Foiling the escape artist - help!

[allergymama]

We have a Rouen duck who has tried several times to have a nest. Last ones she sat on for 40 days before we moved her and them (we just fenced her all in). She is 2 years old. The last couple of weeks, she is escaping the fence - every. single. day. We re-fenced the duck area with taller fence. Then, we thought she was getting under it, so we put staked it down all the way around and put rocks in an areas that looked questionable. But, still every single day, multiple times per day, we have to catch her and put her back in. She never goes anywhere, I don't think she wants to get too far from her friends. We have not been able to figure it out, no matter how long we watched, she always did it when our back was turned (and I am convinced that she is laying another clutch somewhere on our 10 acres).

Well, yesterday, I saw her. She CLIMBED THE FENCE. I watched her flap her wings, and then use her beak and feet to actually climb the 40" chicken wire fence and get out. I was dumbfounded. So, short of putting a 10 foot high fence around her (which might not help anyway!), I am wondering if we trim her flight feathers if this might keep her in? What do you all think?

I am worried because at some point she is going to go hang with her eggs and we won't be able to lock her in the pen at night with everyone else (their "day" area is what she is escaping from) and we have a lot of hawks, coyotes, eagles, mink, etc., in the area.

 

[MeepBeep]

How big of an area, can you drape bird netting over it?

If you are worried about predators when she is sitting move the nest to a secure location and confine her to that location...

 

[allergymama]

How big of an area, can you drape bird netting over it?

If you are worried about predators when she is sitting move the nest to a secure location and confine her to that location...

Their "day" yard is probably 200/250 feet by 50/70 feet. I could confine her, but I think it means confining her permanently...she is always trying to nest somewhere (which is why we fenced her and her nest last year, after 3 failed nesting attempts outside of what we considered someplace "relatively" safe). Plus, she has two special friends (she's a rescue) that she came in with and NO ONE is happy when she's outside the fence. I'm going to have the kids track her on Saturday morning and see where she is going...perhaps if we disturb the nest she will quit trying to go out. We have also tried building her a special nesting box and putting it where she likes to lay and leaving eggs in it...but can I say that we should have named her Booger? Because she is one...she refuses to be at all helpful. LOL)

I am at a loss as to what to do with her...

 

[Duck Drover]

We clip the wings on our ducks and you can't even tell when they are folded. If we didn't they can fly too well. We have seen them fly over the house when we missed a few during duck roundup. It does not hurt them at all.

Your other option is to put netting over the pen. We use bird netting over our open rabbit pens and obviously it is not to keep the rabbits from flying away, lol. We had a crow take a baby bunny (eyes open) out of the pen and then decapitate it on our roof faster than we could get a ladder to get it away from the crow. Now we use netting when we have bunnies to keep them safe. We raise our baby birds indoors until they are big enough to run under cover from the crows. Some netting is stronger to withstand predatory birds so it should work for a determined duck.

Around here you can pick up used fishing nets but that is heavier than what we need for crows. Woven wire or chicken wire could also do the job but it is more costly.

 

[allergymama]

It sounds like it's worth a try to clip her wings anyway. On to YouTube I go. Lol