Predator Proof for the Ducks......Please help!

[mrbstephens]

I hear the ducks won't voluntarily go into their house to sleep. This could be problem! I have 3 ducks in the shed waiting for their pen to be ready. I have a large dog house for them and will be building a large pen to go around it and also a pond that I'll be putting together (not sure how yet). How can I make the pen predator proof??? I was planning on locking them into the dog house for the night like I lock the chickens up in the hen house at night. We have fox, raccoons, possum, dogs, hawks, owls and snakes here in mass quantities. HELP!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hear the ducks won't voluntarily go into their house to sleep. This could be problem! I have 3 ducks in the shed waiting for their pen to be ready. I have a large dog house for them and will be building a large pen to go around it and also a pond that I'll be putting together (not sure how yet). How can I make the pen predator proof??? I was planning on locking them into the dog house for the night like I lock the chickens up in the hen house at night. We have fox, raccoons, possum, dogs, hawks, owls and snakes here in mass quantities. HELP!

They will learn to go inside. Mine do, just start them off as soon as you put them outside, If you have to pick them up and put in for the first few nights, then offer them a snack when they do go in. Are you going to have food and water inside? if so ONLY feed them inside so they will associate their house with their food and you'll have a good start. Saying all of this doesn't mean you can be lax in putting up the run area. you still need to make it pred proof. Most use chicken wire with hardware cloth up the sides from the ground to keep preds from reaching inside. buried anywhere from 1-2' down into the ground to keep diggers out. Also you can cover in wire or netting but I wouldn't leave them outside at night. but the wire and netting will keep flyers out. It's alot of work and finance to keep our ducklings safe but so worth it.

 

[Apyl]

Mine all go into the coop on their own. All the chicks (now 9 weeks) and ducks (ranging from 6 weeks to 8 weeks) know to head into the coop when I come outside at dusk. I lock them in and let them all out around 7am. Now that the sun is coming up earlier I will probubly be letting them out earlier soon. I open range all day and haven't had an issue yet. We have coyotes, cougars (only spotted a couple times), bears (I havent personally seen but one was on the neighbors property down the road), wolves (again havent seen personally but they are all over the area), fishers, hawks, eagles, owls ........ basically alot. We're in the woods in Wisconsin.

To help the ducks and chickens know where they are expected to be, I did pen them for 2 weeks when they first went outside. They got use to the routine of my locking them up in the coop at night and the routine of putting them in there. Now it just comes natural to them.

Good luck.

 

[mrbstephens]

Sounds like I can do the same for the ducks as I've done for the chickens. I have hard ware cloth along the bottom of the pen (2' from the ground and up). Then I have 2" wire fencing that goes from where the hardware cloth ends and up to the top (4'). I also buried wire fencing 4" underground that skirts out about 18" and the top of the pen is covered with deer fencing. The chickens get locked in their predator proof hen house for the night.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sounds like I can do the same for the ducks as I've done for the chickens. I have hard ware cloth along the bottom of the pen (2' from the ground and up). Then I have 2" wire fencing that goes from where the hardware cloth ends and up to the top (4'). I also buried wire fencing 4" underground that skirts out about 18" and the top of the pen is covered with deer fencing. The chickens get locked in their predator proof hen house for the night.

Sounds like you have a good plan.