posted 3 hours ago
We recently adopted three young Cherry Valley ducks from a rescue charity; apparently they are just a couple months old, though full sized, and have been raised in a barn with very limited human contact. We got them about a month ago and boy are they nervous! Everything (still) scares them, and they quack LOUDLY. Including in the middle of the night and early morning, and I've had a complaint from a neighbour. She was polite about it, but obviously this needs to be sorted out.
Probable reason for all-hours quacking: we have two more ducks, a mated pair, and the drake has been very aggressive towards them. Drakes are jerks in my opinion, but we've had this guy and his lovely mate for eight years now. He lives here, it's not really an option to get rid of him; his mate would be heartbroken I'm sure. He's been chasing them around in daylight hours, so probably doing it all night too. But these three ducks quack a lot, not just when being chased.
My quick fix after talking to the neighbour the other day: we locked up the mated pair in their own small yard and made another temporary small yard for the new ducks on the other side of the garden. Now the newbies are next to the neighbour on the other side and it may be he will want to have a word with me in the coming days too! So this is not a long term solution.
Long term options? Thinking out loud here:
I have a chicken coop and yard, with eleven chickens. Is it feasible to keep the new ducks locked up with the chickens and put them away at night in the coop? The coop is on that neighbour's side of the garden, but perhaps being inside would muffle any unsociable quacking? I also have a small detached garage which we use as a large shed; new ducks could be locked up at night in there too (but I dread to think of the mess). And one more place to separate them: we have a small coop and yard (currently empty) at my allotment, a few blocks away. We are not allowed cockerels on the allotments as we are a bit close to some houses (not as close as my neighbours though); while I'm willing to risk bringing them there, I may also get another noise complaint.
However, ideally I want to integrate all the ducks; they had all been free ranging over the whole garden together until the complaint. This is not the first time we've adopted new ducks, but none of the others were this nervous and loud. The last time we adopted new ducks it took a couple of months for that jerk drake to accept them. I can't let them wake the neighbours up for that long. Any suggestions please?