Help? Duck nest by our pool!

[desertdarlene]

Is there any way you can fence off the pool with a child's fence so that when the babies hatch, the don't go in the pool and get into the filters or drown when they can't get out? I think I've seen those kind of fences for sale somewhere. They keep young kids from falling in the pool. Then, when mama wants to move out her family, all you have to do is open your pool gate and mama will, hopefully, lead them to the pond.

 

[aschrimp]

We actually *have* the pool fenced off with one of these fences...she is on the inside of it. We are considering fencing around the area she is actually at, to block that area off from the pool, and running the fence in a semi circle up to the gate, and propping the gate open, so that the only way to go is out the gate. But then she's got to take them out *another* gate, around the house, and across the yard to the pond. What I need to find out from the wildlife people is if that is going to be too far for her to move them on her own. I suppose we could take some boards off the fence on the pond side of the backyard temporarily...that would be a lot less distance for them to travel.

On a positive note, she was down by the pond with the male duck at sunset, so I didn't scare her off forever. But when I went and checked the nest after dark, she is not sitting on it yet - she must still be laying. So we've got a month to figure it out.

Is there any way you can fence off the pool with a child's fence so that when the babies hatch, the don't go in the pool and get into the filters or drown when they can't get out? I think I've seen those kind of fences for sale somewhere. They keep young kids from falling in the pool. Then, when mama wants to move out her family, all you have to do is open your pool gate and mama will, hopefully, lead them to the pond.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I will. It looks to me like she isn't actually sitting on the nest yet...so we've probably got at least a month to figure out what to do. If I don't mow around the pond for that whole time, it might be much more duck friendly by the time that there are actually babies running around.