Help - Ducks won't come in off pond at night!

[drirene]

I have a beautiful flock of Welsh Harlequins (10 weeks old, 1 male, 9 female) that won't come back to their duck house from the pond anymore - bad duckies! They have predator proof duck house and yard where they stayed when they were little. Around about when they were 5 weeks old, we started letting them go swimming on the natural pond on our property (about 30 feet away down a dirt road). They LOVE it - they're ducks after all. At first, we could get them to come back to their duck house with a tasty trail of treats (romaine lettuce appears to be their favorite). Gradually, they realized what was going on and more and more of them refused to get out of the water. At first that wasn't a big deal since if we could get half the flock back to their house, the rest would follow eventually. But now we can't even get that anymore. Last night my husband spent 2 hours in the dark chasing ducks in the pond on a paddle boat because nothing he could do would get them home. I was finally able to get them back to their house in the morning (and the coyotes thankfully didn't get them). I'd appreciate any advice on how to train ducks to reliably come in off the water and go back to their house at night. Thanks!

 

[tdd2]

IMHO, perhaps keeping them in the yard, and off of the pond for some time might help. They are still young and need to get accustomed to the yard being 'home'.

I'd consider a kiddie pool or the like as a temporary water playground...beats loosing them to preds.

As for 'training', it took 2 month of constantly doing this several times a day, but I finally got our ducks to associate the sound of shaking the treats container (a small Tupperware cantainer, and a sound anyone we might have watch then for us can replicate) with getting treats (peas in their case) - something that brings them in from the yard every time - but as I said, it took a full 2 months of repeating the action to make it 2nd nature to them.

Hope you find a solution...

Cheers

Dan

 

[SouthernPride]

I feed mine a little in the morning. They go to the pond and stay there till late afternoon and come up when they are hungry. That's when I feed them in their pens and then lock them up. The earlier in the afternoon the better. But I agree with tdd2, keep them in their pens with a kiddy pool for a few weeks more. I would start the feeding routine now but you would need to feed them a bit more since they will not be at the pond grazing and dabbling in the mud. They can be trained, key is the same routine day after day.

 

[drirene]

Thanks! Super helpful. Southern Pride - they seem to be dabbling and foraging a lot on the pond (tons of duckweed, insects and other algae about) which might be why they aren't hungry enough to want to come home in the afternoon. They used to eat first thing when the got back after a swim but not so much any more. However, I think you're right that I can get a food routine going in their pen. Right now they have free access 24/7 but if I gradually work back to morning and afternoon feedings as they get older, maybe that will give them the right idea.

 

[Onlyducks]

I feed mine at night, so if they want "easy" food and the really tasty stuff, they come back to the pen. It does take a long time to train ducks to go back to their pens if something in your yard is more enticing. Yesterday, I spent 20 minutes rounding up muscovies that decided shaded trees were more fun than their pen. With only one person, it's tricky. They didn't even care about the food or the treats. Finally got them corralled. Today, I will probably leave them out if they aren't cooperative. I don't like doing that due to dogs in the neighborhood, but there's only so much I can do. My pekins are a bit easier—they never separate from each other. One goes, they all go. Not so the muscovies—they wander all over alone or in small groups. Makes it much harder. It does take a long time before they learn and don't balk.

 

[horsenFCR]

I am having a problem getting my ducks off the pond. They went out there for the first time yesterday and are not interested in coming back. There is duck weed and they must have a lot of other forage. The pond is too big to chase them on. I left a trail of treats back to the barn. Their stall is full of food. I am afraid the ducks will be eaten. My husband checked on them this morning but has not reported back if they are all there or not. The neighbors dogs keep coming over. They have already eaten some of our cats. Luckily when they have gotten into the barn previously the poultry were either locked up or perched really high. I leave the ducks stall door open but I am afraid that if the ducks come back at night or early morning when I am not there to close the door, the dogs will be waiting and there will be nowhere to hide. I tried to train the ducks to come when called but when they are not interested, it seems that there is not much you can do. The pond is in the middle of a horse pasture. If the ducks walk to the barn when the horses are around, the horses will go after the neighbors dogs. But, the ducks are afraid of the horses even though the horses leave them alone. My dilemma is do I let nature take its course or do I try to put a trolling motor on the boat and scoop them up with a fishing net? When do you get desperate enough to try other means? I happen to have a very well trained retriever with a soft mouth who 95% of the time does not injure a bird. But there is the other 5%. We also have Coyotes, raccoons, possums and hawks that can pose a threat. I keep thinking if the ducks are smart enough to stay on the water they should be o.k.

 

[Onlyducks]

I have one muscovy that will not come back to the pen now. Next time she comes in, I'm penning her up for at least a week, maybe two, so she gets over the wanderlust. In her case and one other duck, I found ducks can stay out at least two days on their own.

