free ranging mallards

[barb040203]

So I was thinking about free ranging my mallards I have 1 acre of fenced in yard and I would love to let them roam during the day and put them in a coop at night, is it a good idea? Should I clip their wings? I'm just worried that they might fly out and get lost or fly to a neighbor's yard they all have dogs. I worry about my babies lol there are also a lot of neighborhood cats that I don't ever see in our yard and they never go to the duck area that I have now sorry for all the questions just a worry wart lol

 

[Miss Lydia]

So I was thinking about free ranging my mallards I have 1 acre of fenced in yard and I would love to let them roam during the day and put them in a coop at night, is it a good idea? Should I clip their wings? I'm just worried that they might fly out and get lost or fly to a neighbor's yard they all have dogs. I worry about my babies lol there are also a lot of neighborhood cats that I don't ever see in our yard and they never go to the duck area that I have now sorry for all the questions just a worry wart lol

Free ranging comes with it's own set of problems, mostly ducks that like to fly flying off and getting lost or flying into neighbors yards with dogs like you said, so wing clipping would be one option, but then again you have to consider land predators, what do you have that would love duck dinner? Do you want your Mallards to be able to fly if a land predator was after them? things to take into consideration. Alot of us free range and weigh the pros and cons before hand and do realize there can be losses with it. This is a decision you have to make. I use to free range daily but now only when I can be outside with them since our hawk and land pred situation has grown.

 

[barb040203]

I definitely got to Do some thinking cause I don't want to lose any of them :-\ thank u for your advice

 

[Miss Lydia]

I definitely got to Do some thinking cause I don't want to lose any of them :-\ thank u for your advice

We spent quite a bit of money fencing in about 1/2 acre of our property so ours could have alot more freedom when we can't be watching them outside of the fence. That's not always an option with folks though. But I will say in all the years I free ranged before fencing I never lost a duck and that's been 10yrs now, but I never left them out when I wasn't able to be home at all either. And I have flyers[Muscovy] so I do clip one wing each year on all my birds except my old ones. I did lose some chickens when I free ranged all the time though. forgot to say

 

[barb040203]

We were just going to fence in another section bigger then what they have now then we got the idea of free range, but I don't know yet thanks for your help