Khaki campbell duck flew away :( UPDATE: She came back in the morning!

This got me worried because I have a couple kc's of my own....sooo...I asked around for solutions. The best IMO that I was told was to clip the flight feathers on ONLY one side because they can actually teach themselves to fly if BOTH are clipped...this way they can still free range! I never knew this before, so I thought I'd pass it along!

SOOOOOOO glad she came back!!!!

Just a cautionary word on wing clipping. Yes, if you clip, you should only clip one wing and it should be done to the first 10 or so outer feathers, about 1 - 2 inches from where the feathers start to gather together to form their 'shoulder'. The shorter to the body you cut them, the less apt they are to fly. Be careful not to clip any blood feathers as you will then have not only a bloody mess, but also, a downright angry and ****** of duck on your hands !!! One final thing you might want to consider before you clip their wings is, what types of predators do you have lurking around and could your ducks ever become one of their unwitting targets? Because once clipped, they will have virtually no escape mechanism left but their feet, and last I heard, running is not their strong suit. You can always give it a try and if you (or they) don't like it, just let them grow back out. No harm, no foul (or is it 'fowl'...lol!).

Thanks everyone!!!!! I'm so happy to have her back....I fixed the hole in the top of the run and found a few others that they could fly through. I have netting over top and it's not necessarily to keep out predators (because they "could" get in), it was more to keep them in their run during the day because they get locked in their house at night. But apparently I need to check it more often!

I have thought about clipping their wings, but I'm with mightymax on this one....we have quite a few predators around and I want them to be able to get away if need be. No, I don't "plan" on predators getting them, but I didn't "plan" on her getting away either

I am going to fortify their run before winter sets in again (I HATE winter!) so I will be rethinking the whole set up.

We've lost chickens to predators before because I do free range my chickens, but this was so different. It was knowing that she was out there alone in the dark and I knew she was alive at the time! I prayed so hard all night last night and I told my husband this morning, "see, God cares about the ducks too!"

Yes he does.

I am not going to clip there wings the other day they got in were the donkeys were and one donkey tried to stomp one of them. needless to say my hart was in my mouth. he flew out of the way so that was a plus to flying. I am hoping as they get older they will get heavier and slow them down. sound good ha.

Actually, that DID happen to mine. Once they hit full adult size, they could no longer make it upwards nor forwards more than a few feet at a time, at best! Perhaps they were a little portly in stature, OK, my bad, but I no longer had to retrieve them from the neighbors yard, which was a plus...lol !!!

I was bringing the trash can into my backyard while it was raining the other day and I had an umbrella as well, and one of my khaki campbell females that will be laying any day now freaked the **** out and took off out of the garden, over the fence, and into the kudzu forest around the ditch in my neighbor's yard, a couple hundred yards away. The weather turned for the worse and I found myself waist deep in flooding ditch water looking for a lost duck. I didn't find her, but after the thunderstorm passed, she wandered back to the duck house. I was relieved, but I clipped all the campbells' wings the following weekend. There are too many predators lurking around for me to allow my ducks to fly around. I live in the city, but I've trapped feral cats, raccoons, and opossums. The neighborhood dogs also get loose randomly. I feel much safer with the wings clipped

I'm especially happy that she came back....she started laying yesterday!!!! Hopefully as they get older, they'll get heavier. The males DEFINITELY cannot fly far! Maybe 2 feet off the ground but then they hit the ground hard.