Free range ducks

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Can you push toothpaste back into the tube?
After my ducks were unintentionally free ranging due to a deer damaging a fence they have acquired a taste for freedom. The more i try to contain them the more they try to get out.
Now i have most of my gates open and yes they do explore the big world outside occasionally, but most of the time they peacefully sit around the house and wait for the nice lady (wifie) to step out and then bug her for cat-food treats.
The only reliable source of drinking water they have are the waterers in the duck-house and the one close to the house, so if they are thirsty they have to come home.
I know that letting them free ranging means exposing them to predators, but guess what: The little drake we lost three weeks ago was killed less than 10 feet away from our house, so it isn't safer there than elsewhere.
And putting them into a fully enclosed pen will despair them to the point when they loose their will to live.
There's nothing more exciting than get your nostrils clogged up with compost, quacking off a deer, having a chat with the wild turkeys or waking up a wild pig and running away from it, screaming out of the tops of your lungs. (That pig and i we were were both laughing our a**es off…)

 

[FortCluck]

Can you push toothpaste back into the tube?
After my ducks were unintentionally free ranging due to a deer damaging a fence they have acquired a taste for freedom. The more i try to contain them the more they try to get out.
Now i have most of my gates open and yes they do explore the big world outside occasionally, but most of the time they peacefully sit around the house and wait for the nice lady (wifie) to step out and then bug her for cat-food treats.
The only reliable source of drinking water they have are the waterers in the duck-house and the one close to the house, so if they are thirsty they have to come home.
I know that letting them free ranging means exposing them to predators, but guess what: The little drake we lost three weeks ago was killed less than 10 feet away from our house, so it isn't safer there than elsewhere.
And putting them into a fully enclosed pen will despair them to the point when they loose their will to live.
There's nothing more exciting than get your nostrils clogged up with compost, quacking off a deer, having a chat with the wild turkeys or waking up a wild pig and running away from it, screaming out of the tops of your lungs. (That pig and i we were were both laughing our a**es off…)

They just keep getting out. My husband fixed the part of the fence where they were digging up underneath it and all they did was do it again.

It's the two females but not the Drake but we still want to separate them from the chickens because the Drake is getting pretty hormonal. I will just open up the kennel door during the day and they can go in at night.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Ok, so check this out. I just put my 2 young drakes and 2 young ducks (their sisters) in their own area because those young drakes didn't know how to act. I've got a 4' welded wire fence between the 2 runs and there is only maybe about 2 -2.5' between the top of that fence and the roof of the run which is all welded wire too.

Today I went out to give them their treat basins and in the young duck run there were only 3. I freaked out! WTHeck happened to Jonah the young f/w drake!!!

Well, I looked at the fence line and there he was in the other run! No breaches in the fencing at all. I looked all over and I'm thinking the only way he could have got over that fence is by flying. It's an Indian runner!

So, I put him back in the other run where he belongs and a few hours later he's back in that other run!

I can't get wifi out there because it's too far from the house and if I put my deer cam out there it would take about a million pictures because it's triggered from the action of the motion. I don't know how he's getting in there!

My Indian Runners are able to jump a six foot fence with ease!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They just keep getting out. My husband fixed the part of the fence where they were digging up underneath it and all they did was do it again.

It's the two females but not the Drake but we still want to separate them from the chickens because the Drake is getting pretty hormonal. I will just open up the kennel door during the day and they can go in at night.

In the end my duck were crawling under the patio to get out at the other side to escape! That's when i realized i'm breaking them if i don't let them go. They take a "business trip" once or twice a week, mostly up the hill to the barn where the drainage ditch is full of frog/toad eggs, tadpoles, mating frogs and toads…
I know sooner or later there will be another loss, but they want their freedom so bad!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They're sticking their bills underneath and pulling up the fencing

That is exactly what Erpelchen was doing last summer to let the girls into my tomato patch! He was even pulling the tent pegs out of the ground after it rained. That little rascal!

 

[FortCluck]

That is exactly what Erpelchen was doing last summer to let the girls into my tomato patch! He was even pulling the tent pegs out of the ground after it rained. That little rascal!

They are pushing logs and the landscape pins out My husband refuses to let any of our animals free range because he is scared that the neighbor's dog or something will get them. But I can always hatch more

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They are pushing logs and the landscape pins out My husband refuses to let any of our animals free range because he is scared that the neighbor's dog or something will get them. But I can always hatch more

In the end, Erpelchen was strong enough to rip the really cheap plastic fence to shreds to let his girls feast on the tomato plants. - I still don't know what to set up this year… Maybe a high voltage power line will keep them out…

 

[Miss Lydia]

Maybe when you have so many losing them to a predator doesn’t hurt so much, I’d would be devastated if one of mine got killed. After my little Rooster got killed last summer by a hawk and what a gruesome sight that was, that tiny roo put up a fight. I have the top part of my flocks property blocked off since the trees are all bare. They can go up when I am with them. I like my birds to have freedom and live as close to natural as possible but I am still going to do all I can to protect them. This is just my decision.

 

[FortCluck]

In the end, Erpelchen was strong enough to rip the really cheap plastic fence to shreds to let his girls feast on the tomato plants. - I still don't know what to set up this year… Maybe a high voltage power line will keep them out…

Mine are in the dog kennel. It's 30x40 definitely big enough for 3 ducks.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Maybe when you have so many losing them to a predator doesn’t hurt so much, I’d would be devastated if one of mine got killed. After my little Rooster got killed last summer by a hawk and what a gruesome sight that was, that tiny roo put up a fight. I have the top part of my flocks property blocked off since the trees are all bare. They can go up when I am with them. I like my birds to have freedom and live as close to natural as possible but I am still going to do all I can to protect them. This is just my decision.

Believe me, loosing a duck out of 29 does hurt as much as loosing one out of 6! - I am still mad at that hawk!
I barely knew that little drake, never had a chance to bond with him because he was one of the neighbor's ducklings but seeing his sister being so sad was a sting into my heart. And i can't imagine how it will feel when one of my better known ducks… Just thinking about this gives me the creeps.
They have explored such a large area of my property, it is impossible to even fence that in. Imagine fencing in ~3 acres of partially steep hill site. I mean steep! The ducks can only go down there and they're not really "going", more like sliding, sometimes rolling downhill. The labor cost of building a fence there would be astronomical.
And they enjoy their freedom so much! Today while i was cleaning the duck-house, i had the poop-door open and Blanca stuck her head inside and said "Hi!", then went back to digging at mount compost.
They are already upset with me because i have closed the gates to one of their pastures where i have sown alfalfa, wheat, rye and oats.
Maybe quantity is less of a value for them than quality? - Like in Freedom is not for free.