DuckyMolly
In the Brooder
- Sep 25, 2021
- 12
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Early this may I had 5 tiny muscovies ducklings. After I lost two, I put a large dog crate in my room that I keep the ducks in from 8:30pm-10:00am. During the day the ducklings are released into the duck run to frolic until the sun starts setting, rinse and repeat. I've kept this up for a couple of weeks with no further deaths... but the issue is I've got pretty bad allergy induced asthma, and I've started having terrible attacks nightly that are getting worse as the ducklings get bigger.
Our current duck pen is rather small. It's perfect for the two fully grown scovies we've had for the last year or so, but with the flock expanding I'm refitting part of the chicken barn into new duck habitat. Half of the barn has been used for storage up until this point, and I'm moving all the junk to the workshop tomorrow morning.
HOWEVER, the chicken barn has a bad rat snake problem. The grown chickens are fine, but every time I've tried to keep younger ducklings and pullets in there I get one or two dead by morning. We've tried building an elevated "snake proof" cage that looks like it'll work on the surface, but somehow or another a snake finds a way.
So, my question(s) boil down to this:
Thanks!
Our current duck pen is rather small. It's perfect for the two fully grown scovies we've had for the last year or so, but with the flock expanding I'm refitting part of the chicken barn into new duck habitat. Half of the barn has been used for storage up until this point, and I'm moving all the junk to the workshop tomorrow morning.
HOWEVER, the chicken barn has a bad rat snake problem. The grown chickens are fine, but every time I've tried to keep younger ducklings and pullets in there I get one or two dead by morning. We've tried building an elevated "snake proof" cage that looks like it'll work on the surface, but somehow or another a snake finds a way.
So, my question(s) boil down to this:
- Is 2 months old enough for Muscovies to be safe from rat snakes?
- What's are some steps I can take to better snake-proof the barn?
- What should I do to make the duck setup comfortable for about 7 muscovy ducks? (I'm getting two more grown ones to replace the ducklings I've lost.)
Thanks!