 'let's go to bed!' each night we are training them to go in and after awhile they figure it out on their own.

you can say anything, as long as it's the same and it will eventually work...like a Pavlov experiment.

 

[jmc]

I'd like my coops to be raised off the ground on a sort of deck. Can ducks climb up a slanted ramp into a coop, like claw-footed chickens??

The coops would be 30" off the ground.........