Ducks nighttime predation and roosting behavior

[mrjd1981]

Hello,

Looking for some input here. We started out with two pekin's turned out to both be male, about a month ago we lost one overnight.......which encouraged me to redouble my efforts on their pond construction. The idea was to put their house on an island in the middle, and big enough to discourage jumping to it. The pond is about 50' in dia, and the island is maybe 5-7ft in dia.

Even if a mammal (Fox,coyote) managed to jump the water to the island there is two openings on the duck house allowing the ducks to escape to the water.

All of this seems logical in my mind however there is one huge hitch...........The ducks refuse to stay in the house, on the island, or even in the water overnight. Unfortunately this led to another loss of one of our newer pekins'.

What I need advise on is.

Is my method flawed, Is there no choice but to lock them up every night?
Will ducks just not roost themselves in general even when trained from young age?
Is it a breed specific issue, do pekin's not roost, Where muscovy's or kahki's will?

Should we consider geese or a bigger bird to discourage predation if we intend to let them free range on a large pond?

Thanks in advance

JD

 

[sourland]

In my experience both ducks and geese prefer to sleep in the open. One solution would be to build a secure, covered 'night pen' and lock them up each evening. They could be trained to enter the pen each evening with the use of feed. Even if they were to sleep on the island they would still be vulnerable to attack by great horned owls.

 

[mrjd1981]

Sounds like a good idea, pond is finally finished. Rented a excavator and borrowed neighbors bobcat to clean up. Looks rough right now but think it will turn out nicely after plants are in and grass grows back.

Right now the two remaining ducks are working with me, i can herd them into the island house, but issue is once the pond fills I have no way to cross over to lock them in. I'm thinking of making a draw bridge.

Here's a video of the progress. The groundwater has already doubled the amount of water that was in this video.

https://goo.gl/photos/DGh34pJzKGHpWLM29

 

[Amiga]

Kayak?

Waders?

I am impressed with earthworks anyway. Very neat job there!