What ate my 3 week old Pekin duckling??

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chickentvforme

chickentvforme

Chirping
Jul 27, 2015
111
4
53
Alabama
Just put 5 ducklings outside in a covered dog run with extra wire around the outside. It use to house my chickens before I got a coop. They had a light and food and water. Thought we were good. This morning i found 4 ducklings and outside the cage a bill. Apparently the predator grabbed them under the fence (only part I didn't do was bury the wire). No digging marks and no other parts of the duckling were found. Would love to know what got him. Suspect and fox but not positive. In our neighbor yard one of his huge geese was killed with only feathers remaining. Any ideas?
 
My guess would be raccoon. They are very good at pulling birds through/under wire fencing.

Also, whatever it was will be back now that it has found a food source. You'll want to reinforce the pen, and I would strongly suggest using electric fence around the pen as well. That is the best way to keep your little guys safe. :)
 
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Thank you. Right now they are in my bathtub (without water). Fencing is a really good idea.
Orca5094 said:
My guess would be raccoon. They are very good at pulling birds through/under wire fencing.

Also, whatever it was will be back now that it has found a food source. You'll want to reinforce the pen, and I would strongly suggest using electric fence around the pen as well. That is the best way to keep your little guys safe. :)
Click to expand...
 
Sorry about your little guy. I used the following site to give me a little bit more understanding of predators.

http://www.welphatchery.com/predator_diagnosis?mobile=1


What I have found around my yard is, the fox with tear them apart and leave carcasses close to their home. Fox do NOT like pellets shot at their butts and after a few times, have left my toddlers alone.
big_smile.png


Weasel are "bloodletters" and only go after the necks.

Falcons/Hawks/Vultures will take the whole animal.

Good luck to you!!

Pepper
 
chickentvforme said:
Thank you. Right now they are in my bathtub (without water). Fencing is a really good idea.
Click to expand...

Good luck! :)

I have electric fencing around my duck pens (and also wire or netting over the tops). They are locked up even tighter at night into a very secure building. I have never lost a duck to a predator, so I think my system works pretty darn good. We have less predators here than in the US, though. Our concerns are foxes, mink, badger, and hawks/eagles.
 
I think we are going to put them back in the same covered dog run this weekend. However this time they are getting moved to the garden behind the 5 foot electric fence. Of course this would all happen the week before we leave on vacation. Hopefully the babies will be safely tucked away in the garden and my duck sitters won't have to deal with any of this. Oh and my husband has been trying to trap whatever ate the duckling. So far, set the trap off but no capture. Must be a sneaky fox.
 
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Raccoons are smart. They figured out the latches on our chicken coop so we had to actually lock it at night. They somehow circumvented the electric fence we built around our koi pond, killed half the fish and all of the turtles. They also figured out how to escape our live trap. I'm not overly fond of raccoons. Grrr.
 

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