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hello! i suggest definitely get those two ducklings locked up overnight before a predator shows up. A cat cannot protect from many predators, such as foxes.
If you want to go in duck forum and post a little video of the sounds they make ,
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we can tell you if they are drakes. Only females make a loud quack and the drakes make more of a creee creee sound.
 
Glad to meet you, and welcome to BYC. Congratulations on the upcoming new baby, and on a lovely sounding bunch of companion animals.

You don't mention where you live, but nearly everywhere has predators. Be alert and give your birds safety spots around the yard, such as chairs, tables and bushes to hide beneath if a hawk comes around.

Here are a few of the most useful articles that helped me understand poultry keeping.

* Common mistakes & how to fix them

* Predator protection for new & existing coops

* Gardening for chickens

* BYC Lists of Chicken Ailments and Cures

* Tips and Tricks for Raising Ducks

To look for articles on your own:

A. Use the SEARCH button, but use the Advanced Search choice, and select ARTICLES at the top of the box. Just enter your keyword(s) and scroll through your results!

B. I find it helpful to notice the rating and reviews. All articles are by BYC members, and all the reviews/ratings are as well. The ratings help a newbie like me sort the most useful and reliable articles.

C. You can bookmark the articles or posts you think you want to refer to again using that bookmark icon at the top of articles or posts. You can find them again by clicking on your own avatar and looking at the list of bookmarks you have built up!
 
Cleopata said:
We are a family of three (fourth on the way) raising chickens and ducks for companionship.

In our big garden we have three chickens we adopted from a previous owner : a Brahma, a Padoue (mini crested) and a French Blue (regular french grey hen).

We also adopted two Indian Runner ducklings that are now almost three months old. We still don't know their sex, I'll probably need some help with that very soon.

All the animals free roam, we have a coop but not a run. The ducks prefer to sleep outside under a bush. We'll build them a house for the winter, hopefully they'll use it. We'll also have to build a duck run before the spring if they end up being drakes.

To complete the family, we have three adorable cats that are managing to keep the neighbour's cats and other predators away. We're dreaming about a dog, but that'll have to wait as we'll be busy with the baby coming.

Surprisingly all our pets coexist smoothly between species and they seem to enjoy eachother's companies. They all sunbathe together in the mornings and lay in front of our kitchen door in the evenings waiting for some attention and food scraps while I cook 😁 It's so cute!

Their presence completely transformed our garden and how we spend time outside. We love watching them as they can be hilarious, specially our crested girl and the ducks.

That's it! I'm happy to have found a community that I can share interests (and cute pictures) with.

See you!
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Welcome to BYC. Your intro is very upbeat and inspiring.
 
Hello!

Thank you all for being so welcoming!

I live in France, on the borders of a small town.
My garden is surrounded by swaps on three sides, the fourth is the road. Every side is stone/brick walled except for one that gives acces to the water that is fenced.
That area doesn't seem to interest the animals as it is the furthest from the house.
I know foxes might still be able to get in, that's where having a dog might come in handy. I have a friend that brings her dog over once in a while so it can pee all over the garden to mark the territory. I heard that it's possible to buy wolf pee online and use it instead. If you have any other advice that'd be appreciated!

We have plenty of trees and bushes for them to hide from raptors. Although we haven't seen or heard any since we moved in.
The ducks are quite big and sturdy already, the one to worry about is the crested chicken as she is tiny. She is the only one who can fly though, that gives her a little bit of defense.

Yesterday I held my ducks for a long time and really paid attention to the sounds they make. They sound like their throat is sore, they are definitely boys.
Then I checked online to see if we would still be able to buy females this time of the year and we did find two. Guess who joined the flock this morning... Two adorable and very loud girls! Perfectly clear quacks unlike our drakes.
As soon as they arrived the drakes were very excited making whistling noises. We kept them separate for most of the day but the other birds were waiting on the other side of the gate, so we just let them be free with them. I'll put deworming meds in their water tomorrow.

We'll see how it goes until the spring, when the boys will either need to be separated from the flock or rehomed... Getting six more hens is also a solution 😁

My phone is not the greatest for taking pictures but here are some. There's one of the new ducks.

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