I have 40+ years with chickens and very little with ducks.
I have a pekin female and a pekin/mallard cross male that I rescued from a well meaning friend about three years ago.
They are locked in the coop at night with the chickens but free range during the day in my 3 acre fenced yard.
I had three feral chickens that a hen hatched without my knowledge and they became feral. Anyway last week a hawk got one and I did manage to catch the other two as they were hiding under the coop and only had one way out and I trapped them.
My question, these two ducks have been running around the yard for three years now and no problems to this point with predators. This morning while I was feeding the chickens freaked and started looking skyward and I saw a red tail sitting in the oak tree. The two ducks knew he was there as they kept turning their necks and keeping an eye on him. However, they didn't really seem scared of him like the chickens were.
Are red tails not a threat to ducks???
I have a pekin female and a pekin/mallard cross male that I rescued from a well meaning friend about three years ago.
They are locked in the coop at night with the chickens but free range during the day in my 3 acre fenced yard.
I had three feral chickens that a hen hatched without my knowledge and they became feral. Anyway last week a hawk got one and I did manage to catch the other two as they were hiding under the coop and only had one way out and I trapped them.
My question, these two ducks have been running around the yard for three years now and no problems to this point with predators. This morning while I was feeding the chickens freaked and started looking skyward and I saw a red tail sitting in the oak tree. The two ducks knew he was there as they kept turning their necks and keeping an eye on him. However, they didn't really seem scared of him like the chickens were.
Are red tails not a threat to ducks???