Experiences with ducks and streams

EdgeofAsheville

Songster
Sep 12, 2021
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We have a pair of young harlequin ducks. We’ve had them for a couple months. They have a little house and a fenced yard to hang out in. We also have a small ankle to knee deep stream running in the back of our property. We let them go for a swim once a day for a couple hours and then we corral them back in to their own pen after their swim. Recently, I’ve been wondering if they could just free range like our chickens and come back to their pen on their own.
Today we let them go and they went pretty much straight to the stream and hours later I ended up having to trudge down stream quite a ways before I found them and guided them back.
I’m wondering if others have experience with ducks living on a stream. Is it unrealistic to expect them to hang around the yard with the chickens and stay close to home? If they are still teen ducks, is it possible they will in time return home?
Thanks for your input and wisdom!
 

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Ducks do like repetition and might return home after months of you getting them. However, more than likely you will lose your ducks. They just don’t care about a coop like chickens do. I gave a friend four if my ducklings last year. She let them swim in a creek that led to a river. Two are still are still alive, living wild on that river.
 
We have a mountain river down below us That is how I met my first Muscovy, but I can tell you I won't let my birds go down to the river it's not big and wide but the water is flowing and I know from my experience with these Muscovy they will be downstream in no time. Only plus these Muscovy had was they could fly so they would come back down to my part of the river. My Runners and Buffs would not be able to make it back if they kept on traveling downstream.
@EdgeofAsheville I live North of Asheville NC. :)
:welcome

you could try fencing off across the stream so they can only go so far?
 
We have a mountain river down below us That is how I met my first Muscovy, but I can tell you I won't let my birds go down to the river it's not big and wide but the water is flowing and I know from my experience with these Muscovy they will be downstream in no time. Only plus these Muscovy had was they could fly so they would come back down to my part of the river. My Runners and Buffs would not be able to make it back if they kept on traveling downstream.
@EdgeofAsheville I live North of Asheville NC. :)
:welcome

you could try fencing off across the stream so they can only go so far?
Yeah, I suggested that to my husband. We could create a little soft mesh fence across the stream. Our ducks are flightless.
 
Sometimes on a rare day they return to land (or the pen) by themselves, but I never count on it. Waterfowl just love water. If there is a day when I know that we won't be able to herd them out of the stream before dusk (due our schedule or the water being too high for us to safely walk in it) then we don't let them free range that day. Even in cold weather, they still love to swim, so on those days we wear hip waders to herd them out of the stream. You can increase their cooperation by consistently feeding them the bigger meal of the day when they return, and by having a consistent routine as to the times of day when you let them out and bring them back. But it's not foolproof. Getting ducks out of the stream and into their pen is kind of like getting kids off of a playground and into the car. They rarely initiate it themselves. At least that's my experience. Your ducks are beautiful btw.
 

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