Free Ranging Ducks, New to the Idea

[perseus]

Bought a house on nine acres of land that includes two ponds joined by a man-made canal between them. The large pond is about 0.7 acres and is 5-6' deep at its deepest part. The small pond is circular, about 60' in diameter but a good 11 feet deep. The ponds are regularly visited by ducks in both the fall and winter and an occasional blue heron. The ponds have typical Maine forest on the south side, a low-traffic dirt road with tree line to the west, my driveway to the north, and my large lawn to the east. The ponds are full of various of various fishes including various perch. Lots of frogs, and minnows regularly schooling around the edges. There's quite a lot of pond weed throughout.

I'm thinking about getting ducks, as there seems to be plenty of room for them on these two nice ponds. Wild ducks visit these ponds pretty regularly during migration, but do not stay throughout the year.

Trouble is, the coyote and fox population is pretty high here. I'd love to free range these ducks on the pond and build them a place to stay in the night, etc., but I"m just wondering how safe it is to put a couple dozen ducks out on an old farm pond along the woods.

Just looking for any advice about shelter, fencing, free ranging. What opinions might you have?

Thank you.

 

[Aeropennchick]

Hello and

from southern PA!

What you are describing sounds like a duck paradise, but the risk of predation, as you are aware, is high. If you got the ducks a very secure coop and pen, and allowed them to free range with supervision, that would probably be the safest bet. If you get a good dog, the risk would be even less.

You could go with just a secure coop, but as they will be pets and not wild ducks, you will want to be able to catch them and deal with illnesses and things, and a pen will make that a lot easier.

 

[jamband]

I 2nd the dog but a good night coop, maybe with a hotwire on it, should work good. Look into breeds and try to decide who might be more adept at excaping or avoiding predation. For example my Muscovy just fly rooftop when a dog comes around. But Maine might be cold for muscovy??

 

[veronicasmom]

My muscovies did fine this winter in Maine. They can, however, get out of the elements when they want, have heated water and a lot of straw to hunker down in at night. I feed them well too

 

[Oregon Blues]

Since lots of creatures love to eat duck, you will have losses if you free range. Some people think that it is acceptable to have percentage of their birds killed, some people don't. It's your choice.

Wild ducks are good flyers and they still get eaten by predators. Domestic ducks, who can not fly, don't have a chance. Being out on the lake won't save them. Many types of predators swim.

If you've got lakes, you will have a difficult time getting ducks back into a safe coop at night.