Putting Ducks to bed

[Lbisme]

I have 6 pekins, 2 females-4 males. Since I put them out in the spring that have never ‘gone to bed ‘ in their house/pen. I got tired of chasing them around the yard and just gave up trying to get them to bed. They move around the property all night (they’re just 5 months). I am beginning to worry about winter- we are in northern NY.
Any suggestions on training them? They do not come to us for anything I can put treats out which they love once we back away. Help!

 

[sourland]

Where and how do you feed them. I would train them to eat in their pen in the evening. Once in the pen to eat, I would close the pen.

 

[WAP]

I have 6 pekins, 2 females-4 males. Since I put them out in the spring that have never ‘gone to bed ‘ in their house/pen. I got tired of chasing them around the yard and just gave up trying to get them to bed. They move around the property all night (they’re just 5 months). I am beginning to worry about winter- we are in northern NY.
Any suggestions on training them? They do not come to us for anything I can put treats out which they love once we back away. Help!

Have you tried herding them? I have 1x4 board that I use to walk behind the ducks and steer them where I want them to go. This works great for me but my wife not so much.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

My ducks get salad soup in their coop so they run in for me. But, when I was out of town a couple weeks ago, they gave my duck sitter fits. We came up with the idea to herd-funnel them in. She used plywood I had in the coop to make a funnel or v shape from the doorway and then walked behind them and herded them in.

 

[CoriM]

Do you have other ducks? Because the ratio for males to females is like one male to 5 females - so that the females aren't overmated and hurt. The males can actually kill the females by overmating. Just mentioning it in case you didn't know. I would use treats or food to lure the ducks in for the night. They will adjust and get in the habit. But you don't want to lock up 4 males and 2 females together because that could be dangerous for your girls.

 

[ruthhope]

My son's pekins hang around his back yard until he or I go out there to feed them -- in their coop. Only once I am walking across the yard with the food will his ducks go inside. But they will do this at 4pm or 8pm so it is useful when our routines change.

In contrast, my flock of pekin and muscovy drakes are hanging out around their coop by 7pm [at the moment] and are a big niusence getting in the way and under my feet if I don't go out until 7.30pm. At this time of year, I let their bedding dry out during the day and go into the coop in the evening to add another layer of pine shavings where needed, and I return their clean and refilled water tubs. I fill up their food bowls in my back yard and bring them into the coop, too. It's all very difficult with either of the muscovy drakes "helping" me and its nigh on impossible with three yackety yack yacking pekins gathering round my legs. I need to get out before 6pm to get a bit of space for myself in the coop.

It seems to me that the common thread is feeding ducks in their coop/duck house at night draws ducks to their duck house!

 

[Lbisme]

Where and how do you feed them. I would train them to eat in their pen in the evening. Once in the pen to eat, I would close the pen.

I'm working on a routine for them. Thanks for the information and suggestions. I have another question for the DUCK Crew - We have a beautiful pond, they suddenly stopped going in - why? We have tried to bait any snapping turtles, which we have not seen, but try anyway and all we get are fish. Could it be floating grasses and weeds?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Could fish be biting their feet?

 

[Salixx]

When I was training my ducks to go to bed at night I put a light in their house. I do this too when I want the chickens to coop when their taking too long at dusk They all seem to prefer seeing better and go to the light.

It may or may not be too late but I also kept them in their house for a week or so before I started letting them out and herded them for another week after that while saying “go to bed” as a cue. They voluntarily would coop up at night after that. I also only provided feed in the coop so I’m sure that helped.