Getting ready to put the "kids" outside, help?!?

[USMCwifey]

Quote:
Thats a good idea! Because I feed my ducks in the morning and as soon as they see that red container they are right at the edge of the pen just waiting for me! If I start feeding them at night they will DEF come up for the night. They sure love their food, lol.

 

[animalpro24]

It is so nice to let them free run but if you don't have lots of trees around I would suggest keeping them in some kind of movable pen with a top cover when they are out if they are not full grown, but even then you have to be extra careful. We have lost a full grown male mallard to a Bald Eagal. I would strongly advise you keep them in a hut or coop at night without a run and with a door with a latch, coons can figure how to open or undo lots of stuff. Hope this helps. Good luck with finishing your coop.

 

[USMCwifey]

Quote:
The area we're keeping them, placing the coop, is actually surrounded by trees and kind of hidden form above. We're also gonna out them in at night and build a door on the coop to lock them up at night until the next morning. I wanna take every precaution so i don't loose any of my babies!

 

[Niss]

How did that work?

I moved my 3 nearly grown ducks and 9 little month+ olds to the new duck shack two days ago. The big ones were living with the chickens and the little ones came from in the basement. Last night I tried to lure them in with scrambled eggs and their feed, but it only worked for the small guys and I was stuck tring to wrangle the big kids by myself...I gave up with one still out side so I could run after a flashlight. I will pick up some better bribes, but I am sick of chasing ducks in circles and it does nothing for our relationship. Is it realistic that by the weekend they will be retrained to the new house?

 

[Luciesbuddys]

My ducks are just starting to get the idea that they have to go inside at night after 4 weeks of being out side. the first 2 weeks they were free range and we had to chase them in circles every night for about 45 min. We put up a temp chicken wire fence to keep them in one area till they are trained to go in at night. The chickens are easy they have been doing that since day one.

 

[Niss]

4 weeks?
Have mercy!!! I was alone last night, and can't tell you how stupid I felt chasing them around and around the coop!

 

[weebles&wobblesmom]

We are just starting to build our "outside" area. I have 9 ducklings and 31 chicks. 1 duckling is 2 months (and basically living in my bathroom), 1 is a month old and 7 are 3 weeks. The younger ones are living in our Great Danes dog cage in our garage.
I had them in with the chicks (which are 1 month and some 3 weeks), but the ducklings were getting the chicks all wet, plus getting too big for play pen.

I am scared myself to put them outside. We put up welded wire, then I buried poulty netting about 5" deep and about 2 feet high all around the outside. I still might get a hotwire made for around gardens. We're in the process of putting poultry netting over the top as well to keep the chickens and ducks in as well as help keep hawks and other preditors out.

Right now I have a couple of dogloos to use for the ducks.

I never thought I would get this attached to birds but they are my babies, just like my dogs, cats, horses and my real kids.

 

[RaZ]

I'm no expert on any of this but my 5 pekins haved been outside for 3-4 weeks now. They do not want to go in to the coop or warm garage. They want to spend the night in my pond.
It's darn chilly here right now (45') but they have no intent of going indoors. I'm guessing that they know what they want.
I've left the door open for them to go into the garage if they want to, but they don't seem to be interested. Even though it's warm and the food and treats are there.

 

[RaZ]

I might be over-worrying this, but I decided that my ducks should be put up for the night.
It's 45 degrees right now and they have been in the pond all day.

So I roused them out of the pond and they made a bee-line to the chick coop. Went right in the door and attacked the hanging feeder for crumble.

The roosting chicks looked at them like what? Then went back to sleep.

At least I feel better knowing that the temp in the coop is 60 degrees and should be tolerable for both ducks and chickens. Of course my feel good emotions may not be what is best for my fowl. My chickens like to bed down in the coop and the ducks seem to like being outside all of the time. Should I interfere or not?

 

[Luciesbuddys]

Mine have been out side since it has stayed above freezing at night and they seem to be fine with it. I'm only worried about one of them (Pita) because apparently her oil gland doesn't work so she is always soaked, which i some how need to get fixed before winter.

As far as leaving them out at night.... they just are not as safe.