ducks too attached

[mfoth54]

I have 4 ducks who are all about 4 weeks old. they will not free range like i expected and they keep coming onto the driveway and porch. I personally dont mind it but my parents do. is there any way that i can keep them off without using fencing

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

4 weeks is too old to have them out alone. they still want to be with you as their mom all the time. my boy is almost two and still wants to be with me all the time.

 

[Sasha-chickens]

I have 4 ducks who are all about 4 weeks old. they will not free range like i expected and they keep coming onto the driveway and porch. I personally dont mind it but my parents do. is there any way that i can keep them off without using fencing

I don't think so. They will always want to be with you.

 

[KaleIAm]

Well mine are are 6.5 and 5.5 and they still think I should be outside with them all day! They are very important ducks, you see.

 

[333113]

Ducklings imprint on their mother (you) and their siblings. When you are out of sight, they do what all babies do, lay low to avoid being eaten by a predator before mom gets back.

Ducklings do grow out of this behavior in about 8 or so weeks, depending on the breed, in my experience.
Here is a good explanation of imprinting and its importance to baby poultry:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/psychology/psychology-and-psychiatry/imprinting

And an amazing story of imprinting, from both mother cat and baby duckling perspective:

Meanwhile, just like providing food and water and shelter, you will want to provide mom-like companionship, until they don't need it anymore. But it should make you happy that they will always be attached to you!

 

[ruthhope]

Well mine are are 6.5 and 5.5 and they still think I should be outside with them all day! They are very important ducks, you see.

i have a rescued muscovy that I hand reared for 6 weeks then I introduced two more rescued ducks that could not be released to the wild from a rehabber. They have been together now for 8+ weeks. initially living in a pen in my backbyard and then free ranging during the day a sleeping in the pen at night. When they are let out in the morning, they come straight to my patio and up the steps to look in my sliding doors. Two of these ducks have never been in my hous, but they love to spend their days looking inside. I think ducks are 1. sociable and 2. very nosy!!

My son has three Pekins that were brooded in his back bedroom and then allowed out to bath in his rear porch which is off his back bedroom, while they were small ducklings. They have bern outside living in a pen but free ranging during the day since they were 12 weeks old (for 4months now). If anyone mistakenly leaves his rear porch door open, those three ducks are straight inside sitting by the door to the back bedroom! My sons ducks ate convinced they are inside the house ducks and there has been a mistake leaving them in the back garden!!

We just have to get the hose out to clean up the poop from my back steps and patio, and my sons rear porch . We are as daft as out ducks.My niece however put up hardware cloth to atop her ducks coming up on her deck and back porch