protecting free range ducks at night. duck coop, other options?

Hola!

We have some Khaki Campbell ducks, wich we get mainly as a "snails patrol", and also can be for eggs and meat in the future. They are totally free range ducks around the property and we like it that way as they don't mess around a lot (not like chickens, wich are evil hehehe). But everynight we put them in a small cage to protect them in case of predators presence (mostly boars, wild cats and genets, not super massive but they are around).

So they dont go by themselves like the chickens, and every evening we have to put them in, wich feels a bit slaving for ourselves. Now with the good weather is okay, but I was wondering if we could have some more flexible way to close them and protect them from other creatures.

Those who have them free range, how do you keep them? Or just let them be? I am looking for inspiration, as we are getting tired of putting them inside every day (although is good fun for the kids)

Hi Antonio,
Ducks can be trained to return to a coop/house at night based on a call. I believe it has to do with feeding them treats and calling at the same time. I know Jack Spirko did this with his ducks and probably has some videos on it. Goldshaw Farms also does a call for the ducks and may have videos on how he did it. I'm sorry I don't recall the exact method, but it is possible. It will take some work at first, but then will alleviate this extra work you have.

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Antonio,
Ducks can be trained to return to a coop/house at night based on a call. I believe it has to do with feeding them treats and calling at the same time. I know Jack Spirko did this with his ducks and probably has some videos on it. Goldshaw Farms also does a call for the ducks and may have videos on how he did it. I'm sorry I don't recall the exact method, but it is possible. It will take some work at first, but then will alleviate this extra work you have.

ok, I will search for that and see what can I do

Antonio Hache wrote:

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Antonio,
Ducks can be trained to return to a coop/house at night based on a call. I believe it has to do with feeding them treats and calling at the same time. I know Jack Spirko did this with his ducks and probably has some videos on it. Goldshaw Farms also does a call for the ducks and may have videos on how he did it. I'm sorry I don't recall the exact method, but it is possible. It will take some work at first, but then will alleviate this extra work you have.

ok, I will search for that and see what can I do

You can use dogs. Ours were always around ducks and chickens as puppies, so they see them as friends.

Just thought I'd add, we have Muscovies, and know exactly what you're talking about. They are a lot more stubborn than the chickens about going in their tractors at night. All our birds are free range during the day, but we keep them in mobile tractors at night for protection. I hate putting them away at night. It can be very aggravating. We let nesting birds stay out (as long as their nests are in a reasonable spot). We won't tolerate nesting near a creek (wild animal highway). The females that build nests in random places across the landscape are definitely at risk of predation. Our main predator is the Opposum. They call the animal intuto and rabo pela here. Luckily we've found that covering the nesting bird at night with a simple plastic milk crate is sufficient to keep them safe. At least we've never had any incidents. We have lost plenty of muscovies that we never covered.

The birds are on a different hill than where our house is, so the dogs seldom patrol the area, especially if we haven't done any weed maintenance on the property for months. Our dogs have very strong instincts, and they will kill an opposum on sight. They are good at hunting rodents too, and can often sniff out the nests of field mice. We gave a lot of affection to our dogs as puppies so they are best friends and follow us everywhere.  This means they hang out by the house and not near our birds. Ideally you'd house the older puppies near the ducks and never give them affection. Oh yeah, we don't have any of those trendy "livestock guardian" dogs either. We just got the local mutt puppies from the village. You don't need any of those fancy breeds, just make sure you correct the puppies sternly everytime you see them getting a little too rough with the birds. Our dogs somehow seem to know that the birds are of value to us. We used to give them the occasional dead bird, but realized that's a bad idea. Now they will never eat any dead animals. Also train them to respect the eggs. We feed old eggs, but never let the dogs see the shells.

We've lost plenty of birds in the year since we started doing this out here. If you can encourage the ducks to stay near each other every night, you can probably solve all the predator problems with one properly raised dog. Try the milk crate idea for the nesting birds too.

Antonio, do you feed your ducks any feed, or do they just forage? Are they already tending to "stick together", or are they all over?

We have Khakis and as a rule they're "groupies", so if you get one person to "lead" and another person to encourage any stragglers, they can be trained. We have an enclosed shelter for bed that's generously large, and due to aerial predators, I use a portable run made of dog exercise pen sections (which is a big nuisance to move, but essential on my farm).

They get soaked wheat in the morning in the water buckets in their run, so they're motivated to head there and usually figure out where the door is on there own, but there are days...

On those days, I grab a plastic hockey stick we've had for decades and practice my "stick handling skills" Happy Chicken Farm style! It's a non-contact sport which involves moving just the right amount in the right direction to influence the gaggle of ducks to move in the opposite direction. The stick both expands my footprint, and the blade is down at their level.

Since they're dependent on forage for the rest of the day, they are pretty motivated to "bedtime - bedtime duckies" as then they get their ration of chicken feed. As mentioned above, they're pretty motivated by food!

