New Ducks Not Eating?

[Miss Lydia]

X2

 

[Miss Lydia]

you don't plan on leaving them outside over night I hope.

 

[nayeli]

@MissLydia, Nope. They don't have a coop yet, plus I'm checking on them all the time now as it is haha!

 

[nayeli]

What are there predators though?

 

[Miss Lydia]

What are there predators though?

Where do you live nayeli, most of the USA and other countries have predators that would love a free duck meal, and most come around during the night and day too but nightly especially .they can climb over fence or dig under so leaving your ducks outside with out protection is asking for trouble, and you might get by with it for a while but sooner or later something will happen. You can herd them into a corner [very slowly] and put them back into the crate inside a garage or closed in porch but please don't leave them outside without protection.

 

[Amiga]

Where do you live nayeli, most of the USA and other countries have predators that would love a free duck meal, and most come around during the night and day too but nightly especially .they can climb over fence or dig under so leaving your ducks outside with out protection is asking for trouble, and you might get by with it for a while but sooner or later something will happen. You can herd them into a corner [very slowly] and put them back into the crate inside a garage or closed in porch but please don't leave them outside without protection.

Ditto.

Even in an urban area, there are raccoons, dogs, cats, and who knows what else. Where I am is suburban, but we are within a mile of a state forest. The list as I can recall it quickly, of predators known to be in the area

raccoons
foxes
coyotes
owls
hawks
fishers
domestic dogs
domestic cats
bobcats


There are bears, also.

 

[nayeli]

@MissLydia, I was worried I wouldn't have a choice after trying to herd them for half an hour with no success. My husband came to the rescue, that or they are much easier to herd after dark. Now we are worried about building a coop that is predator proof. How do people with open coops keep them safe then?

 

[Amiga]

For night-time, their first house had half inch metal hardware cloth over all ventilation openings, and a keyed lock on all outside doors and gates.

And two strands of equine electric fence around it.

 

[nayeli]

Wow, how hard is it to keep them safe?

 

[Amiga]

Not that hard if you cover some bases.

The half inch metal hardware cloth should work for most things, I used the electric fence because we do have bears and bobcats in our area. These days the night pen is in our walkout basement, and that greatly simplified night time security.

For daytime I am mostly concerned about coyotes and foxes, roaming domestic dogs and raptors. The top and bottom fence in addition to the regular fence ought to take care of that. There are always freak incidences, I will never be sure all my efforts will be 100% guarantee, but I studied up on it, looked up what works for which predators, and going with it.