Just Getting Started and I REALLY Need Help!

[megsjo]

I have been researching and planning my flock for over two years now, and I'm just about to take the final step and purchase my Ancona ducklings. I have the good luck of having a really handy husband and he's agreed to build my ducks a home, but I'm trying to figure out if I can let them roam our land any. This is our home's setup: fenced on all four sides, three of the sides have my neighbor's elk fencing and the front is chain link. We have about an acre and a half of land around our home, with a busy road in the front. There are a couple of feral cat, opossum, and skunk sightings, but our yard is overrun with rabbits so I'm guessing that we don't have many hawks or snakes. We have large amounts of shade, with seven HUGE old white oaks and lots of shrubbery. Inside of the elk fence enclosure there is a herd of about ten elk, and about thirty wild horses. there are some open spaces, but a lot of the enclosure is fenced in woods and a swamp full of Canada geese about a mile away. With that information, is there any way I could ever let my ducks roam the yard, or will they take off through the elk fence? The elk fence is about ten feet tall, and the squares in the fence are about 6 square inches.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I would think once grown 6X6" fence may keep them in their side. You def want to keep them from the road.
I'd start with roaming while your outside so you can see where you may have to reinforce etc.
Are they going to have a good size run for when you can't let them out?

 

[megsjo]

Thank you so much! I want them to get as much space as I can afford, we were going to start with 3-5 ducks and then expand the run as needed. How much space would you suggest? I was thinking around twenty square feet per duck.

 

[blayt90]

Thank you so much! I want them to get as much space as I can afford, we were going to start with 3-5 ducks and then expand the run as needed. How much space would you suggest? I was thinking around twenty square feet per duck.

I have a 20x25 pen for my four ducks and they have plenty of room(mine are Rouens). Inside my pen I dug an 8’x10’x4’ deep pond for them to swim in while loose inside their pen and I am not home.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@blayt90 where is your link with pics of your coops and run? always good to see design.
Always the largest you can afford because we all know how duck math is. lol

 

[blayt90]

@blayt90 where is your link with pics of your coops and run? always good to see design.
Always the largest you can afford because we all know how duck math is. lol

Thank you so much! I want them to get as much space as I can afford, we were going to start with 3-5 ducks and then expand the run as needed. How much space would you suggest? I was thinking around twenty square feet per duck.

Sorry did not think about putting a link and then I had to figure out how but I think this will work. Here it is https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/users/blayt90.500812/

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sorry did not think about putting a link and then I had to figure out how but I think this will work. Here it is https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/users/blayt90.500812/

@megsjo

 

[megsjo]

Thank you for all your help! Another question I have is if I can use chicken wire for the run, or should I use hardware cloth? If I use chicken wire, I can afford to make a much larger run, but I’m a little scared of it not being as strong. I was planning on using hardware cloth for everything on the coop so they would be as safe as possible at night.

 

[blayt90]

Thank you for all your help! Another question I have is if I can use chicken wire for the run, or should I use hardware cloth? If I use chicken wire, I can afford to make a much larger run, but I’m a little scared of it not being as strong. I was planning on using hardware cloth for everything on the coop so they would be as safe as possible at night.

I don't know if you can see it in my photos but I have chain link fence as my main wire and chicken wire around the bottom. That keeps my ducks in and they cant stick their heads out of the fence. But I also don't have any type of top on my pen though.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hardware cloth is always better, chicken wire will keep them in but not preds out. You could always use chicken wire and do the bottom 3' around you pen in hardware cloth. with a hardware cloth skit to keep out diggers. or fencing into the ground 1' You'd be real surprised at what preds you have once you introduce poultry to you homestead. They are a magnet for predators.