How to Free Range Ducks

[3rdGenFarmer]

my neighbor told me she never puts her ducks in that they are always free ranging and sleep under trees or bushes. Is this a good idea?

 

[buff goose guy]

It can be depending on the breed and the personality of the ducks .

 

[tdd2]

We have 5 Pekins and KC and 4 Rouens.  We ONLY let them free range when we are home to watch out for them.

+1. Our two duckers only get 'out' while supervised - too many posts these days about predators (as well duck owners own pet dogs) getting to peoples ducks....

I previously posted a video off of our game cam of a fox visiting our secure duck pen in the middle of the night - and we live 'in town'...

Dan

 

[3rdGenFarmer]

Buff goose guy- I have 2 khaki Campbell ,1 mallard , 2 call ducks

 

[buff goose guy]

Call ducks definetly need to e pinned up at night dealing with how loud they are . Also do you clip te call ducks and mallards wing ?

 

[jbtcajun]

Hi everyone.
I love my 6 chicken hens as pets and egg producers.
Was thinking of raising some meat chicks.
My neighbor who is a professional dog trainer has talked over the years about the lack of quality ducks.
I was thinking of supplying him some thus paying for my meat ducks.
Maybe learning with say 250 and growing if I enjoy the work created.
Retired now and stay quite busy;it is big decision to create something that will require my presence. I could easily grow this into a 3k duck operation becoming a most time job.
Is 250 to start enough to have the idea of the work load of 3k?
Would confining them to say 8 ac with a 1 and 3/4 ac pond be enough?
Really don't want them around the house or my 5 ac fishing pond.

 

[buff goose guy]

ht acreage isn't enough , because with ducks attracts geese and wild ducks makeing you end up with three times as more ducks as you have .


Also haveing 250 ducks isn't healthy at all expecially on that acreage you needvat least let's sat 25 acrs for 100 ducks in my opinion to keep everything healthy .

 

[buff goose guy]

Also that pond is WAY to small for that number of ducks all of that water would turn to muddy poop with that amount of ducks .

 

[jbtcajun]

Great guys thanks.
Now I can tell him its not feasible.
That works for me.
I can go back to meat chickens and a few ducks knowing I did the right thing.

 

[sunnyfishy]

We have 10 ducks that all free range. Last year we had just two and we had a dog pen that they lived in, but all our ducks have been hand raised from us either at birth or 2 or 3 days old. The pekins are easily our least skittish ducks--we call "duck duck duuuucks" and they come scooting across the yard, and it is so cute. We taught them to go to the pen at night by always feeding them there--it's a place of comfort and no-stress, so they don't really fight to go in unless it's raining.

We started with the babies just going out for a half hour or so at a time at first, and then gradually we got them to a point where they could sort of meander around without worry. We started leaving them out once they were fully feathered, and they all love it and seem to just naturally know where the yard is. I think the familiarity with where we walked them as little guys and where the dogs go tells them where home is. We've never run into any problems with them leaving, although a couple times we found one pekin and one of our mallards sneaking into the neighbours yard who also has a fence--they were drawn to the allure of automatic sprinklers