Automatic door opener

[start living]

I should have asked this at the beginning: Do you provide feed/water in their pen or do they really just go in to sleep?

 

[EverythingZen]

God, how I wish any of my birds would do the right thing!
2 of my muscovies take themselves to bed in our garage which is a bare dirt floor under the house. It’s cool, protected, and has become theirs. The other 2 muscovies have taken over the dog kennel.
The chickens.. well, 1 roosts on top of the lorikeet aviary at night and the 2 little bantams sleep up on the verandah with the dogs who have been evicted by the aforementioned muscovies.

No one sleeps in the coop. It’s sad and lonely. My animals are all mental...

 

[BornToQuack]

@Tevyes Dad First of all, I'm sorry to hear about Snow. That must have been devastating!

You mentioned using a camera system to verify that the ducks had left their house in the morning. If you don't mind my asking, was the camera inside their house? If so, what kind did you use and did the night vision lights bother the ducks?

Ditto for the automatic door regarding lights inside the duck house. My husband is considering using 5mm LED status lights. Since the LEDs will be small and dim, do you (or anyone else) think they'll keep the ducks up at night?

 

[Tevyes Dad]

@Tevyes Dad First of all, I'm sorry to hear about Snow. That must have been devastating!

You mentioned using a camera system to verify that the ducks had left their house in the morning. If you don't mind my asking, was the camera inside their house? If so, what kind did you use and did the night vision lights bother the ducks?

Ditto for the automatic door regarding lights inside the duck house. My husband is considering using 5mm LED status lights. Since the LEDs will be small and dim, do you (or anyone else) think they'll keep the ducks up at night?

I have both security cams covering the back yard where the ducks are and a remote camera inside their house. Mine are all power-over-ethernet cameras since I am set up for that. There are so many (and mine are old enough that the exact model isn't available any more) that I would just recommend getting the intersection of technology/picture quality and price that works for you. I think they are completely unaware of the IR light from the camera. Birds typically can see much farther than we can in the UV spectrum, but not usually in the IR spectrum. I don't know if LEDs would bother them though, small bright lights are another story. I would avoid red and yellow just because they may seem them as predator eyes. Also I spy on my ducks enough that I know they absolutely don't sleep through the night. They probably sleep 3-4 hrs through the night and party by the water cooler (since they like to congregate around their water buckets as a flock quite a bit, we call that hanging out by the water cooler) or play pecking order games the rest of the time. Then they sleep a couple 1 hr shifts during the day between foraging / swimming sessions. When it is cold though they do spend most of the night in the house - sometimes sleeping, sometimes not.

 

[MaxwellHouse]

I should have asked this at the beginning: Do you provide feed/water in their pen or do they really just go in to sleep?

Ducks require enormous amount of water. It is amazing the amount of water they drink. Ducks should have clean drinking water 24 hours a day.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Mine just go into sleep.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Our six duck girls (5 Welsh Harlequin X and one domestic mallard ) were brooded with chickens. When the chickens go up to the coop to roost, the ducks grab a few more bites of food, then water, then enter the coop about 10 min after chickens. They intermittently get a treat for bed and we had to herd into the coop often to train them when younger. They also lay their eggs in a chicken style nest box in the coop in early AM. I like giving them a nipple waterer in the coop, but they still make a mess with it so no water in coop right now. We have an automatic door that the ducks are fine with, and I set it to open early AM as ducks like to get up early.

 

[start living]

The previous owner of my ducks told me, his ducks would go into their coop on their own at dusk. He thinks, that now the ducks don't want to go in there because I have a pond and they prefer sleeping there. He didn't have one. Does anyone have ducks that have access to a pond and still go into their coop at dusk without being fed in there?

 

[BornToQuack]

The previous owner of my ducks told me, his ducks would go into their coop on their own at dusk. He thinks, that now the ducks don't want to go in there because I have a pond and they prefer sleeping there. He didn't have one. Does anyone have ducks that have access to a pond and still go into their coop at dusk without being fed in there?

Our girls have free access to a small pond, but typically finish swimming/bathing before sunset. That could be for a few reasons, though:

1) They're Indian Runner Ducks, so they're not a breed that "lives" on the water.

2) It's been getting below freezing shortly after sunset, so they might not want to swim because it's too cold. When it's warmer, it'll be interesting to see if they put up a fuss about leaving their pond in the evening.

 

[start living]

Our girls have free access to a small pond, but typically finish swimming/bathing before sunset. That could be for a few reasons, though:

1) They're Indian Runner Ducks, so they're not a breed that "lives" on the water.

2) It's been getting below freezing shortly after sunset, so they might not want to swim because it's too cold. When it's warmer, it'll be interesting to see if they put up a fuss about leaving their pond in the evening.

I have Runners and Campbells, they behave the same. Always in or at the pond no matter what time, no matter how cold... if ice starts forming they keep swimming to keep it from freezing completely.