Leaving Ducks Outside to Roam.... Predators?

I like the rebel in you!!! What kind of net? Can you give me details? I'm all ears. A net sounds a lot more simple than chicken wire.
a nylon netting or something you can put over the top of the area where they can roam around. You need to put some 1/2" hardware cloth around that dog crate. Raccoons will be able to rip the chicken wire apart like it's butter. HWC is the only thing that will keep everything out. Plus you've got snakes too and some of them aren't so nice! I lost a 4-week old runner to a king snake.
 
I can't worry about the snakes - there's too much else to worry about!!!

Does anyone just accept this risk of all of this? Dare I ask? (I had ducks in my back yard about 5 years straight while I was growing up and I think since we didn't have the Internet to ask anyone about it we just didn't worry and nothing ever happened.
 
@Miss Lydia what do you think?
maybe you could hang it from one side of the fence to the other. Kinda make your own roof by tying to the fence. Do it down a bit so people can't see it. You could kris kros it all over your back yard. Tacky acres 3.0! Hopefully, they don't have drone spies cruising your neighborhood searching for compliance breakers!
 
I can't worry about the snakes - there's too much else to worry about!!!

Does anyone just accept this risk of all of this? Dare I ask? (I had ducks in my back yard about 5 years straight while I was growing up and I think since we didn't have the Internet to ask anyone about it we just didn't worry and nothing ever happened.
oh but I bet it did!
 
Raccoons generally attack at night. We had a ton of them but they never went after the hens or ducks during the day. At night you want to house them in a secure shelter with hardware cloth, not chicken wire to protect them. You want to put at least 30 lbs or more of weight, or a really good latch to keep the ducks in, raccoons are stronger than you'd think. If there's a crack in the door make sure no ducks can stick their head through or sleep by it. Or better yet, eliminate the crack. Even if it is hardware cloth, a duck that sleeps by it will still get pulled through. So make sure no ducks can sleep with access to predators.

Daytime animals here are hawks and bobcats, we have two dog kennels like you that our poultry go under when they're scared, and in 5 years maintaining a flock of about 30 I've only had one hawk death for a silkie chicken. However, it only serves as a daytime shelter and nothing more. If you put their pool or tub of water by their kennel they'll have more time to escape the hawk because they can just hop out and hide. My ducks were lazy and spent a majority of the day swimming in their pool, rarely ventured out to forage in the run like the chickens did, unless I came out with some watermelon or mashmallows lol. Netting above their run is a good idea, but I don't have netting above mine. My current set up is the tin cans that I scoop their feed with that hang on bushes, along with aluminum foil pans. I think they are reflective enough. I'd have to wait a year and see if there's no hawk attacks but for now the hawks fly past the run and do not bother.
 
Thank you, everyone! This is a lot to take in. Fortunately for now, they sleep inside at night. I'll start with the hardware cloth and set up their dog kennel (there are only 3 ducks) next to the pool so they can escape when they need to. I'll also try predator tape below the fence line.

I'm wondering too if the pond is just outside of my gate, if I can eventually let them roam on the pond and sleep in the kennel at night.
 

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