If you raise ducklings in a pen and then start letting them out for part of the day, will they go back into the pen at night? Or are they easy to "herd" into a pen?

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), January 29, 2002

Answers

Christina, mine go into the coop at night, this is where I feed them. I let them free range all day and they come back to the coop at dusk. They are also real easy to herd if needed. Best of luck!

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), January 29, 2002.

mine do. including my lone Pekin drake who was raised with chicks. ducks go to the duck house at dusk and the Pekin goes to "roost" with the chickens. can't afford a psychiatrist. doesn't get much easier than ducks.

-- B. Lackie - Zone3 (cwrench@hotmail.com), January 29, 2002.

Christina, this might depend on whether your ducks are out on a pond during the day. Sometimes in this situation they might be reluctant to leave it for the duck house. However, as mentioned above, if you feed them just in the evening, they will race you to the overnight pen to be fed and then just close them in. If they are Indian Runners, they will win! LOL LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), January 29, 2002.

I was going to post a little story about my silly ducks laying eggs like there's no tomorrow, but your post caught my eye. I don't claim to know a lot about my birds, just that I love em. I have more trouble getting them to leave me and graze when I'm outside.They all think I'm Mama, and follow me so close that I have to watch so I don't step on their toes! They seem to think they have to help me do everything. All I've done is talk to them always, hold them as much as I can, and try to be specific about feeding times. They are always there.

-- Littlefarmer (mothergoosefarm@hotmail.com), January 29, 2002.

They will come in at nite if you train them. I raise my own. When they are big enough to go out, I pen them up for a week. I then put them in a fence playpen for a couple of hours, then back to their home. After they are big enough & get the routine of walking back to their home, I let them out for longer periods. I whistle while walking them & feed them when we return to the barn. Now all 108 will start for the barn when I whistel. Watch for predators & monitor their safety the first days they are free. Susan

-- Susan Dunn (sld5825@comteck.com), February 04, 2002.

Just found this site-sorry if I'm not following proper etiquette. I'm thrilled I found this topic. We've got 23 ducks, 3 geese that we're considering free ranging during the day. They've got an outside pen that's about 2400 square feet, but I'm sure they'd have a blast wandering around during the day. We tried this before with about 14 ducks-it worked fine for a few days, then they discovered the neighbors pond (walked right past ours, of course). We were down to calling the neighbors to herd the ducks our way at night. One day a female rouen came back with a torn wing-think the got it caught in some fencing. $500 worth of vet bills later (ok, I'm a sucker and we're extremely lucky to have a wild animal vet in our small town) I'm torn between letting the ducks enjoy themselves and watching them disappear or get injured. Just had to share-any more ideas?

-- Michele Heaton (mjones1628@aol.com), February 15, 2002.