Swedish Duckling Question

[IvysAnimals]

Helloooo! Years ago I had someone come to my house and ask me if I could take 3 ducklings because they saw that they were standing on the side of the road with the possible mother that was hit by a car right next to them. I took them and we had bought other ducks like Pekins, Magpies, Rouen, Mallards, and some of them mixed years before that. The 3 little swede's turned out to be 2 girls and 1 boy. They're about 5-7 years old now and they're great grandparents! They were a mix of a domestic black swede and a wild mallard and they mixed with some of our mallards and other ducks. Their babies are able to fly and they come in all different colors.... Because I have ducks that can fly, I know how to clip wings and have netting on the top of my duck pen ( I had to temporarily take it off about a week or two ago because it was terrible and didn't work ) and all of that.... Any suggestions on how I can get these little babies to stay closer to my house? The parents raised their other babies before and taught them how to stay close by us. However, there's a hawk and an eagle near by as well as some other predators around so I'm going to hand raise them instead of their parents. I have a creek by my house that I don't let my ducks in and I want to make sure that these little babies don't figure out that they'd rather be there instead. I have ducks that can and can't fly and I've raised them all before but I' not sure if because these are flying swede and Mallard mixed ducks if they'll be the same or see other wild ducks in the creek that I don't own and want to go with them... How do I teach them to stay by my house? I will clip their wings in the first few weeks so they know to stay by my house but I would like to stop so they can stay with me and their family and not want to venture out with the wild ducks... I'm scared that they'll want to leave and not stay with their parents because they didn't remember the boundaries... What should I do to have them learn to fly but stay on my property and not wander off and stay with their family? I don't want to cage them up their whole lives and not be able to go around with their family..
I have them with my chicks I hatched that are 2 weeks and 3 days old, the ducklings are about 4 days old. They actually surprisingly got along and are sleeping on each other, they think the chickens are their mom and follow them. These ducklings basically are mutts and mutated to be weird colors... they're beautiful when they grow up.



These are the 6 little ducklings that survived and are with the chicks I hatched for someone-

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Their so cute!
I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully you will get some good advice and good luck.
Maybe @Miss Lydia could help?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I know of no way to keep them home without a covered run, fencing and or wing clipping if they fly. Ducks take off and get lost and don't come home. I still clip the one wing on my Muscovy females because I don't want them flying over the fence and ending up in the river down below. They are 10-11 yrs old and thankfully haven't lost one from flying off. Your ducklings are adorable hopefully once they are introduced to your adult flock they will like where they are and not fly but that is what ducks do if they can so unless you do something to keep them from flying you may lose them.

 

[ruthhope]

Keep your cute little fluffies with your chicks and hopefully they will stay near your chickens as they grow up. The only certainty would be a covered run. If you don't want that, wing clipping will help by stopping them fly off. I have three muscovies and have had to clip the wings of the little female. When she molts, I will clip her again. I had thought I might have to clip the wings of the more "athletic" of my muscovy drakes, but after a few goes standing on my side gate [4' from the ground on his side] back in January, he hasn't shown any inclination to fly off, so he remains unclipped. One cannot be certain about mallard derived ducks -- the call of the wild and migration just might kick in spring and fall. It would be less of a problem if they joined wild ducks and migrated, but they don't [they couldn't keep up.] They just fly off and get lost. My son's pekins don't even go out when the side gate is left open in error. I will get there to a wide open gate and son's pekins lying there right by it waiting for me. But pekins have been domesticated for thousands of years and behave differently from others.