Um....this might be a weird duck question

[defenderinfaith]

So we did that stupid thing of "OH MY GOSH DUCKLINGS ARE SO CUTE LETS GET SOME" and came home with 2 ducklings.

Yes I know, that isn't how you should do things, but it is what it is.

Yesterday we finally discovered that yes one is female, the other we knew was male but we weren't sure about the other one. I suck at sexing birds.

Roxie laid an egg, thats basically how we figured this out lol......yeah....

Sadly she has picked the dog coop to lay in....so I had to collect her egg, and oh my gosh she and Ping are mad at me. I didn't realize ducks were so.....emotional?......sigh

any how

So basically my question is how do I get them to maybe move their little brooding home? What should I set up to lure them away from the kennel? I don't want our dogs eating the eggs or getting into a fight with Ping.....which has happened before (one of our dogs likes to lay/swim in the watering pool, where the ducks like to swim too, no one was injured, they bit her butt and she sat whining as they played in the water in front of her for like an hour).

I don't mind our ducks brooding (if thats the right word for ducks, again we didn't plan this well), but I can't leave them in the dog coop, so any suggestions? Please

 

[Gray Farms]

Put a couple dummy eggs in their coop to encourage them to set in there. Also you could raise the dog house up some to discourage the ducks from using it.

 

[defenderinfaith]

It's not a dog house in the normal sense, its part of a large structure, with fencing, the people who lived here before kept way more chickens than we have and built a coop that has a section that is 20' x 20' where we keep the dogs when we are away. The chicken coop is on the other half of this structure, blocked off, with a 10' x 10' section and housing with hutches. We;ve tried keeping the door shut but they keep finding a way in. The toddler who learned to undo latches isn't helpoing lol

 

[Amiga]

Take a deep breath. With great respect and appreciation for you, please - fix the latch so that the toddler cannot open the door, and so that the ducks cannot get inside.

I strongly suggest some social engineering - ducks can push dogs' buttons and it only takes one snap and you have a tragedy.

So I would get directive with all the critters - ducks stay out of the dog house, ducks go to their duckspace (ceramic eggs may be a big help, as well as treats when they are in the duck house.

I would focus on everyone's safety and security.

 

[defenderinfaith]

Last night sent husband out to fix the latch, its now a locking one. the birds are free range and our dogs are mostly terrified of them, but now everyone is seperated, yay, now to find ceramic eggs