Came home tonight to find one of my ducks dead. She was laying in one of the nesting boxes with her eyes open and her head cocked back like she had a star gazing issue. Other than that, I saw no sign of injury or sickness. This morning she was fine when I let her and her sisters out of the coop.
The ducks are kept secured in a 300 ft2 duck yard. The yard is completely enveloped with hardware cloth (1/2" x 1/2" from 0 - 4ft; 2' x 4' from 4ft up and all around ceiling of duck yard). The yard is kept locked with a heavy duty shackle lock at all times).
Possible causes:
1. Heat?
There was a heat advisory today, but
1. They had plenty of water
2. They had plenty of shade
My other ducks showed no sign of heat stress (panting, etc.).
2. Rat Snake?
About three weeks ago I found a large rat snake in the coop. I tried to coral it into a bucket so I could transfer it away from my property but it got away. My coop is on a raised platform 3' high off the ground. During the day, I would keep the coop open. Once I saw the snake, I stopped doing that as I'm sure it slithered up the ramp to gain access to the coop.
I'm wondering if maybe the rat snake killed my duck. It was a Silver Appleyard (heavyweight breed) about 1.5 years old. I'm thinking maybe the duck got cornered into the nesting box and was killed? I know rat snakes are constrictors and will go after ducklings, but I haven't found any stories about rat snakes killing adult heavyweight ducks.
Anything else you can think of?
Thanks,
smithmal
The ducks are kept secured in a 300 ft2 duck yard. The yard is completely enveloped with hardware cloth (1/2" x 1/2" from 0 - 4ft; 2' x 4' from 4ft up and all around ceiling of duck yard). The yard is kept locked with a heavy duty shackle lock at all times).
Possible causes:
1. Heat?
There was a heat advisory today, but
1. They had plenty of water
2. They had plenty of shade
My other ducks showed no sign of heat stress (panting, etc.).
2. Rat Snake?
About three weeks ago I found a large rat snake in the coop. I tried to coral it into a bucket so I could transfer it away from my property but it got away. My coop is on a raised platform 3' high off the ground. During the day, I would keep the coop open. Once I saw the snake, I stopped doing that as I'm sure it slithered up the ramp to gain access to the coop.
I'm wondering if maybe the rat snake killed my duck. It was a Silver Appleyard (heavyweight breed) about 1.5 years old. I'm thinking maybe the duck got cornered into the nesting box and was killed? I know rat snakes are constrictors and will go after ducklings, but I haven't found any stories about rat snakes killing adult heavyweight ducks.
Anything else you can think of?
Thanks,
smithmal