My Paranoia Saved my ducks today!

[Miss Lydia]

Wow that IS good luck Lydia.

All my pens are covered but they are also only made of chicken wire. I havent seen my white flamepoint siamese in about a week (my outdoors cat) I fear a coyote or something got him although he was also 14 years old. I will miss him either way. My sister in law lost her chiwahwa (cant spell it)to a yote 2weeks ago about a mile from here.She found the front half so sad. I hope I dont have to deal with them again But thankfully nothing has ever been starving enough to rip in almost 20 years so I aint too worried. Plus my main pen is electrified. I havent seen none here for about 8 years. And thats when I definitly lost 2 of my cats to em. But I got even

. Ill tell you what is funny though. Back then when I heard dogs barking off in the distance I always knew a yote was on the prowl. Dogs dont like em. Now I also have a lab in the backyard that will let me know if I need to get up and have a look see. If she barks its either a person .coyote, coon or possum.

Dogs are awesome lookouts. I use to live in Fl. east coast born and partly raised there. never heard of coyotes down there but that was a long time ago, we have them here plus mountain lions bears and all the rest, but so far so good. I'm sorry about your cat, I hope it comes home.

 

[bucky52]

we have seen a hawk hanging around the house for the last couple of weeks.i keep my flock penned.but i put them in a chicken tractor when i get home from work.than let them free range under supervision later on in the evenings.last week i had them out free ranging.i have four 6 month old pullets and three hens.they split up on me.and i stayed with the pullets.the hens were in my site,but they were under the grape vines.i felt uneasy.if the hawk would come after them.there was no way i could get to them fast enough.i kept calling to them and they would not come.when my dh came from the house and as he was walking under the apple tree a big hawk flew right above his head.and when dh spoke to the hens.they took off and ran into their coop.those hens knew that hawk was right above them.and that is the reason they would not come when i called.its been days since we seen him.i'am forever watching the sky and trees.when we start down to the coop and run in the evenings after work.my small flock of seven are waiting at the door to load up in their tractors.they so look forward to their free ranging time.i hope that the hawk will soon migrate. and i will have some peace of mind.

 

[zooweemama]

Will these hawks take off with the big ducks? The hawks I see around here just don't seem large enough to do anything to my ducks?

 

[Macro]

I'm not sure how small the prey has to be for a hawk to go after it, but I know I've seen hawks kill large chickens. They're pretty fearless, smart, and have extremely powerful beaks and talons.

I've been looking for ways to predator proof our area as well. Right now we have chickens and turkeys in the coop right outside the house, so most of the predators stay away, and when they don't, we have our German Shepherd out there to kick some butt. Problem is, now that I want to get some more ducks, and I would really like to give them a good portion of land to forage and play on. Which means, they can't be right outside the house anymore. We have Mountain Lions, Coyotes, Hawks, and Rattlesnakes. It worries me having to leave them out away from the house at night.

 

[EggLuver]

I had a black bear wandering around last night. Started around 5 pm and the dogs kept chasing him off. Well about 1 am I heard a crash outside and when I went to investigate the dog food barrel (55 gallon) was tipped over. Good thing I had the locking ring on top. Well needless to say it was 4 am before I was able to get back to sleep because the dogs kept alerting to the bear in the area. He finally left for the night after I put a hurricane oil lantern on top of the barrel. When it was still light out, the dogs would lay down by the duck pen and then get up barking and run off into the woods to chase the bear again.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had a black bear wandering around last night. Started around 5 pm and the dogs kept chasing him off. Well about 1 am I heard a crash outside and when I went to investigate the dog food barrel (55 gallon) was tipped over. Good thing I had the locking ring on top. Well needless to say it was 4 am before I was able to get back to sleep because the dogs kept alerting to the bear in the area. He finally left for the night after I put a hurricane oil lantern on top of the barrel. When it was still light out, the dogs would lay down by the duck pen and then get up barking and run off into the woods to chase the bear again.

Your bear was after the dog food, I doubt it would mess with your ducks, The blk bear that comes around here was after the blk oil sunflower seeds in my bird feeders, after I Remember to bring them in each evening and my dh shot off the shot gun he hasn't been back as far as we know. But he came right up next to the house for the bird feeders and never went near the coop and it's right here too. I think it would have to be starving before it goes after our ducks and chickens. At least here anyway. But having outside dogs is as good or better than the predator lights I have flashing.

 

[Kevin565]

Will these hawks take off with the big ducks? The hawks I see around here just don't seem large enough to do anything to my ducks?

Sadly yes they can defiantly take down large breed ducks. Though hawks are small they are so deadly they often take down prey much larger than themselves. I saw one go after a full grown Canadian Goose at the park once. It wasn't successful but it defiantly tried.

 

[destinduck]

X2 Kevin. My mom was wondering if it might have got my cat even. But everyone on my street has cats and none of em has ever been attacked and there are probably 8 between my next door neighbors. But now a big duck or chicken out in the street it would be attacked in pretty short order. They love birds and squirrels mostly around here. Glad there aint no bears here....yet. At my house anyway.

 

[WillsC]

I am in central Florida and we have a very healthy hawk population and have hawks nesting on the property every year. They do look at the ducks but have never once tried to take a duck or a duckling. We are also overrun with squirrels and they ignore them completely. The hawks will grab the squirrels if we shoot them though and in fact the sound of the .22 going off brings the hawks to you as they are use the the handouts. Here the hawks seem to mostly eat lizards with the occasional snake thrown in.

 

[zooweemama]

Sadly yes they can defiantly take down large breed ducks. Though hawks are small they are so deadly they often take down prey much larger than themselves. I saw one go after a full grown Canadian Goose at the park once. It wasn't successful but it defiantly tried.

Holy crap! No joke?? Yikes!!