Ducks at night: how much protection?

[GardenDucks]

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.

 

[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!

 

[SolarDuck]

The "Keep" area for my large adult ducks has 6-foot high chicken wire the whole way around it

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.

Do you really mean chicken wire when you say chicken wire? Or do you mean some kind of sturdy hardware cloth? Some people don't know this but most predators can rip or bite straight through chicken wire so it is not good for a predator proofed area.