how???????????

[redrooster99]

how do i keep my malard ducks from migrating.
we brought some a couple years ago and they dissappeared with no feathers left behind but we think they flew away and we are thinking of getting more. and also they will be put at a pond and i may build a pen or use our chicken tractor at night or will they sleep on the bank. and are they good at protecting them selves ( dogs ) new with ducks.

 

[JJpuck]

The thing with migration patterns is that the animals who migrate should eventually come back to where "home" is during the warmer season. From what I know, there's probably no way to prevent the instinctual migration unless you: 1. Keep them indoors during the winter (very tedious and dirty) 2. Clip their wings (this would impact their ability to protect themselves from predators) 3. Keep them in a covered enclosure (pretty sure that's expensive)
As to the question concerning their sleeping place, (again, speaking from a limited knowledge, I would build a duck house for them to keep them safer at night and to solidify their feeling of home.
This is just my opinion, don't know how accurate it is

 

[ducksinarow]

If you train them to come back to their secure pen and coop at dusk for food and peas, they will be much safer than if you leave them on the pond at night. Hawks and owls both eat ducks. They can pick them right off the pond.

 

[redrooster99]

okay thank you all but there is a chance they wont migrate right, or pond doesn't freeze over and the lowest it gets is in the 20s/30s normally during the winter.

 

[JJpuck]

I do believe you're right that there's no definite certainty that the ducks will migrate every winter, but if you really want to keep your babies then I would just play it on the safe side and take some precautions. Again, I'm just speaking from limited knowledge. Hope this helps!

 

[redrooster99]

it did help thankyou

 

[Finny]

If you get your mallards from a farm that sells DOMESTICATED ducks, then they won't migrate. Domesticated means they have lost some natural instincts and one of the lost instictins is migration.

 

[creaturelife]

i have mallards and muscovy living together and my mallards have been here for 1 whole winter and have not left

 

[redrooster99]

okay thank you all very much.