Best Free Range/Flying Duck Breed

[indianaducks]

Domestic mallards can fly. The downside to mallards is they don't lay a lot and they are small, so you're not going to get a lot of eggs or meat. I have two female mallards and I love them, but its because they are feisty and they like to go broody in the spring/summer and mine are great mothers. So I let them hatch babies for me. I would not have a flock of them though for eggs... I go months without mallard eggs. There are very few breeds that meet all of your needs. I don't have any experience with moscovies but maybe they would work for you?

A note on free ranging - even breeds that can fly are going to be at risk for predators... I did let mine free range for basically all of last year and once the predators found them it was game on, until I stopped free ranging. Now mine have a fenced area (no roof) and their coop/run. We've basically stopped land predators with the fenced area and no free ranging, but flying predators still exist. Thankfully I have enough birds that have learned, most of mine run straight for safety if ANYTHING is in the sky.

 

[indianaducks]

I see why you elevated the coop. Makes sense in that scenario.

Have you thought about electric poultry netting? It's been great for us, and we have pretty much every predator out there living on or near our property (except maybe weasels, but it could be that I just haven't seen any yet).

I really like our electric poultry netting fencing too... its been a game changer here. I miss having my birds free range at my front door, but its definitely saved mine from a lot of predators.

 

[indianaducks]

Definitely not planning to leave them outside. They will have a predator-resistant duck house inside a predator-resistant run both of which will be locked up tight at night. We decided that two layers of protection should significantly reduce the chances of predators finding a route in (we had a bad experience losing four birds to a door closure failure last year...).

As to the elevated doorway, we're hoping this will help deter ground-based predators. We never installed a ramp into our chicken coop since all our chickens were able to fly in and out easily from a young age so a ramp didn't feel like a priority. Several months later we were very happy about this when a stray dog got onto our property - the chickens fled to the coop and the dog was stuck barking at them from outside. We're under no illusions that an elevated door will deter all predators at all times, but we're hoping it will be one component of reducing risk alongside the more traditional coop protection strategies (hardware cloth everywhere, racoon-resistant door closures, buried dig barriers, etc). With the exception of the dog, all of our prior predator problems happened at night when all doors will be closed anyway, so the elevation may just be my over-cautious side coming out. However, I'd really hate to lose the ducks to another stray dog...

My entire coop/run is surrounded by electric poultry netting fencing. We learned the hard way with a racoon earlier this summer as well as stray dogs, coyotes, foxes, etc. Thankfully now we mostly just have to worry about predatory birds during the day now.

 

[impr3]

My entire coop/run is surrounded by electric poultry netting fencing. We learned the hard way with a racoon earlier this summer as well as stray dogs, coyotes, foxes, etc. Thankfully now we mostly just have to worry about predatory birds during the day now.

Sorry you had a racoon run-in . Our main issues seem to be foxes and hawks, but there are definitely racoons around here so I fully expect that they'll try to get to the birds at some point. We considered going with electric netting but our power supply isn't super reliable so we'd rather have a physical barrier if we can get that to work.

 

[indianaducks]

Sorry you had a racoon run-in . Our main issues seem to be foxes and hawks, but there are definitely racoons around here so I fully expect that they'll try to get to the birds at some point. We considered going with electric netting but our power supply isn't super reliable so we'd rather have a physical barrier if we can get that to work.

A lot of the electric fence options are actually solar powered. Ours is. And its definitely been a huge help with foxes and coyotes. It's my third level of protection honestly. But gotta do whatever works for you.

 

[Aunt Angus]

A lot of the electric fence options are actually solar powered. Ours is. And its definitely been a huge help with foxes and coyotes. It's my third level of protection honestly. But gotta do whatever works for you.

We have one plugged into the house. The other is on a battery (can't do solar here in the woods - lol). I have 2 batteries, and I rotate them as I charge them. I am charging one today, as a matter of fact. It will be fully charged in a few hours. But yes, do whatever is best for your flock. I just don't see ducks meshing well with a raised coop. My Calls fly well, but they don't land well. I could see them smacking into the side of the coop because they can't quite make the door, like a cartoon.

 

[indianaducks]

We have one plugged into the house. The other is on a battery (can't do solar here in the woods - lol). I have 2 batteries, and I rotate them as I charge them. I am charging one today, as a matter of fact. It will be fully charged in a few hours. But yes, do whatever is best for your flock. I just don't see ducks meshing well with a raised coop. My Calls fly well, but they don't land well. I could see them smacking into the side of the coop because they can't quite make the door, like a cartoon.

I totally agree. The electric poultry fencing was one of the best purchases I made this year for my birds. As much as I didn't want to spend the money. Not much besides a completely covered huge aviary will protect from flying predators, but the electric fence helps a ton and gives my birds more room to roam fairly safely.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I totally agree. The electric poultry fencing was one of the best purchases I made this year for my birds. As much as I didn't want to spend the money. Not much besides a completely covered huge aviary will protect from flying predators, but the electric fence helps a ton and gives my birds more room to roam fairly safely.

This. I put aviary netting over mine. I don't have to worry about hawks as much anymore, either.

 

[indianaducks]

This. I put aviary netting over mine. I don't have to worry about hawks as much anymore, either.

Next time we build a coop/run/aviary/pen/poultry palace from scratch we'll redo our setup so we can do something like that. But our current set up has an open top pen with just the electric poultry netting. Thankfully my older birds are pretty savvy now and run for safety.

 

[impr3]

I just don't see ducks meshing well with a raised coop. My Calls fly well, but they don't land well. I could see them smacking into the side of the coop because they can't quite make the door, like a cartoon.

Ha. As fun as that visual is, I'd rather avoid it in reality!

The duck coop is at ground level below the chicken coop so that part shouldn't be an issue. It's just getting in and out of the run that they might have a tough time with. I think I'll go ahead and see how they do brooding in there and reassess whether they can manage the elevated run door as they grow. Worst comes to worst I can let them through the full height human door as needed until I get a chance to add a ground level duck door.

We brood in the coop with a Mama Heat Pad and the chicks are allowed out of the run (supervised at first) once they start flying well enough to get through the elevated door themselves. If the ducks can't get out I'll probably let them hang out in the run for a few more weeks to see if they catch up and then give them their own door .