Pet Ducks Dumped in Neighborhood Pond, Help?

[Miss Lydia]

Beautiful flock. They all look great an sounds like other than a bit of chasing boys are not doing too bad together. That’s awesome!! As for the mating thing feel blessed that Ferguson pushes Webby off an doesn’t just climb on top. That would be hard on a female being under 2 drakes. Then of course you could add geese to the mix my 2 geese won’t abide by any mating if they are close by they feel it’s their duty to break it up . Thanks for stopping by y’all have done fantastic with all you’ve done!!

 

[SansDuck]

Beautiful flock. They all look great an sounds like other than a bit of chasing boys are not doing too bad together. That’s awesome!! As for the mating thing feel blessed that Ferguson pushes Webby off an doesn’t just climb on top. That would be hard on a female being under 2 drakes. Then of course you could add geese to the mix my 2 geese won’t abide by any mating if they are close by they feel it’s their duty to break it up . Thanks for stopping by y’all have done fantastic with all you’ve done!!

Funny you mention that, one time apparently Webby was trying to break up Fergus and a ancona girl from matting and Webby ended up at the bottom with the ancona girl and Fergus on top of Webby, poor guy got smushed a little.

A goose you say? I'm honestly a little interested in getting one, would you recomned a female or male?
Maybe a female to add more girls to the flock, I mean I'm not sure if drakes would mate with a goose.
I've heard they make great guards against predators too.

 

[Miss Lydia]

They can sure be a hoot. I would worry if both boys were on top of one of the girls in deep water.

Geese yes. Research, research, research before you decide. Geese really are awesome addition but can be quite challenging too. Breeding season hatching goslings. Personality changes. In other words hormones can make the docile gander become a night mare. lol
They can sound the alarm if something is out of normal but they cannot protect anyone including themselves. They are mainly bluff.
There is a goose profile link in the goose forum under the sticky's that lists just about every goose breed. You might want to take a look at it. And yes drakes would want to breed a female goose.

 

[SansDuck]

They can sure be a hoot. I would worry if both boys were on top of one of the girls in deep water.

Geese yes. Research, research, research before you decide. Geese really are awesome addition but can be quite challenging too. Breeding season hatching goslings. Personality changes. In other words hormones can make the docile gander become a night mare. lol
They can sound the alarm if something is out of normal but they cannot protect anyone including themselves. They are mainly bluff.
There is a goose profile link in the goose forum under the sticky's that lists just about every goose breed. You might want to take a look at it. And yes drakes would want to breed a female goose.

Yes I worry about matting in the pool as well, Fergus will avoid the pool that Webby is swimming in. But as some precautions we do have the pool separated and space out so the ducks can choose witch pool they want. Usually the pekins stick to one pool, and the welsh harlequin and anconas chose the other pool. Downey will swim with anyone as seen in the pictures and Fergus tries his best to avoid the pool that Webby is in but they do end up in the same pool together very rarely.
Another thing we do is always supervise pool time right after we fill it with fresh water as they tend to be more frisky when the pools are clean. When the pools are dirty they avoid swimming/matting in it unless they're super dirty themselves.

Right now Webby is in drake jail as he has been chasing Fergus a little to much, poor Fergus legs seem to be weaker but that might mean we need to start the Brewers yeast again. We have been slacking on that part as everyone's legs seems to be doing fine but we really need to keep up with that as I remember you told me pekins need extra nutrients for their feet and legs as they are a heavy breed. I feel silly for not thinking of that until I started to write it out.

Besides that everyone is still doing perfect

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yep mine get doses of Nutritional yeast often.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/geese-sticky-topics-index.497391/ some good reading here.

Sounds like you are keeping them all safe and watching for problems! Keep up the good work.

 

[jddowdle]

Thank you CM for the all the replies, each one has been a great help!

Oh I see, this might be his own style of matting.

My SO said their run should be about 100 square feet but we could be wrong too, i will post pictures of the pin in a second.

Now that we have the chicken wire up, a net over the top is the next step.

Oh yes, I understand about dream pins not working out, this wasnt the orginal pin.

The first pin we were building was way too small and not stable at all.
It was going to have the added benefit of being mobile, and would be able to be packed away when it was not in use. But it just wasnt going to work out, way to complex for a first pin.

I definitely will be posting future updates on their ark and pin/run!

Thank you for telling me exactly what supplements i need to get, very helpful!

The solor motion dector lights are a very good idea and something we should consider, right now they have the bright led garage lights that are kept on all night.

And a solor panel Halloween decoration that glows softly at night, right in front of their coop door.

BYC will be the first to know of any issues or signs of angel wing, you all have been so wonderful.

I bet they will love to swim in their moat when summer is here, or at least I hope so.

Oh good, so my door suze should be fine.

Also the chicken comment was hilarious, I love imagining a bunch of chickens trying to squeeze out of a door!

Also, here is the pictures of the updated pin, I would like to get your opinion C.M.!

And I took a video of me walking around their pin to get a better idea on the size, here is the link to the video;

View attachment 1674322 View attachment 1674323 View attachment 1674325 View attachment 1674327 View attachment 1674328 View attachment 1674330 View attachment 1674331 View attachment 1674333

That’s in front of your house? How do your neighbors feel about it? That looks really great I like how you used live logs for the fence.

