duck killed

[mouse]

Quote:
I am so sorry for what happened to your duck. Raccoons are indeed vicious beasts.

 

[mouse]

Also, there was blood on the walls at least four to five feet from the door, which indicates that it didn't happen by someone reaching under the door and somehow grabbing both ducks.

I've been reading on the chicken part of this forum, and I'm thinking weasel.

 

[Amiga]

Very sorry to hear of your loss.

Can you borrow some kind of camera and light to train onto the duckhouse? You might get a picture since often predators return. Or, you could sprinkle DE around the house and check for prints. Whatever did the deed, is likely to come back.

Meanwhile, I just don't think a duck would kill a drake like that. I have never heard of it.

And not to beat the raccoon story to death, but raccoon "hands" are thin and strong. Ducks can be a preferred prey, of any animal. They are considered by some to be much easier to grab than chickens.

I don't mean to be gruesome, but was there any trail of blood or feathers? If it went into a hole nearby that would be a clue.

You have probably already done this, but fix the door so that there is no gap anywhere, with pulling or not. And I would use half inch hardward cloth over windows or ventilation openings. Checking the flooring for places where plywood could be pushed up is another thought.

You may want to consider a layer of half inch hardward cloth secured to the floor. It doesn't last forever, but it does a good job for quite a while.

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote:
You've heard the expression "nibbled to death by ducks?" Surely you have been nibbled by a duck, so you know what the bill is like. True, the bill is rather abrasive, but hardly sharp enough for this kind of thing.

I'm sorry for your loss. I agree with all of the other posts that are pointing toward a clever predator. I swear, it seems like we think we have done all we possibly can, and some critter comes along and finds that one little weakness and exploits it. I can't be sure that Dumpling will be all "lovey dovey" with whatever other ducks you may get to keep her company, but I think you can be sure that she won't murder them. I wouldn't get a duckling, of course, because normal dominance behavior could be too rough for something that size, but a bird of comparable size should be safe enough.

 

[mouse]

Thanks everyone. There was no trail of feathers and blood. There was a little snow on the ground, so I checked for tracks, and there were none, but it wouldn't take much wind to cover the tracks of a small predator. As I said, I really don't think it was a raccoon, because the blood pattern showed the struggle to be more than halfway down the duck house from the door. The idea that it was a fight between the ducks came from the woman who breeds them, and there are agricultural journal articles about ducks killing and eating each other, but I am now convinced it was a weasel. In any event, if we can safeguard against a weasel, it will keep other predators out too.

Right now, the duck house isn't our major concern. Dumpling will stay inside with us until she is recuperated, and will not be outside until we have the entire duck house encased with hardware cloth.

Our immediate worry is the chickens, As I said, their house is old, with wood brittle from age. We need to enclose that with hardware cloth, which will be any undertaking because of its size (about 15' by 20') and the weather. We're going to have to remove all the wood bedding so that we can get hardware cloth down to cover the wood floor.

Agai, thank you all. I was up all night, reasing about poultry and predators, and I am worried sick for the girls. (The chickens.) I feel so awful that we didn't protect the ducks enough.

 

[bigdawg]

get a hav a heart live trap, bait with sardines, a honey bun something sweet. then you will find out for sure what the predator is place it right next to the coop it will come back and if it was the other duck that did the deed i am very sorry for your loss and disregard getting a trap. you sure dont want to attract any unwanted varmints