Thoughts on Yard Destruction?

[lomine]

Is the part of the yard that floods dirt or rock? I'm thinking if it's a natural waterway you could just leave it and let the ducks have fun when it floods. If it's a wet mess anyway I'm wondering if the ducks would do much more damage then the flood waters. You could always let them on it and see how it goes. If that won't work, maybe you could put up temporary fencing when it floods.

You might think about setting up their new pen with something other than grass. In my run I have part pea gravel and part deep litter. I have to say in warm weather I prefer the pea gravel because I just have to spray it down with the hose. In the really cold weather it freezes and is hard to clean. But I have to keep it because it does work really well for draining away the water from their pond. I do like the deep litter though. It doesn't take much work to keep it from smelling and it doesn't take much litter (I use pine shavings and straw). I have also read that some use artificial turf and it works pretty well. But I image that's expensive. Wood mulch is another option.

I don't image culling will be easy. It shouldn't be. Cymbaline makes a good point. You could wait till spring and see which males are the more aggressive breeders and cull them. You could also separate the males from the females during the breeding season. If you want fertile eggs you could just leave one or two with the females. You could also look and see if you can find some more females.

 

[cymbaline]

I don't image culling will be easy. It shouldn't be. Cymbaline makes a good point. You could wait till spring and see which males are the more aggressive breeders and cull them. You could also separate the males from the females during the breeding season. If you want fertile eggs you could just leave one or two with the females. You could also look and see if you can find some more females.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that option. I've done that quite a few times in the past, divided my pen down the middle with some extra hardware cloth for a few weeks/months until they calmed down. I just don't have the heart to even rehome my boys, much less...you know.

 

[PotatoWaffles]

@cymbaline

That's sad about your mallard and I know for sure one of the boys is a jerk lol. The three boys that will (probably) be culled are between 3-4 months old, so they'll be extremely hormonal come spring. I wish I could rehome them, but my husband really wants to process them. That was part of the deal with letting me have my dream pet, that he would get to hatch his own and eat the boys. At least I get to keep the girl that we hatched, my precious Snowflake

@lomine

The part that floods is grass, which sometimes dies off due to flooding and it becomes bare dirt. I have no doubt the ducks would have an absolute blast when it floods. I guess my main worry with that is that we share that flooded spot with the neighbor. Her yard floods in that corner too, so it would sweep whatever feathers and things there are into her yard as well. I suppose the first thing I should do is find out if I'm even allowed to fence that are off.

I really like the pea gravel idea. I imagine it's expensive but worth it. Is it just smooth small stone? Does it cause sores on their feet? Do you just spray it with the hose every now and then, maybe once a month or couple of weeks? That's doable. My husband and I both work full time jobs, so I'm looking for the easiest maintenance too, because neither of us have much spare time.

And nooooooo more females lol. Getting rid of excess males is really the only option. I have 14 ducks and I already feel like I'm drowning in ducks lol. And I don't want more than the backyard can sustain. It's crazy tho, I see pretty ducks on this site and makes me want them... Anconas are reaaaaally tempting me lol

 

[lomine]

The pea gravel was not really all that expensive. If you get it in bags at the home improvement stores it would be really expensive. I got mine at a landscaping place that sells things by weight. I got a truck load (F250) for I think $30. Way less then I thought.

I have not had any problems with their feet. In warm weather I would spray it down every other day. I have 4 ducks and the pea gravel area is about 90 sqf. Only took a couple of minutes. My ground is mostly sand so I have good drainage. I will say that it didn't drain as well on those few days it rained a lot. So if you live in an area that gets a lot of rain you really need to make sure you have good drainage.

 

[cayugaducklady]

I'm having brain farts and cant figure out how to quote a post that has multiple quotes in it.

We didn't want to keep the hostas where they were growing because we're turning that into a kitchen garden.

I've only had my ducks for less than a year so I don't know how effective their hosta murdering campaign was.

Fro the plants you want to keep alive, something simple to discourage them like landscape edging or chicken wire would probably work.

