Ducks on the Loose!

[EdgewaterDucks]

So, for two years, my 4 adult ducks (Welshies) have made their happy home in my backyard in a semi-urban environment. They've got food, water, a pond, and a kiddie pool. Nice hay in a protected spot under the deck. They never wanted to leave. Three days ago, I let them roam in the front yard for something different while I was watering the grass. They discover my neighbor's bushes, which have a plethora of yummy bugs in the soil underneath. All of a sudden, they're escape artists.

Yesterday at work, another neighbor called to say the ducks were out in the front, though the gate to the back was closed. He rounded them back up. I went home and put some blockades under the gate, the went back to work.

Today, a different neighbor called my office at 10 in the morning to say the ducks were in the front again! She rounded them up into the back yard. I went back home again (a 45 minute commute), only to find them in the neighbors bushes when I arrived. Turns out on the side fence on the other side of my house was a gap on the bottom the ducks must have gotten through. I put barriers and that and went back to work, where I am right now (on lunch break).

So I guess what I'm asking is if anyone has experience with their ducks shimmying under a gap you wouldn't have thought they could fit through. I have pictures of what the today's gap was, and the temporary blockade I've put up (I'll do a permanent one this weekend). They've been hardly any trouble for the 2 years I've had them, now all of a sudden, I'm missing work and my neighbors are probably thinking things are out of control. Are they right?

 

[Skye'sDucks]

I only have Muscovy ducks, so maybe someone else can help you more, but I know my scovy adult female would be able to squeeze under there. I've seen her squeeze into some pretty tight spaces I wouldn't have thought she'd ever be able to get through!

To give a rough estimate, when we were letting her hatch a nest, we sealed off a part of their coop so that my drake wouldn't get to the eggs and leave her alone (before they were separated during the night). We left her a gap, but instead she decided to squeeze past the pvc pipe supporting the roof and the wall, and we sealed off the gap and let her go through that way instead. I'd say that little gap was at least as tight as that gap under your fence, but I'm pretty certain it was much smaller.

Again, that's a muscovy though, and aren't they smaller than welshies? I wouldn't know though.