Finally rounded up!

I hope you locked them up tight in their house. Raccoons will swim too. They really need to be locked in a secure house at night that is when most predators are roaming around looking for an easy meal. How could a Pekin escape there isn't any way. They can't fly or run fast and swimming means nothing to coons or coyotes or foxes just to name a few. Leaving them out to chose what they want is a death sentence. Hardware cloth securely attached up 3' all around the run and top and a skirt going out 2' from outside of the run will protect your ducks. They need our protection.

How did they do last night?@Imquackingup
They did ok last night but they are quite upset being "cooped"up. They didnt eat this morning still nervous. Its snowing now, they're just looking up at it like ***. Lol. Another scare showed up this morning, when i went out to open the coop i saw 2 mongoose type things running along the bank of the pond. "now I know what gets the baby geese in the spring and summer. Last year we went from 13 babies down to 1. :( This is really stressing me out, stayed home from work today cuz of being up half the night. This city girl could never handle farm living .lol
 
They did ok last night but they are quite upset being "cooped"up. They didnt eat this morning still nervous. Its snowing now, they're just looking up at it like ***. Lol. Another scare showed up this morning, when i went out to open the coop i saw 2 mongoose type things running along the bank of the pond. "now I know what gets the baby geese in the spring and summer. Last year we went from 13 babies down to 1. :( This is really stressing me out, stayed home from work today cuz of being up half the night. This city girl could never handle farm living .lol
Oh you poor thing. Probably mink depending on what part of the country your in. Marten and weasel all the same family and will kill our birds. They will def eat ducklings and goslings and kill adults too. Good thing you have them locked up and they will get use to it it's for their protection too so just know your doing the right thing. They won't starve to death just give them time. Also snapping turtle will take baby water fowl and also bite chunks our of adults feet too. So in spring you might want to rid your pond of snappers.
 
How close is the ducks setup to your house? Moving them close to your house will help, predators generally don't want to get too close to people. I'm glad to hear they made it safely through the night. Mine love eating snow and dabbling in it, yours may have a great time in it as well once they figure out what it is.

They're probably going to be stressed for awhile but they'll settle down. Do you have a little tub or pool for them in their enclosure? What are you feeding them?
 
How close is the ducks setup to your house? Moving them close to your house will help, predators generally don't want to get too close to people. I'm glad to hear they made it safely through the night. Mine love eating snow and dabbling in it, yours may have a great time in it as well once they figure out what it is.

They're probably going to be stressed for awhile but they'll settle down. Do you have a little tub or pool for them in their enclosure? What are you feeding them?
That's a good idea about having their house and pen close to your house. All my flocks houses are right here next to our home. My dogs are really good at keeping anything from coming close. They don't live with the birds but their barking lets us know if anything is close.
 
How close is the ducks setup to your house? Moving them close to your house will help, predators generally don't want to get too close to people. I'm glad to hear they made it safely through the night. Mine love eating snow and dabbling in it, yours may have a great time in it as well once they figure out what it is.

They're probably going to be stressed for awhile but they'll settle down. Do you have a little tub or pool for them in their enclosure? What are you feeding them?
The setup is about 100 ft from the house. Can't really move them much closer because of my mom's dog needing to go out in he yard.The area that we rounded them up into is big enough for a baby pool but I only have a 2ft fencing around it and am worried that they can break through or over it as my husband forgot it was there last night and fell into it. Is 2ft high enough if its pulled tight? I'm having a hard time convincing him to spend more money on this whole thing.We're already into it for over $600.00 with the pen,coop lighting and food. We bought chicken feed a while back and they loved it but the stuff we've bought since, they wont touch.The get cracked corn, chicken scratch,and dog food.(the dog food is their favorite, cuz it floats and thats how I fed them in the water). Everyday I cut up either grapes,tomatoes or bananas that they all like. I've tried different greens and peas but they wont touch them. They just have a large bowl for water inside the pen. but one is always standing in it so the others cant get to it.Do they need a pool to bathe everyday? How long can they go without water to swim in?
 
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The setup is about 100 ft from the house. Can't really move them much closer because of my mom's dog needing to go out in he yard.The area that we rounded them up into is big enough for a baby pool but I only have a 2ft fencing around it and am worried that they can break through or over it as my husband forgot it was there last night and fell into it. Is 2ft high enough if its pulled tight? I'm having a hard time convincing him to spend more money on this whole thing.We're already into it for over $600.00 with the pen,coop lighting and food. We bought chicken feed a while back and they loved it but the stuff we've bought since, they wont touch.The get cracked corn, chicken scratch,and dog food.(the dog food is their favorite, cuz it floats and thats how I fed them in the water). Everyday I cut up either grapes,tomatoes or bananas that they all like. I've tried different greens and peas but they wont touch them. They just have a large bowl for water inside the pen. but one is always standing in it so the others cant get to it.Do they need a pool to bathe everyday? How long can they go without water to swim in?
Mine sometimes have to go a month in winter with out a real bath they can splash the water out of their buckets real good though and manage to bathe that way.
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2' would probably keep your Pekins in but not the preds out. Most Pekins are pretty hefty.

My ducks love dog kibble too. They get it as a snack along with corn and dried meal worms.
 
It sounds like you have all your bases covered for sure! Mine can get dramatic when they're "deprived" of water- right now they have a 6 quart bucket of water but not their pool, because I don't want to deal with tons of ice. They acted pretty dramatic when I took away their pool, but they'll survive. Are yours settling in and eating now? It's nice of you to take care of them, especially when it means missing a day of work.
 
It sounds like you have all your bases covered for sure! Mine can get dramatic when they're "deprived" of water- right now they have a 6 quart bucket of water but not their pool, because I don't want to deal with tons of ice. They acted pretty dramatic when I took away their pool, but they'll survive. Are yours settling in and eating now? It's nice of you to take care of them, especially when it means missing a day of work.
They ate a little bit today. There are 4 mallards that kept coming up to their pen like" Hey whatcha doin in there?" The Pekings just keep honking and watching the others roam about.I put a pool in the outer pen but they are scared of it ,I actually picked one up and put him in there so they knew what it was and he freaked out like he'd never felt water before. Lol I can't win. We've gotten about 4 inches of snow and I sure thought the pond would be frozen by now but I guess the mallards and 2 geese swimming around are helping it.I really think if it freezes it'll help them realize they're better off where they are.Also can you give any advice on how to feed them without them spilling food everywhere for predators to forage?
 

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