Best breed to protect my ducks?

[Siler]

We were pretty aware of our evening predators from the get-go here. My inlaws got Peking ducks they kept in basically a tiny box at night. The predators just opened the door as if it were a refrigerator door in the middle of the night and snacked at their leisure. They took 3 days to kill 6 ducks. It was a horrible mess that took a week to clean up. The following year we got our chicks and 2 Mallard ducklings and hubs built a coop to keep them just at night After a few months we went out one morning and found the female duck missing. A predator tried and tried until he found a weak spot in the bottom and ripped through the wire and grabbed my duck. That day hubs dug a trench around the coop and buried new wire on the bottom and added a 2X6 board then added bricks at the base. One year later and nothing has succeeded in getting in. We have 2 raccoon traps that we use to catch anything that comes near. One summer we caught 14 Opossums and 8 raccoons.

My drake has since bonded to me, but then moved on when he realized I wasn't interested. He sorted them out and picked one hen to breed. A lack of success there has him searching the hens again for one to mate. It's a hassle keeping ducks with chickens sometimes, but I have yet to get rid of him. He sure is entertaining although I wish he'd actually use the small pond hubs dug out just for him. I had to put up a fence around my water lily gardens to keep him out. He refuses to use his own pond, but the toads sure love it and it's producing an invasion of toads for this year.

Where do your ducks sleep now? If they don't have a coop then they'll try to sleep in bushes or thick patch of weeks to hide, but predators will find them before they have a chance to fly away.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

The funniest thing to watch is my ducks trying to convince my roosters to breed them! Those poor roosters can't figure out what is wrong with those crazy ducks. I am sure the drakes will soon mature enough to make the ducks happy but for now my 5 month old ducks follow my 4 roos in the pen with them around and do their darndest to entice the roos.
I have not ever heard of roos killing ducks but I am sure anything could happen.

And I agree with a lot of others on here. Get a LGD for protection if you don't coop your birds at night or if you worry about an attack during the day. My ducks are out in an open top pen during the day but in a secure coop at night. A fox has come up and looked at them through the fence but so far has only nabbed my dumb chickens that free range down to the woods during the afternoons. I really need a LGD.

 

[Sachasmom]

Will Geese and Ducks crossbreed? (I didn't think so?) I'm thinking about getting some Sestaphols, not that those would be much good against predators, would they? Be easier if I could just run them with the ducks rather than penning them. Not sure how my husband will feel about Geese, maybe I can convince him they're just really big ducks?

I lost both of my Drakes this winter to a Mink, I think they did what they were supposed to, stay behind to protect their girls, poor boys. I'm letting the current crew free range, so far, so good.

And yeah, My roosters were all breeding those poor ducks once the drakes were gone! Mostly the extra Roos I had that didn't have hens of their own, but my EE Roo will breed them too on occasion!

 

[treldib]

Alright so It seems my best solution is to get some goslings

I already have a dog who happens to be quite lazy and pretty clueless about anything disturbing the ducks