How to train adult ducks to stay near by???

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Going Quackers said:
Do you know the breed? or the sexes? usually mallard derived by about 4wks you start to hear quacking or this undertone rasp for drakes... You don't need to wait months nor till drake feathers occur and in some breed coloration of the feathers too indicate male vs female.

I will say in the effort of good practice this is a risk, you risk predators and most definitely not getting them back out. After that, food. food and more food.. did i mention food?? the way to a ducks heart is through their stomach if they learn you are that source they will follow you, trip you and heck knock on the front door(no, not kidding i have some who do) My Pekin will respond to a verbal command.. if i call Pekin they will come.. my scovies and buffs nope.. they'd think i was off the cogs.

I still feel i would aim for housing that you could lock them in safely for overnight ... many predators swim too you don't want to create a 'sitting duck' but again food will be the most helpful tool for getting ducks where you want them and to come to you.

As for laying sorry, usually around 6mths that said we are running later in the season, typically i would like to say my flock ceases in Oct and resumes in feb/mar but this summer has been hot & dry and my birds are not laying as much as typical for late summer.
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I have 6 Ancona's and a really tall runner (he's got to be the coolest duck I've ever seen, I've named him Scout. :) ) Mostly hens, the runner is a drake and I have one drake Ancona.

Safe housing is the goal. I want to build a floating duck house, but if I can get them to come in at night I will also have a nice pen with lots of cover. I really do care about them, I want my ducks to be safe, but I also really need them on the lake for most of the day. I've done ducks in pens 24/7 before, and I've done ducks on the lake 24/7 before. Ducks in the pen all day make my yard a smelly mess, ducks out on the lake 24/7 do well for awhile but I eventually end up losing them. So I want to try something in the middle. If it doesn't work I more than likely won't be doing ducks or any other Foul again...at least not until I move somewhere more suitable.

Yeah, I figured it was getting a little late in the season...do you think supplemental lighting might work? I mean, I can wait, but it would be really cool to start getting eggs now.
 
Duckchick2011 said:
It's about 7 acres, not too big, not too small. I have a little troller motor boat that I could herd them in at night with if I need to. ...So maybe two weeks cooped up time then??? or a month? No gator's normally. We do have large birds of prey but everyone that I bought ducks from raises them free range in the same way I plan too and in uncovered pens so I don't think it's TOO big of a problem in my area. I may have to start trapping racoon to keep the population down. ...I'm definitely going to be competing with predators though. BUT I have kept a small group of ducks in this lake before and they managed for quite awhile, but I didn't take them in at night and did eventually end up losing them. Which is why I wanted to find out if there was a way to encourage them to sleep in the safety of the coop at night but free range during the day. Otherwise they will be cooped up 24/7, I'd like to avoid that if at all possible...I mean I would do it if I had too...but that really isn't the "vision".

I feel confident I can make this work. I've seen similar things done before, from the people I bought these ducks from as well, and I am aware of the risks involved. I mean, every day life is a risk. My life is at risk every time I step outside, HUMANS die every single day but life would be pretty dull if all we ever did was stay "cooped up" in our houses because of it.(there are people that do that, it doesn't sound very fun.)

So in the name of living life and not staying "cooped up" I plan to make this work...even if it is a lot of "work". :) So to speak...I really don't mind having a duck rodeo every night since my nights are always free anyway(I don't have much of a life myself
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). Maybe I'll invent duck wrangling as a new rodeo sport (joking of course
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)(good natured joking, I'm not being sarcastic :) )

What I posted this up here for was to figure out how long it would take to teach them and if teaching them was possible so that I wouldn't have to wrangle ducks in every night. I already knew the risks involved.
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Then if you could fence out part of the lake so it is inside their enclosure and leave them in for a couple of weeks that might work. What I do is give them enough feed in the morning to last until about noon. My ducks run in and out of the pen to get food along with foraging on my pond and around the lawn. I then feed them again around 4-5 PM depending on the time of the year. They usually come right in so I lock the gate so they are in when I need to pen them up for the night. With part of the pond fenced in their enclosure they can frolick in and drink the water.
 
Carcajou said:
Then if you could fence out part of the lake so it is inside their enclosure and leave them in for a couple of weeks that might work. What I do is give them enough feed in the morning to last until about noon. My ducks run in and out of the pen to get food along with foraging on my pond and around the lawn. I then feed them again around 4-5 PM depending on the time of the year. They usually come right in so I lock the gate so they are in when I need to pen them up for the night. With part of the pond fenced in their enclosure they can frolick in and drink the water.
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That sounds perfect! Thanks :)
 
UPDATE!

Hey!

The ducks are doing great. I haven't yet managed to move them into the lake. Despite my best efforts(and believe me that is saying something) the ducks seem to believe that the lake is terrifying and won't go near it.
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In fact when I place them in the lake they all run back up the bank and back to the house. All this worry about how to get them back from the lake, the question I really needed to ask was how to move them in. Haha.

For now I rotate them between two pens(to keep the smell down.) and I am experimenting with free ranging them during the day for an hour or two. I've only let them out 3 times and surprise surprise, they love it. First time I did it they actually followed me around the yard like a bunch of trained circus ducks.
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Almost went into the lake all by themselves then came stampeding back.
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I've been really blessed with some friendly homebody ducks. At the very least they seem to like me.

This morning I let them run around the yard to forage in the currently flooded ditch. I went for a walk, went inside, came back out to round them up and the little stinkers were already waiting at the door to be let back in. I feed them when they do that to enforce the behavior.

I don't know what I did to be blessed with such well behaved ducks. They have such cute little personalities. Can't wait until this spring when I can start getting eggs, and ducklings.
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