More Duck Drama

Our duck house is a creation I am proud of. I designed it, my husband built it and it is working out perfectly for the ducks and turkeys. We survived the earlier drama when the turkeys attacked the ducks and we had to build a screen between the two breeds. It has two separate covered runs for each poultry breed to hang out in and the fence is sturdy metal fencing. We thought we had the predator problem beat with this design. Only one problem. We didn't ever completely finish the bottoms of the fencing by blocking off the ground surrounding the fence, to prevent something from digging under. We forgot, I guess. Started another project and just forgot that we didn't cross our t's and dot our i's. So here's what happened the other day. When we arrived for the evening feeding, I looked up the hill at the duck pen and immediately noticed something was amiss. I heard ducks but there were no ducks in the duck pen. The ducks however, were all next door in the turkey pen. Why would they volunteer to go into the turkey pen and were they all ok? the last time they were together ended with one beat up bloody duck and another with a wing injury. I quickly counted heads and all were physically fine, just standing together in the turkey pen, in some sort of standoff with the tom turkey, Gus. I set about returning ducks to the duck pen. The ducks were dirty from foraging in the turkey pen without a pool to clean off in. After a swim the ducks were all clean and happy again. I looked around for an answer to this questionable situation. Then I noticed a hole under the fence. A largish hole dug under the fence and all the way into the duck pen. Hmmm. I first thought that my son's dog must have been visiting and dug the hole. But it really wasn't big enough for Jackson. I called my son anyway and he confirmed that the dogs were not walked up there recently. So what happened? My theory is that something did dig under the fence and enter the duck pen. The ducks being frightened, ran into the duck house side and broke through a small opening to the turkey side. Once over there, they probably couldn't remember how to return back. The ducks drank all the turkey's water and spent the rest of the afternoon waiting. I don't know how long they were there because it was sometime after lunch time check and before dinner. My husband reinforced the bottoms of the fence with large pieces of lumber and filled in the hole. The next morning, the hole was back. Something had revisited during the night. More lumber was placed to prevent digging. So far, no ducks have been harmed. We are adding more check ins during the day and looking to borrow a camera to catch the culprit on the recorder. Lessons learned- Finish the job you start, and never let your guard down where predators are concerned.

PS.  I should add that after this post was written, we did  add buried wire fencing to the duck pen.  This is a recommended
way to keep animals from digging into your pen.











this post was shared on