Free Ranging my Ducks

[Amiga]

I agree about the free ranging - it is impossible to know if your place has enough food to carry the flock.

And yes, to get zapped (I speak from experience!) there must be contact with the ground. Now, ground can be a ground wire or something metal driven into the ground as well. When we used electric fence, I had two strands. One at about 4 to 6 inches above the ground, and one about 2 feet above the ground.

 

[HomesteadDucks]

It is my understanding that electric fences will only work if the thing touching it is also touching the ground or a ground wire.
An electric wire at the top will do nothing to stop a fox/dog/etc jumping the fence if they don't have at least one foot on the ground.

Foxes, and I'm sure other things as well, investigate nose first. So a string or two of wire at the bottom would likely work better - zap to the nose while their feet are on the ground



as far as free ranging and not giving supplemental feed - weigh your ducks and try it for a while and see how it goes. If they are losing weight, then you need to add food.
My ducks free range after fox season. And they also get feed as well. We have 4 acres fenced. They stick to the closest 1/2 - 1 acre.

Thanks for telling me that. I wanted the wire at the top to prevent a fox from climbing over the fence. This is the setup I was planning on. If the fox still had it's feet on the metal fence itself (made from 6-foot tall horse fencing), which is buried one foot into the ground to prevent animals from digging under, could the wire then shock it? I was under the assumption that if the fence was in contact with the ground, it would be grounded, and anything in contact with the fence and the wire at the same time would be shocked. If not, I could lower the wire down closer to the ground. I just wouldn't want an animal to jump over it.
I have decided to let the ducks free range and experiment with feeding. I will start out feeding them each 1 cup per day (which is what I feed them now) and I will slowly decrease the amount of feed until they stop leaving extra food behind. I am also considering leaving food out 24/7 but I am worried about them overeating and/or rodents being attracted into the pen.

 

[Amiga]

The overeating is not real likely, I feel, if they are out foraging all day. I suspect that ducks who overeat may actually under exercise.

The rodent concern is real. Some folks set food out twice a day for a short time, then take up the food bowls. There are other ways - like having a relatively small feeding area enclosed in half inch metal hardware cloth to keep rodents out. Don't forget to put it across the bottom to prevent digging under.

If there is metal connected to the ground, it is a ground source and anything touching that and the hot wire will get shocked.