Duck safey

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umblah21

umblah21

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Apr 28, 2015
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Hi all, we have 2 Peking ducks that are 12 weeks old. They wander around the back yard during the day (about 1/3 acre) and we put then in their pen at night. We have a 16 by 20 foot deck that we caged in the bottom of for their pen. They do not like going in the pen at night, they make a big fuss about it. They have food and a pool under there but would rather lay in the clovers. We live in a smaller town of about 15,000 people so its not super country but not city either. We do have racoons and what not roaming around.

Question: are 12 week ducks old enough to stay out at night or do they have to be penned up for saftey?

Also how can we cut down on the amount of flies around their pen?

Thanks a bunch. I have attached a few pictures.----Elisabeth





 
They should always be in a secure pen overnight for protection from predators no matter how old they are.

Darn flies...still haven't gotten mine under control. I'm going to try Spalding Labs...they have something...can't recall the actual name.
big_smile.png


You've got a cute pair!! They're a bit older than mine, which will be 10 weeks on Wednesday.
 
Ducks are never old enough to stay out at night. No matter how old they are, something will still eat them. They do have to be locked up every night for their own safety. Over time they may learn to go in at night on their own - mine go into the coop at night with no prompting when it starts to get dark. It also looks like you used welded wire for the pen, which is a good strong material, but you should also line the bottom two feet with hardware cloth, especially since you know you have raccoons around. They will reach right through that fencing, grab the ducks and yank them up to the fence and eat them. They might even just pull their heads through and eat that.
 
Flies -
don't keep the food and water near each other or in their pen. The mix of food and water is a huge draw to flies.
If you want to feed them in the pen, do it in something that is easy to remove.
Hose down the pen. Flies like duck poop.


I hose down the duck house daily. The pen gets hosed down as needed. We don't have too much an issue with flies right now and when we do, it isn't usually because of the ducks.


Since their pen is tall, you can use fly strips.
Maybe also try the fly trap things, but they can stink, so you might not want that under your deck.


Try using peas to get the ducks in their pen at night. Mine would walk over hot coals for peas. I just toss them in their house at night and they go right on it.
 
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