ducks wont go up chicken ramp

[brookecoast]

I have two pekin ducks and two khaki campbells and i have to go pick them up every night and put them into the coop. the khakis will go up the ramp on their own but not until the pekins are in the coop. any ideas?

 

[nettie]

can they go past the ramp? like under the house, or is the ramp the only way for them to go? if it is the only way, use a nice big all stick (like a dowel rod) and herd them in there. I have indoor ducks, and we often have to use a broom to herd the ducks in and out of their pen.

 

[brookecoast]

They can go past the ramp and right under the coop unfortunately. why are the chickens motivated to go right in same time every night but the ducks aren't? when i go to put them in they are hanging out by the ramp waiting for me like they want to go to bed. why won't they walk up the stupid ramp!?

 

[nettie]

one word for you- TREATS! use peas to entice them up the ramp and then throw some in the coop for them to scramble to get to. I used peas to teach my ducks to use the ramps in their old house and now they are fine going up and down (I have one who'll take 5 minutes coming down taking very careful steps while others practically fly down falling off the ramp lol.)

they just need some yummy green motivation thats all. ducks hate change, but once they have the routine down, they will follow it.

 

[gofasterstripe]

Hows steep is the ramp?
My ducks have to go up a flight of 4 stairs to get into their duck house and I built them a ramp to use. They hated it and would slide back down...and it wasnt steep either. They soon learned to walk up the 4 inches of step I left for me to go up and down and I took the ramp away in the end. The go up and down the stairs no probs, but they hated that ramp

 

[duck_shepherdess]

Sounds like your birds have taught their human a neat trick; stand by the coop at night and get a free ride to the top.

My duck book assures me that with a combination of setting up a "funnel" to get them to the ramp, and a little bit of patience (and maybe some peas?) they can be trained to go up the ramp just as easily as you can be trained to pick them up and put them in their coop.

 

[bibkel]

Peas are a great idea! I will be moving mine to the mansion soon after I evict them from the apartment/shed. The mansion is almost done with renovations!

I was going to take their current bed, a 5' pool and simply move it into the mansion. I will use peas to entice them now.

Mine do the same thing, they watch the chickens parade in and find various perches either on top of the cage or inside where I put perches. I used a very rough ramp with little steps (kinda of like that book Ping when I was a kid) but now I have a baby step and that is it. Some are smart enough to realize that makes it easier to hop into the pool and other scramble over the side, or fly in. Once someone started to lay an egg every day I added a big rubbermaid container laying on it's side (in the hopes that the egg will be laid there and not trampled on, but they lay whereever anyway) and they wanted NOTHING to do with the pool with that THING in there. So it took me and one kid to funnel them into the apartment, here we are a little over a week later and I am still funneling and picking up and placing ducks..at least I can funnel alone now.

Yup, I am trained well.LOL. I will try peas tonight.