Free range ducks- How far do they roam?

[MWHITLEY]

Looking to hear from anyone who lets their ducks out daily, how far do you find them roaming? We have 20 acres, a little over half irrigated in the summer months. I won't mind them traveling out to spend time in the sprinklers, but I am concerned with how far they might go from the relative safety of home. Plus they would be pretty exposed out there in the pastures.

 

[Blondiega1]

I live in the middle of 80 acres with a 5 acre lake.
Mine 8 pekins are on the lake all day.
They may come up in to the yard, but they don't go more than 20 feet at from the lake.
They either stay in the water or right at the water's edge mostly.

 

[Quack Addict]

Same experience here. We have fifty acres with a 2.5 acre pond. Ducks don't get more that forty feet from the pond ever. Pekins and Welshies.

 

[jdywntr]

We are on 5 acres with an additional 7 attached and unoocupied. My Muscovy range about 300' from the coop. That's where the creek is and they spend most of their day in the woods surrounding the creek. My chickens will go further than the ducks but I think if the creek was further, they would go further.

Most of the property is pasture, which is now overgrown. The birds, chickens and ducks, used to range out there but as it started getting overgrown, I started losing chickens to predators. Hawks and coyotes.

 

[Grassman 52]

I have ducks without a pond and they still stay very close to the kiddy pools and their shed (within 200 feet)

 

[Going Quackers]

Good question! They travel quite a few acres, they do not go into the back field that is only cut periodically, so the grasses are several feet high. We actually cut a fairly large portion of the grasses here, so that tends to attract them to travel further out. They do go quite the distances considering and no there is not a pond but we do have areas of low laying water...

They all return to the barn area by dusk however... now with it being winter & deep snow i rarely let them out to free range.

 

[TLWR]

We have 6 acres. The back 4 are fenced, front 2 open.
Ducks hang out on the closest 3/4 acre near the house. But they get brave and escape the fenced yard and we find them out front now and again. And when we do, they have ALWAYS been at the front door (they leave evidence)!
The spot they get out will be fixed for good this weekend. And then they'll find another way out and we'll fix that one too.

 

[Iain Utah]

I have 9 acres, but my ducks only cover a couple of acres to get to the stream and ponds. They race to the stream in the morning when let out of coop. Then, run back to common area by coop where food and kiddy pool are and spend most of the day there. They put themselves up in coop in the evenings. They have a definite routine and it is very cute to watch them.

 

[JTate]

we have almost all Rouen ducks and 26 acres - they roam farther than I would like - often times across the street, so we have to constantly keep an eye on them and herd them back towards the pastures and paddock areas. They have plenty of food & water, a paddock area with kiddie pools and their barn, plus a pond but seem to love to free range. Might be the breed, but we also have a couple Blue Swedish, a Cayaga and they are roamers too! They are trained to come back in at 5 for locking up at night though - I just call them all and they come running up, and go in the barn. They may go in at dusk on their own, but I haven't been brave enough to test that as I don't want to have to hunt for ducks in low light. It would break my heart worrying if one or two were left out unsafe.

 

[MWHITLEY]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like they will just have supervised outings at least for the first while.