- Apr 28, 2009
- 23
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I've lurked here for a long time and hopefully someone can help.
We have 4 ducks born in the spring - Female Blue Swedish and Call and 2 male Mallards. When we first got them we had them in a pen and would let them out to the pond during the day and then at night put them in the house. They were skittish because the BS and Call were from someone who had let their child manhandle them. It didn't help that our dog thought they were fun to chase.
Eventually we decided it was easier to just let them free roam all the time. They come to us when they want to be fed and will follow us around for food into the garage so they are comfortable with us. They don't even pay attention to the dogs now.
Last week I discovered that the Blue Swede has a nest on the backside of our pond. She has 26 eggs in it right now. I doubt they are fertile and aside from that she goes off the nest for long periods. However, where she has nested is not safe because of the wildlife we have. The others sleep in the pond but she is sitting on her nest.
I'd like to know if I should try and move the nest into the duck house and start locking them up again. We didn't set out to own ducks but two of them were Easter cast offs and we are known for being suckers.
We have 4 ducks born in the spring - Female Blue Swedish and Call and 2 male Mallards. When we first got them we had them in a pen and would let them out to the pond during the day and then at night put them in the house. They were skittish because the BS and Call were from someone who had let their child manhandle them. It didn't help that our dog thought they were fun to chase.
Eventually we decided it was easier to just let them free roam all the time. They come to us when they want to be fed and will follow us around for food into the garage so they are comfortable with us. They don't even pay attention to the dogs now.
Last week I discovered that the Blue Swede has a nest on the backside of our pond. She has 26 eggs in it right now. I doubt they are fertile and aside from that she goes off the nest for long periods. However, where she has nested is not safe because of the wildlife we have. The others sleep in the pond but she is sitting on her nest.
I'd like to know if I should try and move the nest into the duck house and start locking them up again. We didn't set out to own ducks but two of them were Easter cast offs and we are known for being suckers.
