I raised two ducklings this spring. I have a standard mallard male and an apricot female and they're very friendly and they imprinted on me a lot when they were young. They're now fully grown, and they come up and stand on my front porch for about four hours every night before going back to their coop where they live with the chickens. I would be fine with it except they poop everywhere! I was wondering if anyone maybe knows why they do it or how to keep them off? Thanks, Iris
Did they live inside before they went outside? You probably need to manually move them to the coop and lock any fences or gates. (Speaking of that, if you are leaving the chicken area open so that they can do that on their own, are the chickens well protected too?) Their behavior should change soon by doing that.
LOL.. yeah, pretty typical, i have a few here that we had to 'help' hatch which landed us with imprinted babies... they are what i call trip over ducks... they are all underfoot. Other than physically herding them back to the coop, they will probably continue to do this for awhile... i do get the annoyance of the porches, my mothers bring all their littles to my front door to feed without the chaos of the flocks...
"Too"... I think you're safe. My newest won't let me leave the room, much less the house without screaming non-stop, starving himself, and more. I can't get a diaper on him, and have to plan babysitters for my kids because only my kids can babysit him if i want to get groceries. *sigh*
They stayed in the house in a brooder for three weeks but now they go sleep in the coop every night. I live out in the middle of nowhere so the ducks and chickens just leave the coop every morning and go anywhere they please.
I have three imprinted on me... Plus three more..I free range mine and they have lived outside since two weeks old...They live in a 10x10 dog run with a shelter..If I have them out to play and need to go inside the house, they come to the back door and wait for me..Sometimes they Quack their heads off to get me to come back out quicker...Silly birds...I guess we are loved? I never think of them as too imprinted..All I have to do is call and they come running.. Cheers
