Are ducks/geese safe at night by the water?

[chickensahoy96]

Here's my plan. I want to build a small shack by the water for a couple ducks and geese to sleep in at night and live free range. It will basically be just to keep them in shelter but not provide any actual security from predators. I have a spotlight that I could aim at the shack and hopefully it would be enough to provide ample warning for the birds to escape into the water if visited by a racoon, coyote, etc. For daytime threats I was planning on relying on having 4-5 geese in the pond to deter hawks, and possibly some "hawk lasers" that I have seen on ebay but don't know if they are effective/legal.

 

[Miss Lydia]

First of all if you don't have your geese and ducks in a secure house at night they will be picked off. And most likely they won't use a shelter since they would be literally sitting ducks. Even geese can't hold their own with a predator with teeth. They are mainly bluff.

Why not have a secure shelter for them and let them out every morning and put up every evening for their own protection?

 

[Shadrach]

Here's my plan. I want to build a small shack by the water for a couple ducks and geese to sleep in at night and live free range. It will basically be just to keep them in shelter but not provide any actual security from predators. I have a spotlight that I could aim at the shack and hopefully it would be enough to provide ample warning for the birds to escape into the water if visited by a racoon, coyote, etc. For daytime threats I was planning on relying on having 4-5 geese in the pond to deter hawks, and possibly some "hawk lasers" that I have seen on ebay but don't know if they are effective/legal.

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If you put an island in the middle of a large pond and the ducks and geese nested on the island it would offer some extra protection but many predators can swim. I can't see the scheme you've outlined above making any difference.

 

[chickensahoy96]

First of all if you don't have your geese and ducks in a secure house at night they will be picked off. And most likely they won't use a shelter since they would be literally sitting ducks. Even geese can't hold their own with a predator with teeth. They are mainly bluff.

Why not have a secure shelter for them and let them out every morning and put up every evening for their own protection?

The idea was for a low maintenance designed that just provided shelter and a way out if threatened. But I suspect the birds would be too late to react even if I did illuminate the area. How can you protect free range waterfowl from predators like hawks?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Mine free range over a half acre. It has a lot of tree cover during late spring into fall in winter they don't get to go up where it's wide open in winter with the leaves all off the trees. I have had a rooster killed by a hawk even with the tree cover so it's always a possibility , I pray for them. I want my birds to live as naturally as possible and still have protection from predators. Another thing to take into consideration is most domestic ducks don't fly so that makes them even more vulnerable. Geese either actually.

 

[Bella the Chicken Lover]

Here's my plan. I want to build a small shack by the water for a couple ducks and geese to sleep in at night and live free range. It will basically be just to keep them in shelter but not provide any actual security from predators. I have a spotlight that I could aim at the shack and hopefully it would be enough to provide ample warning for the birds to escape into the water if visited by a racoon, coyote, etc. For daytime threats I was planning on relying on having 4-5 geese in the pond to deter hawks, and possibly some "hawk lasers" that I have seen on ebay but don't know if they are effective/legal.

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Maybe you could make it where you could only get in if you go into the water?

 

[chickensahoy96]

Maybe you could make it where you could only get in if you go into the water?

I think I'm going to settle for an automatic chicken coop door on amazon. Maybe hook up a door contact sensor to a raspberry pi which can be configured to send an email alert if the door doesn't open in the middle of the day so that I can have someone check on it.

 

[Bella the Chicken Lover]

I think I'm going to settle for an automatic chicken coop door on amazon. Maybe hook up a door contact sensor to a raspberry pi which can be configured to send an email alert if the door doesn't open in the middle of the day so that I can have someone check on it.

Those are awesome. But 3/4 of them need to be plugged in, and the ones with the solar panels could be hard to figure out, trust me, because we had to go through 3, before we found the one for us.