Age to pasture ducks unsupervised?

[StevenW.]

Geese are complete babies when it comes to predators. They will run to save their own lives but they will make a ton of noise doing though.
I reccomend a Great Pyranees (sp?) Dog for protecting against predators.

 

[Tahai]

Thanks for the advice, but dogs and geese are not in my future. My ducks are almost 6 weeks old now, and 80% feathered. I think they grew by half again overnight. After reading all your thoughts, I feel that by next week, they should be old enough.

I had been considering starting them out this coming Monday, but they charged the poultry net today in a panic (electric isn't hooked up yet), and got part-way through they squares before getting stuck. I had ducks tangled everywhere. I worked as fast as I could to get them out, and thankfully nobody was injured (except my ear-drums). This re-inforced to me, though, that they are not yet old enough to go out when I'm not home. They need to be too big to fit their shoulders through the net before I leave them out all day alone.

Speaking of that, how much more can I expect my Welsh Harlequins to grow between 6 weeks and adulthood? Are they pretty much done growing, or will they double in size again?

I've accepted I may lose some ducks at some point in time, but I believe my animals must have a balance between quality of life and quantity of life. My rabbits take turns on free run (out all day while I'm at work), and have for 2 years now, with no losses to predation. Then again, rabbits are as intelligent as cats...ducks, well...hmmm.

Thank you all for your thoughts and input!

Tahai

 

[Triplell]

At 6 weeks they have along way to grow yet.

 

[Oregon Blues]

[[[[[.......potential daytime predators are hawks and eagles, neighborhood dogs, and feral cats (unlikely, but possible). ......]]]]]

With loose neighborhood dogs, your ducks will never be safe outdoors unattended, not at any age, unless that electric fence is at least 5 feet tall. Dogs will simply jump over a low electric fence and they love to kill squawking flapping ducks.

Hawks and eagles, perhaps. It takes a very large hawk to attempt an adult duck; most hawks won't. They will take ducklings, though. Eagles are capable of killing ducks, but domestic ducks on pasture don't seem to meet their criteria for hunting. They seem to want to take them out of the air or off of water. It would be bad luck, indeed, to have an eagle interested in your ducks. But it can happen.

Add crows to your list of potential duckling killers. They are certainly capable of killing and eating half grown ducklings.

 

[sourland]

[[[[[.......potential daytime predators are hawks and eagles, neighborhood dogs, and feral cats (unlikely, but possible). ......]]]]]

With loose neighborhood dogs, your ducks will never be safe outdoors unattended, not at any age, unless that electric fence is at least 5 feet tall. Dogs will simply jump over a low electric fence and they love to kill squawking flapping ducks.

Hawks and eagles, perhaps. It takes a very large hawk to attempt an adult duck; most hawks won't. They will take ducklings, though. Eagles are capable of killing ducks, but domestic ducks on pasture don't seem to meet their criteria for hunting. They seem to want to take them out of the air or off of water. It would be bad luck, indeed, to have an eagle interested in your ducks. But it can happen.

Add crows to your list of potential duckling killers. They are certainly capable of killing and eating half grown ducklings.

To this list I would add fox, coyotes, bobcats and perhaps coons - especially this time of year when adults are feeding and teaching half grown young.

 

[Tahai]

Oregon and sourland,

Thanks for the input. The fence is 4 feet, and will have to do. The other options are total free range, which is not acceptable to my neighbors, or freezer camp, which is not what I intend these girls for.

Oregon, when you say a hawk won't likely take a full grown duck, are you referring to all standard size breeds? I worry that an adult lightweight duck will still be small enough for a red-tail.

I'll have to watch for the crows. None have shown interest in them as of yet, but you never know with crows.

Thanks again.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The largest hawk in this country weighs 3 pounds or less. Most hawks are well under 2 pounds. They don't want to tackle anything that could put up enough fight to injure them. So they prey on mice and song birds.

There are perhaps 3-4 species of hawk that will take chickens. They can't carry a chicken, but they hit hard enough to kill the bird and then eat it on the ground. Since I keep large breeds, I don't know what the size cut-off is. Young chicks and ducklings would be small enough for most varieties of hawks. One of the few species that hunt chickens can kill a full size hen, which is (what?) 8-9 pounds, so they can probably kill a large adult duck.

Crows here killed (caught in the act) two 3 pound chickens, so I know they will tackle that size. They gang up and mob their victim, so they can tackle larger prey. They attacked one of my geese and drove her off her nest and broke all her eggs. That's a big bird that can fight hard and the crows still attacked her. Unfortunately, my gander is worthless in the protection field, because I don't think a murder of crows would take on 2 geese at the same time.

You can bait that electric fence and if the stray dogs are regulars, they will get a good shock on the nose that should keep them back from the electric fence.

Other than the crows, the predator i have to worry about is the local Great Horned Owl. he is definitely big enough to take a large adult duck and can kill geese if he is in the mood for a goose dinner. So, my birds are in covered runs at night. Easy. The GHO flies at night and can't get the birds because they are under cover.

 

[Triplell]

Here we deffinately have the Great Horned Owls! I darn near hit one with my car the other day. Years back we even had one sit on top of a telephone pole and just wait for us when we would put out the little dogs to go potty.I had one buzz my head once going for a rabbit. I wish it had tryed for the stay cats that we had. We had more than 100 when we moved to the farm. Our local shelter told us that we had to capture them and pay them for each one we didn't want. They were so diseased that we just shot them all. We did sent many of them to our state vet/university and they said we had feline lucemia( sorry for spelling) tetnus and many other communicable illnesses that we had to dispose of them in a incenerator and wait 5 years before we could have any barn cats for vermin. Then it was the wolves and the cyotes and the loose dogs. We now keep at least one very large dog loose at all times. He loves the ducks and chickens although the geese aren't to sure of him yet. He jumps our five foot fences like they were one foot. Last night he was barking so much that I checked and I could hear the Owl hooting and a big woosh over head. Willie Bear got a large bone for that one. I would keep all of my fowl in the barn but no help in cleaning and cost to much for bedding. In the winter time they can have all the hay they want as we get the 2 yr old hay for $0.00.from a local dairy farmer that keeps it under a roof. I save the shavings for the chickens as I can slowly clean up those three pens.