I catch my errant ducks with a butterfly net, so scooping them up might work. I guess it depends on how attached you are to the ducks. If they are pets, you probably should gather them up. If not, they should come back in a day or two. My experiences with ducks would indicate that they are not really smart at avoiding predators—we seem to have breed it out of them. (You're right about the ducks and the dogs—if the ducks go in the barn without the gate shut, the dogs may follow them in and attack.)

Figure out how badly you would feel if anything happens to them and then act accordingly.

 

[drirene]

Have you gotten your ducks home yet?

I must say that the advice of the others on this forum worked like a charm. I kept the ducks penned up in their house and run for the past 2 months. Every night before bed, I'd give them some lettuce and veggie scraps as a treat. A few days ago I let the ducks onto the pond and waited to see what would happen. Miracle! They wandered back on their own at dusk and walked right in the open door to get their snacks. The next day, and every day thereafter, they come home on their own at dusk every day. (Funny story is the one male immediately mounted a female first time out on the pond. I guess water made him so excited he just couldn't contain himself.) Thank you for all the great advice.

 

[Onlyducks]

Found my missing duck—the little varmit pushed her way under the fence I put around the shed she had been hiding under. Lucky for her, I walked by on a quiet morning, I have great hearing and she actually made the very quiety cooing noise Muscovies make. She pushed under but could not push out—she was missing for 3 days without food or water. She's now penned up by herself until she learns that she does not live under the shed. I don't know, maybe she's just a loner and doesn't want to play with the other ducks. Any way you look at it, she's alone now and I know where she is.

Glad your ducks learned to come back to the barn. All my other ducks are fine—they trot right in at night like clockwork. Just the one "Lone Ranger"!

 

[horsenFCR]

Well, now I have an update on the ducks who would not come off the pond. And I have some more questions. Luckily, none of the ducks have been hurt or eaten by predators. Most of the duckweed is gone from the pond. Now they seem like they are more hungry. Over the past few days. My son and I have lured them closer to the barn. Each time they would come a little closer to the barn then decide it was just to close and waddle/run back to the water. They are now coming fairly close to us when we yell "duck, duck, duck". This morning, after I left for work they started quacking at my husband. He put food next to the barn and called them. This time they came really close to the barn but now the turkeys chased them away. The turkeys are much much bigger than they were when the ducks had originally gone out to the pond. The turkeys usually don't leave the barn, but they love to walk around the indoor arena. When they want, the turkeys can fly up out of the stall that they sleep/eat in and either roost in the rafters or walk around the indoor arena. Do you think the ducks and turkeys will work it out without any intervention? Or do you think I might have to clip the turkey's wings and lock them in their stall? If I need to, now that the ducks are more hungry, I can put a dog fence close to the pond, catch the ducks that way and carry them into the barn. But that just means I was able to bring them in and lock them in a stall. That would not give them any kind of freedom to range. In my dream world (which is not happening right now) the ducks would come in the barn when they are called at night, be locked in their stall with feed, bedding and water and go out to the pond in the morning, weather permitting. The turkeys would be able to exist the way they are right now.

After being out on the pond so much, the ducks look very healthy and happy. But I need to get them to start coming in because winter is coming; outdoor food is not as plentiful, the neighbors dogs have been visiting my land and going after my poultry and the coyotes, opossums and raccoons are going to start looking for really easy food. I don't really want to clip the turkeys wings to make it so the ducks will go in and out, because the turkeys like to be able to move around the barn and be able to get away from predators. But, I will do it if that is the only way to get everyone to work things out.

The stalls are closed but the barn can not be totally closed because the horses are running in and out off the summer pasture. The neighbors dogs show up in our barn at about 3:00 AM. If the ducks are not locked in a stall at night and decide to come off the pond, and into the barn looking for food late at night, they will not have a place to hide from the dogs.

The reason I am probably putting too much thought into this is my 11 year old son has put a lot of work into taking care of all of the poultry. He worries a lot about the ducks not being safe. We are keeping them for egg laying and just because they are fun to watch. He also likes the turkeys but he knows that they are going to be dinner so he is not as attached to them. The laying chickens pretty much stay in their safe area so he does not worry about them as much. Last week one of the chickens did fly out of its stall once and the neighbor's dog got it. What that did was make my son even more worried about the dogs getting his ducks and the turkeys. If he hears the dogs bark in the middle of the night, he wakes me up and asks me to go out and chase the dogs away and check the ducks. Basically, if the ducks were locked in a stall at night I could sleep.

I do know the perfect solution for all of this is to buy a donkey. The ducks and turkeys don't mind the horses so I don't think they would mind a donkey. A donkey would keep the predators away so I would not have to worry about bringing the ducks in until it gets cold. The month when the weather starts to get cold enough to cause the ducks some concern, is going to be around the time the turkeys "go on a little trip". So they will not be an issue any more. I tried this argument with my husband, but he is still saying "no" to getting a donkey.

It would be much easier if all of this poultry could get along with each other.