I use a base of microclover everywhere (house yard, duck area etc. because it tolerates foot traffic and the ducks don't go crazy eating it. Then I plant more palatable plants for them and some other taller plants so they can gossip/hide in them. It's kept their duck yard as green as possible this winter.

Any low growing grass, herb or clover should be fine. I'd check to make sure it's not poisonous to ducks.

I picked clover because i desperately need more cover to protect my soil and nitrogen fixing to boost my other plantings.

I second the mulch idea. When we free walk around the yard the ducsk really seem to love sifting through the mulched landscaped beds. This time of year they find salamanders and winterized bugs.

 

[FaerieGlynne]

I'm having brain farts and cant figure out how to quote a post that has multiple quotes in it.

We didn't want to keep the hostas where they were growing because we're turning that into a kitchen garden.

I've only had my ducks for less than a year so I don't know how effective their hosta murdering campaign was.

Fro the plants you want to keep alive,  something simple to discourage them like landscape edging  or chicken wire would probably work.

I use a base of microclover everywhere (house yard, duck area etc. because it tolerates foot traffic and the ducks don't go crazy eating it.  Then I  plant more palatable plants for them and some other taller plants so they can gossip/hide in them.  It's kept their  duck yard  as green as possible this winter.

Any low growing  grass, herb or clover should be fine.  I'd check to make sure it's not poisonous to ducks.

I picked clover because i desperately need more cover to protect my soil and nitrogen fixing to boost my other plantings.

I second the mulch idea.  When we free walk around the yard the ducsk really seem to love sifting through the mulched landscaped beds.  This time of year they find salamanders and winterized bugs.

Funny, I was just going to mention that I'm going to plant some red creeping thyme to help with a shady spot it the back yard. The ducks will have limited access to that area any way because there are just better spots to put them. But when I run them through for occasional pest control I bet they won't even do much harm since it supposedly will hold well to all the foot traffic. This is my theory anyway. I'll let you know how it goes in practice several months from now.

 

[Gone-Quackers]

I'm having brain farts and cant figure out how to quote a post that has multiple quotes in it.

We didn't want to keep the hostas where they were growing because we're turning that into a kitchen garden.

I've only had my ducks for less than a year so I don't know how effective their hosta murdering campaign was.

Fro the plants you want to keep alive, something simple to discourage them like landscape edging or chicken wire would probably work.

I use a base of microclover everywhere (house yard, duck area etc. because it tolerates foot traffic and the ducks don't go crazy eating it. Then I plant more palatable plants for them and some other taller plants so they can gossip/hide in them. It's kept their duck yard as green as possible this winter.

Any low growing grass, herb or clover should be fine. I'd check to make sure it's not poisonous to ducks.

I picked clover because i desperately need more cover to protect my soil and nitrogen fixing to boost my other plantings.

I second the mulch idea. When we free walk around the yard the ducsk really seem to love sifting through the mulched landscaped beds. This time of year they find salamanders and winterized bugs.

I'm having brain farts and cant figure out how to quote a post that has multiple quotes in it.

We didn't want to keep the hostas where they were growing because we're turning that into a kitchen garden.

I've only had my ducks for less than a year so I don't know how effective their hosta murdering campaign was.

Fro the plants you want to keep alive, something simple to discourage them like landscape edging or chicken wire would probably work.

I use a base of microclover everywhere (house yard, duck area etc. because it tolerates foot traffic and the ducks don't go crazy eating it. Then I plant more palatable plants for them and some other taller plants so they can gossip/hide in them. It's kept their duck yard as green as possible this winter.

Any low growing grass, herb or clover should be fine. I'd check to make sure it's not poisonous to ducks.

I picked clover because i desperately need more cover to protect my soil and nitrogen fixing to boost my other plantings.

I second the mulch idea. When we free walk around the yard the ducsk really seem to love sifting through the mulched landscaped beds. This time of year they find salamanders and winterized bugs.

I spent most of the summer trying to figure out why my new black raspberry bushes weren't producing raspberries. Finally I realized the the ducks were probably eating them. Yes, I think my ducks outsmarted me- not hard to do sometimes. I think fencing will be my friend this spring.