Someone is stealing my Pekin drakes!

[TennesseeTruly]

First let me say that I'm rural. Not in the city. I have well over 50 ducks of every kind here. Pekins, Cayugas, Mallards, Rouens, Calls, Runners, you name it, I probably have it!

Two weeks ago, I noticed that we were missing a Pekin drake. Now my drakes are NOT small, they're not even normal sized. Many have come here asking if they're Jumbo's. They're not but they're well fed and you can see it by looking at them. This drake didn't just fly away. It didn't walk away. We were puzzled as to what happened to it.

Today, a fellow BYC'r and her family came to pick up some Sebastopol geese and my last two extra Pekin drakes.

We load the geese into the car, we head over to the ducks and I only see 3 Pekin drakes. Two of them are my breeders. All the rest in the pen are my female breeders except the one extra drake.

There's another drake missing!! We searched high and low (The Pekins have a 3 pen system). Nope, there were only those 3 drakes.

This is absolutely ridiculous! There were 4 drakes there yesterday afternoon when I was in the pen. Hubby said all 4 drakes were there when he put them into their house last night. So between 11pm last night and sometime today, someone swiped another Pekin drake.

These drakes weigh between 13 & 15 lbs each. I'm at such a loss! And angry that someone would just think it was okay to come onto my property and take our ducks. I have to find my nest cam and get it installed so I can see who's doing this!

Laurie

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Could it be a bobcat or other predator?

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

time for lots of locks on your pens! if it is a 2-legged predator that is the only thing to hinder them from entry. good luck!

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Quote:
Its quite possible. What's surprising is that there's no evidence at all of a predator taking one. No blood, feathers, and such. We're very heavily wooded!

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

When my MIL was losing her Rouens it was the same way...they couldn't figure it out until they saw a bobcat packing one off...

 

[DuckyMom]

Being that you're heavily wooded your at a greater risk of predators. Do you use chicken wire to keep them in? predators can easily reach through and (not to be graffic) remove ducks peice by peice. I would recomend using a metal hardware cloth. Its one of the only things that can keep predators out. I would almost wonder If this was a racoon? they tend to be able to do this sorth of thing sneakily.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

I think you hit on something. About a week ago, I noticed large foot prints on my car. We had a stray cat hanging around and I told my husband that I was sure it wasn't from that stray cat because the prints were too large. But they most certainly did look like cat prints.

We saw bobcats here shortly after we moved here and haven't seen them since but I know they're here. I'm pretty sure this is the answer. Now I have to secure other pens as well.

 

[KansasKid]

Sounds more like a bobcat since there obviously dragging them off leaving no evidence, but another thought might be birds of prey. I know your pekins are heavy but I have seen hawks and eagles carry of small mammals of decent size. although if it were a bird of prey i would suspect they would leave a pile of feathers somewhere around.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Birds of prey are out of the question because of the heavy tree cover. I live in the woods and everything is literally covered by trees. A raccoon definitely didn't take these. These drakes are bigger than raccoons. A coyote could take them but not without a mess trying to get back over the 6 foot fencing with a 13 to 15 lb Pekin drake in its mouth. But a bobcat or cougar, (which btw, the state of TN denies we have but have <cougars> been sited about 30 miles west of me) could take the 6 foot fence with a Pekin without a huge struggle. Especially with the way cats hunt.

We'll be adding electric wires to our fencing to prevent any more losses. It just puzzles me because it's only the Pekins and none of the others.

 

[KansasKid]

I'm with you thinking its a bobcat/cougar. But owls could be a possibility in the heavily wooded area your in. But again I'm still with you on the bobcat/cougar thing because the owls usually just eat the brain/head of the bird and leave the rest for evidence.