OHIO Moved to the country about 4 1/2 years ago due to my dog rescue but ever since I saw the pond I knew I wanted Ducks and maybe some Guinea hens.
We have some ups and downs with our duck experience but boy how I adore these guys. We started with a bunch of ducks I got when a friend and I actually went to go look at some chickens for her. The man had a huge amount of ducks in his very large fenced in backyard and was seriously reducing his flock and claimed it was FREE FRIDAY lol and off I went home with my first batch of ducks. BTW it is amazing how many ducks can fit in a large plastic dog kennel.
My absolute favorites were the Indian Runners which were a curious mix of Duck and Penguin. Unfortunately none of the Indian Runners survived the first week here. I just found them here and there just lifeless and concerned as to what happened to them. Two years later I suspect that they were very young, thin and as I recalled the only food I had seen was cracked corn and now suspect they were nutritionally unsound at the time I got them.
We started off just free range with a 4 x 8 Duck hut and as most of you can imagine it did not go well and I had a massacre one Winter morning that left me distraught. Something, my guess was a stray dog killed about 8 ducks they were just left laying here and there. All were unmarked except one was missing her neck and head.
We have since added a 10x 20 dog kennel. Then added a chicken wire to the bottom 4 ft and also made a chicken wire roof. finally had to add hardware cloth over the sides and eventually also did the floor. I still do not feel like it is 100 % safe but so far there have not been any more incidents. I put them up at night and out to free range on the pond and in the surrounding fields that are farmed, and soy beans and corn are grown.
We have some ups and downs with our duck experience but boy how I adore these guys. We started with a bunch of ducks I got when a friend and I actually went to go look at some chickens for her. The man had a huge amount of ducks in his very large fenced in backyard and was seriously reducing his flock and claimed it was FREE FRIDAY lol and off I went home with my first batch of ducks. BTW it is amazing how many ducks can fit in a large plastic dog kennel.
My absolute favorites were the Indian Runners which were a curious mix of Duck and Penguin. Unfortunately none of the Indian Runners survived the first week here. I just found them here and there just lifeless and concerned as to what happened to them. Two years later I suspect that they were very young, thin and as I recalled the only food I had seen was cracked corn and now suspect they were nutritionally unsound at the time I got them.
We started off just free range with a 4 x 8 Duck hut and as most of you can imagine it did not go well and I had a massacre one Winter morning that left me distraught. Something, my guess was a stray dog killed about 8 ducks they were just left laying here and there. All were unmarked except one was missing her neck and head.
We have since added a 10x 20 dog kennel. Then added a chicken wire to the bottom 4 ft and also made a chicken wire roof. finally had to add hardware cloth over the sides and eventually also did the floor. I still do not feel like it is 100 % safe but so far there have not been any more incidents. I put them up at night and out to free range on the pond and in the surrounding fields that are farmed, and soy beans and corn are grown.
! Great to have you with us! That certainly is a beautiful flock...and a beautiful setting! Best wishes and thanks for joining BYC! 
