ducks off grass?

[wackwack]

do they need to be on grass?
it will be frozen solid pretty soon anyway.......and i was thinking of moving them to an unused dog run beside the house for the winter, that way they have 10 foot fence that means i dont have to lock them in at night, or at least not so early. they put themselves in their house at dark, but i worry they are locked in so long now, from 5pm to 8am, but soon it will be dark by 4pm.....
the run is big, as much space as they have now, and i would cover it with netting too, nothing can get in or out, i was thinking i could put in a bigger home made house without an actual door as they will have very good shelter, that way they can have access to their pool and food/water 24/7 and they will be right beside the house so i can spend more time with them and have less predators sniffing around as the dogs would be beside them. i would put up mesh between them tho so the dogs dont annoy the ducks and vice versa
but, the run has stone, it is a bit over grown so i would pull up all the weeds etc first but its maybe 2 or 3 inch stome, pretty well trampled, i was going to put in a rubber mat in their house, but do you thin their feet will get sore on the stone? could i put in some sand on top? that wouldnt be as easy to hose out tho, or maybe just add some sand and pea gravel so that it is softer under foot? either way it will all be frozen over soon, so i dont know that it matters......
what do you think? that way, when the weather improves they can either move back onto the grass run or else i might be able to move the dog run so it backs up to their current grass area and make a duck tunnel.... the grass area is raised about 3 foot above the dog run floor, would they use a big enough unnel, with a ramp sorta system that i can then close the tunnel at night and nothing can get itno the dog run side?????????

my main question is the stone, sorry its so long, i cant half type/talk

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
Mine will not have grass soon either, it will be frozen and covered in ice or snow. They seem to make it just fine,. as for having them closer to the house where they can be out longer is up to you, you know the predator situation best and if you think they will be better protected then by all means move them, covering the top will help with that also, just remember alot of preds can get through chicken wire and netting. so make it secure. and dig under too. Ducks are very hardy and do very well in cold weather as long as they have a place to get out of the strong wind.

 

[wackwack]

ya its not so much the weather i want to get them away from......
if i move them to the dog run they will be out 24/7 but have the option to go in their hut wcich will be beside the house and very well sheltered....
the dog run is on stone as that is all around the house, it would take any animal days to dig under and i would notice that, i could also cover the pool area with some tarp to keep the snow off the pool! the sides are made of galvanised metal mesh stuff with chicken wire over that too, and a extra layer of builders blocks along the outside bottom, just in case, (when my dogs were pups they were duckling size!!) nothing would get in there
currently their run is also covered in netting but is made of chicken wire and garden netting but the rats have got in already...and it is buried and pinned down, so i dont know that it will keep a very hungry fox out...and last year the foxes were very hungry and even up beside the dog runs looking for food......so i am worried for my wacks...tho, out there they will HAVE to be locked up at dark, but one day this week it was already pitch dark and they were in their house with the door open when i got there as i was really running late with all the horses, if a fox had managed to get in there the poor wacks were basically already cornered for the fox....

i think for peace of mind i want to move them, i am getting very attached to my ducks and must protect them.....but i am just not sure about the stone, if they have some rubber mat and maybe an area of sand, that way they have the options of different surfaces and i guess they will let me know soon enough, the stone is not sharp nor has it got gaps for feet to get stuck, but thats not to say if a stone gets disturbed it wont be sticking up.......

 

[Amiga]

I got rid of my lawn before I got ducks. There are little patches here and there between gardens and meadow and woods, but no big grassy expanses. The ducks seem fine with that. In fact, their favorite place is the woods, where they noodle under the leaves. The trees seem to protect the soil from frost for quite a while. I have some places where I place straw down when we have snow, too.