What lovely duck houses! Perhaps our refurnished chicken coop was too tall for the ducks, though I see some larger structures that are successful too. Maybe if I'd started my ducks as ducklings in the coop they'd like it better?
This thread must have escaped my attention for some time. Checking in to answer questions about my location, yes, I am in Ithaca New York. I haven't heard the bobcat this year, but I think I've lost three ducks this summer, unless they will surprise me and come out of the underbrush with ducklings soon. None of the drakes are missing. My neighbor said she thought she saw a bobcat running from her property onto ours, and another neighbor said she saw a reddish-brown creature (fox/bobcat?) sneaking up our hill into the bushes where a duck had been brooding eggs.
We've put up an eight foot deer fence, mostly wire, some plastic, all around the property. We found a couple of neatly nipped openings at the base of the plastic where we've seen groundhogs, so we put up chicken wire and folded it down over the grass on the plastic sections of fence. [None of that helped when my husband left the gate open last night and the deer got to the fruit trees just planted this year! : ( ] I don't know if the few inches under the driveway gate are enough to let predators in - weasels yes, but I'm hoping not foxes or raccoons, etc. Maybe raccoons can climb the fence though?
My best success this year has been a Jersey Giant hen who sneaked into our walled flower garden next to the house and hatched out a nice little clutch of 4 chicks. They are putting out their feathers now. I hope the integration into the rest of the flock goes smoothly. She's been such a great mom. Maybe I should try sneaking some duck eggs under the broody hens, since the ducks haven't been successful yet.
