Do ducks go in their house at night?

[georgialee]

We just bought a new piece of land and have a (shallow) pond on it that seems to stay wet pretty much year round. I can already forsee major mosquito problems -- the number of larvae swimming around in there is insane!

So... I told DH we need ducks, lol. Will they go into their house to be locked up at night like chickens do??? I'm not comfortable leaving them out since the pond is on the edge of our woods.

Thanks

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Mine go in every night but with a pond I'm afraid they may want to stay out all night on it. Certain breeds would probably work better than others. Just not sure which.

 

[tomingreeneco]

We have a pond that our ducks go into every day. We "lure" them into their coop at dusk with a treat of cherry tomatoes. We only give them this treat if they are inside the coop. Works every time.

 

[georgialee]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Suzie]

We have a mill pond here and all of our ducks (Runners/Muscovy's) come in at night, .... I have always given them feed at night when they come home and have never had a problem - they come by my calling their individual names or they are already waiting to be let in - if I am not in the stable area (where they stay at night) they quack loudly to let me know that they are ready to be let into their home.

I am always relieved to see most of them waiting - it takes ages to call them in of any are missing - so many names.... my friends are amazed when they come waddling/running home to my calling them... Rossi, Stripes, Cyril, Elvis, Julia, Duckles, Bonnie, Clyde etc.....

I think in future I may call out a,b,c,d,e etc.....

 

[TLWR]

With the staining of the deck, I still have the ducks blocked off (to keep the poop off the deck and not scrub each time i do something). I remove the "blocked off" right before dark and then wait for them to come up stairs. It starts to get dark and the girls climb the stairs, chatter to let me know they are there, and then I go out and tell them it is bedtime and they climb into their house (currently on wheels to make it easier to move on the dekc without dragging it and messing up the fresh stain until it "sets").
SO yep, they go to bed on their own, they just need me to go out and close them in!

They were trained to do that though. They know the routine.