 

[SansDuck]

That’s in front of your house? How do your neighbors feel about it? That looks really great I like how you used live logs for the fence.

Hello.
Thank you for reading the thread, and sorry for replying so late.
As of now they're are kept in the backyard, and in a different pen now.

The use to live in the front yard with the wooded fence, and ark, witch I'm assume is the one you are talking about.
The neighbours had no issue with the ark being in the front, same with the mini fence.
The reason we had to put it in the backyard was because my room is in the back of the house, so it was easier for me to watch them from my window when they're out in the day.
Second main reason is that the mini fence was not duck proof, they escaped a few times because the slats were to big lol
Another reason was to give them more room to use, and so they would be less tempted to escape into the pound that is across the street lol
And last, the first design of the fence/ ark was not predator proof at all.
So we when we moved them, we turned the dog cage into a predator proof night pen, and built them a predator proof cage for the daytime.
Thank you for the questions, and if you have any more, feel free to ask.
I hope you have a great day!

 

[SansDuck]

Yep mine get doses of Nutritional yeast often.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/geese-sticky-topics-index.497391/ some good reading here.

Sounds like you are keeping them all safe and watching for problems! Keep up the good work.

Hello @Miss Lydia
I hope you been having a good day, and had a great holiday.
It's been awhile since I last post, but didnt have to many updates until now.
Fergus seems to be getting his groove back, the ancona girls dont run away from him as much anymore. And Webby (the WH drake) seems to have calm down quite a bit, and Fergus seems to be standing up for himself. So that is great news, I think the reason Fergus was letting webby bully him was because he was going through a weird molt were he lost all of his drake feathers.

Everyone else is doing great still, I'm still making sure the girls necks look full and not raw.
We still are getting some eggs, but looks like they might be stopping soon. Witch is good because, oh boy, do we got a lot of eggs lol

Another update is that Fergus feet are looking back to normal, no more penguin feet.

And lastly, the most exciting update. We did more repairs, and upgrades to their night, and day pen. Both are more predator proof then before, and their night pen is almost rain proof. We are still getting a bit of dampness on extremely stormy nights, but the food and floor stays 99% dry, before it was more like 10% dry, so basicly a mushy soup by morning time lol

I dont have pictures right now, but tomorrow morning I'll make sure to take some, and post it up for you too see.

I hope you have a great night/morning miss lydia, and I look forward to reading your message.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the update I sure do look forward to their new accommodations it’s sounds perfect! I like that you wanted them where you could keep an eye on them from your room to. I have my birds close too for that reason. You’ve sure come along way from where you started when you first brought Ferguson and Downy home from the pond! Good job!!

 

[SansDuck]

Thanks for the update I sure do look forward to their new accommodations it’s sounds perfect! I like that you wanted them where you could keep an eye on them from your room to. I have my birds close too for that reason. You’ve sure come along way from where you started when you first brought Ferguson and Downy home from the pond! Good job!!

Hello @Miss Lydia,

Hope you been having a good morning, I have some pictures for you.

This is what we have done so far on their inside/outside pen, we're not 100% done with it yet. But so far we are more then halfway completed with it

On the outside we covered the dog cage with wood, to turn it into more of a walk in coop.
We also found this awesome long tarp at a local shop for $4, a very nice find that keeps half the cage pretty rain proof. We still need a another tarp that matches for the other side, luckily they are easily findable on amazon/ebay, and not too expensive either.

we also wrapped the entire cage in burlap material, a cheap material that helps with frost and wind blow.

For the outside pen, we did flexible poles, and bird netting to cover the entire daytime pen.
In the future I would like to cover the top of the bird netting with hardware cloth, for better protection from predators.
The net is just to slow them down enough, until I can get out there (luckily I work from home, so I'm pretty much here 24/7)

Nighttime pen with door closed
once we get another similar trap, it should be long enough to cover it to the pen door. The heavy duty traps are only going to be used on extremely rainy or snowy day, maybe even on sunny days for extra shade.

Nighttime pen door can still fully close, and lock onto outside pen to create one ginat pen for ducks.
Still need to add bird netting on the gap between the door.

On the inside of their night pen, we still have the hardware cloth up for protection. We also put down burlap cloth on the bottom for extra protection from wind blow and rain.

Inside the night cage we made them a bench or a nesting box to go in, and lay their eggs, or just for extra warmth.
It's also nice for humans to sit on, and watch the ducks play.
We also have extra panels, so we can replace the ones they have already been destroyed, as seen in the picture lol

Also that's a nest the ancona girls made in the last picture, wasn't to sure if it was easy to tell what it is from the bad lighting lol
Downey doesnt want to lay her eggs in there with the other girls, but that's okay lol

we also put up a shelf just to make sure the heating lamp, and food stayed extra dry. The shelf is also useful for extra pans, bowls, and food bags lol

Underneath the shelf is were the food, and calcium bowls are kept. Far away from all of that messy water lol

And that's how they enter and exit the bench, or laying box

And lastly, here are some pictures of the flock.
They've all been doing pretty good with all of these changes to their daytime and nighttime pens, but they sure had to get use to it first lol

Anyways, I think that's all I have for you for the moment. But I'll be sure to keep you, and everyone else who still reads this thread updated on the future changes, and what not.

Thank you again, Miss Lydia, you have been such a great mentor though all of this, and i cant thank you enough for all of the info you, and everyone on this thread has taught me.