I had to use the stick a *lot* at the beginning as they learned, but now, many days I don't need it at all. Also, at the beginning, I used some extra fence panels to make a bit of a funnel to help head them into the door.  

In my ecosystem, secure night time housing is the only option. Owls, coons, mink, feral cats/dogs and there's even the possibility of cougar.

Jay Angler wrote:Antonio, do you feed your ducks any feed, or do they just forage? Are they already tending to "stick together", or are they all over?

We have Khakis and as a rule they're "groupies", so if you get one person to "lead" and another person to encourage any stragglers, they can be trained. We have an enclosed shelter for bed that's generously large, and due to aerial predators, I use a portable run made of dog exercise pen sections (which is a big nuisance to move, but essential on my farm).

They get soaked wheat in the morning in the water buckets in their run, so they're motivated to head there and usually figure out where the door is on there own, but there are days...

On those days, I grab a plastic hockey stick we've had for decades and practice my "stick handling skills" Happy Chicken Farm style! It's a non-contact sport which involves moving just the right amount in the right direction to influence the gaggle of ducks to move in the opposite direction. The stick both expands my footprint, and the blade is down at their level.

Since they're dependent on forage for the rest of the day, they are pretty motivated to "bedtime - bedtime duckies" as then they get their ration of chicken feed. As mentioned above, they're pretty motivated by food!

I had to use the stick a *lot* at the beginning as they learned, but now, many days I don't need it at all. Also, at the beginning, I used some extra fence panels to make a bit of a funnel to help head them into the door.  

In my ecosystem, secure night time housing is the only option. Owls, coons, mink, feral cats/dogs and there's even the possibility of cougar.

Hola Jay!

They just forage and are groupies, always together. And every evening they go to the same spot, where we put them in a cage. So I guess I need maybe something bigger. Would you share with me a picture of your setup? I think I visualize it, but need inspiration ☺️☺️

Scott Obar wrote:Just thought I'd add, we have Muscovies, and know exactly what you're talking about. They are a lot more stubborn than the chickens about going in their tractors at night. All our birds are free range during the day, but we keep them in mobile tractors at night for protection. I hate putting them away at night. It can be very aggravating. We let nesting birds stay out (as long as their nests are in a reasonable spot). We won't tolerate nesting near a creek (wild animal highway). The females that build nests in random places across the landscape are definitely at risk of predation. Our main predator is the Opposum. They call the animal intuto and rabo pela here. Luckily we've found that covering the nesting bird at night with a simple plastic milk crate is sufficient to keep them safe. At least we've never had any incidents. We have lost plenty of muscovies that we never covered.

The birds are on a different hill than where our house is, so the dogs seldom patrol the area, especially if we haven't done any weed maintenance on the property for months. Our dogs have very strong instincts, and they will kill an opposum on sight. They are good at hunting rodents too, and can often sniff out the nests of field mice. We gave a lot of affection to our dogs as puppies so they are best friends and follow us everywhere.  This means they hang out by the house and not near our birds. Ideally you'd house the older puppies near the ducks and never give them affection. Oh yeah, we don't have any of those trendy "livestock guardian" dogs either. We just got the local mutt puppies from the village. You don't need any of those fancy breeds, just make sure you correct the puppies sternly everytime you see them getting a little too rough with the birds. Our dogs somehow seem to know that the birds are of value to us. We used to give them the occasional dead bird, but realized that's a bad idea. Now they will never eat any dead animals. Also train them to respect the eggs. We feed old eggs, but never let the dogs see the shells.

We've lost plenty of birds in the year since we started doing this out here. If you can encourage the ducks to stay near each other every night, you can probably solve all the predator problems with one properly raised dog. Try the milk crate idea for the nesting birds too.

Gracias! In October we will have a dog ☺️

Scott Obar wrote:Oh yeah, we don't have any of those trendy "livestock guardian" dogs either. We just got the local mutt puppies from the village. You don't need any of those fancy breeds, ...

Livestock guard dogs are not "trendy".  They are specific breeds bred for thousands of years to bond closely with family and animals and, if necessary, give their lives to protect them.  They are among the most ancient and useful dog breeds.  I'm glad you are happy with your dog, but there isn't any need to be disparaging to what is arguably the most useful of all dog types.

When a day old I start saying ... hey little duckies ... by the time they are older they come running to see what is up.

Depending on the predators you have, if you have a big pond with a house on an island protects the ducks.

It can also be a swimming island, for example you put your coop on two barrels, attached to ropes. Then you can pull in the duck coop to clean etc, then put it back at the centre of the pond.

And here I found it again, the way to have a protected area into which the ducks dive in the evening to be protected from the fox. There is a good self-explanatory picture at the bottom of the link.

https://www.permaculturenews.org/2012/06/21/veg-design-solutions-part-one-the-chicken-fox-filter/