Ducks at night: how much protection?

[TexanDuckMama]

In Central Texas, We have 3 levels of yard for our 4 ducks and 1 goose:
1) YARD: the loosely fenced in area they range in during the day,
2) the KEEP: the 8'x16' fenced (2"x4" cattle fencing, dug in 2' in the ground) (the only thing I've seen sneak in a young possum, which they seem to co-exist with); has food, water and a small pool
3) the FORT: a raised wood coop that absolutely secure (draw bridge door with 2 sliding bolts, locked with carabiners), adequate ventilation, lots of hay.

we currently let them out of the wood FORT at sunrise, usually into the YARD all day, bring them back to the KEEP at sunset, and put them all up in the FORT when we go to bed.

I'm questioning now that they are full grown, do we need to keep putting them in the FORT?
We are thinking of going on vacation and getting someone to let the out at sunrise is difficult.
I've looked at automatic doors, but our door way is 23" wide by 28"wide as it should be with large chinese goose and 3 pekin hens (and 1 mallard boy) and none of the doors would easily fit that and frankly they are scary with crushing of ducks, etc.

Can I hear your opinions on how much security our small urban band of ducks with a controlling goose needs at night? We back onto a park in suburbia, we do have raccoons, foxes, possums, and the rare band of coyotes that roam the narrow strip of "forest" thru the park, which is what made us make our 3 tiered system.

 

[DukesDucks]

I think the only way they will be safe is in the fort at night. Lots of predators use the cover of night to their advantage. Is there anyway someone could come and let them into the keep in the morning and put them back in the fort at night?

 

[KaleIAm]

I think the only way they will be safe is in the fort at night. Lots of predators use the cover of night to their advantage. Is there anyway someone could come and let them into the keep in the morning and put them back in the fort at night?

x2

 

[3bird]

My run is also attached to the coop. I think run is predator proof. I do lock them in coop for the night but that is because of our freezing cold temperatures especially at night.
If your set up is like this, could someone let them out in the morning and in at night. You are going to need someone to come anyway to ensure they have food and water.

I'm assuming the OP is in Texas, so there should not be many times when the ducks would need to be locked in. We live in Maine, and I can count on one hand the number of times we've locked our guys in at night over the last three years. The seem to be pretty smart about making choices (e.g., in or out).

We do wrap three sides of our run in 6mm plastic, so they are out of the wind, but they'll be up partying in the run in the middle of the night even in a blizzard. lol

 

[Ratchnick]

A racoon can climb the fence and kill all you ducks in one night. You need to weight the hastle and cost of getting someone to manage the ducks vs the trauma of loosing them. Alternatively If you put wire on top of the run so nothing can climb the fence they are fairly safe. A racoon could still reach through and get one but hopefully not all of them.

 

[3bird]

I'm curious about The Keep. I'm assuming it doesn't have a roof? How did the possum make it in?

Our ducks have a covered run (our Keep) that is attached to their elevated duckhouse (our Fort). The run is predator proofed (we use a predator apron instead of digging down), so we don't lock them in at night.

You could cover the Keep with hardware cloth, add a hardware cloth apron and a predator proof roof. Then you would not have to lock them in.

I would NOT leave them in the The Keep at night as is.

 

[3bird]

The "Keep" area for my large adult ducks has 6-foot high chicken wire the whole way around it, with a door that is similarly high. We always lock them in the "keep" before it gets dark and don't let them out again until daylight. Some days (when we go away) they stay in the keep all day. There is no ceiling fencing, just open to the sky. The ducks always have access to a small coop with an open door, but they usually don't go in there. I agree with 3bird that the ducks seem pretty smart about deciding whether to go in or out.

During the months that they've survived in this set up, the following predators have been spotted in the neighborhood: bear, coyotes, bobcat, racoons, various birds of prey. When they were smaller I had a different, more protective set up, with a fenced ceiling. I've considered whether to hang chicken wire as a ceiling to keep out hawks etc now that they're adults, but I haven't done that and so far we've been lucky. I'm more or less of a newbie to poultry but that's my experience.

If I had your set up and I wanted to go on vacation, and I could only ask someone to come once a day or so to check on them, I'd do either A or B.
A: Make reinforcements (if needed) to the KEEP so that it will surely keep out any potential predators with enough certainty that you can safely leave them in there all night and day (and you can sleep at night without worrying about it). Test it out for a while before you leave on vacation.
B: While you're away, put the ducks in your basement, garage or secure shed, in a bunch of GIANT plastic bins with bedding, or some other type of indoor pen.

It would seem that having a goose would help your situation as well as the larger size of your Pekin ducks as compared to other breeds.

That hard thing about predators is that you don't have any until you do...and then you can lose a whole flock in short order. Some people are okay with that, and others are not. Each person needs to assess their own tolerance for risk and risk versus reward.

We choose to have a predator proof duckhouse attached to a predator proof run and give them access to both areas nearly all of the time. We both work from home, so we're usually here every morning and evening, but when we go on vacation, we hire a duck sitter to feed and water, collect eggs and clean-out 2/day. She also lets them run around a bit. There have been a few times when we are doing a long day trip and we miss either morning or evening. With our set-up, the ducks are fine as they have free choice feed and water in the predator proof run and access to the duckhouse.

For us, a predator proof run mean hardware cloth (not chicken wire) covering all the sides, a roof (either hardware cloth, a full wood or metal roof (we have a shingle roof) or some other solution for both birds of prey and climbing predators), a predator apron (or other solution for digging predators), and secure doors with snap links or some other racroon-proof locking mechanism. The duckhouse must also have hardware cloth on the windows. By that definition, I would not consider your Keep predator proof at this time, and we would personally not feel comfortable leaving our ducks in that setting. If you made the Keep predator proof, then that could certainly be a possible solution for a ducksitter who can only come 1x/day.

We would not go with option B.

Keep us posted!

 

[Aapomp831]

Yes. Absolutely in the fort.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ducks ib my experience are nearly as bad as quail when it comes to going to bed. They tend to just lay down where they are, or maybe under a bush if they feel like it

 

[DukesDucks]

Our ducks have a covered run (our Keep) that is attached to their elevated duckhouse (our Fort). The run is predator proofed (we use a predator apron instead of digging down), so we don't lock them in at night.

My run is also attached to the coop. I think run is predator proof. I do lock them in coop for the night but that is because of our freezing cold temperatures especially at night.
If your set up is like this, could someone let them out in the morning and in at night. You are going to need someone to come anyway to ensure they have food and water.