Added some ducks to the little pond

[EddieWalker]

Every month we have this HUGE flea market in Canton, TX. It covers over 200 acres and I've heard you can find anything there if you look long enough. There is a section called Dog Alley where you can buy all sorts of pets, including ducks.

I wanted four male Rouens. They are large meat ducks that are too big to fly, but look like wild Mallards, just allot bigger. The reason for males only is to avoid babies and control how many I have. The pond is only 3/4 of an acre, so I don't want dozens of ducks pooping all over the place. I think four shoudl have minimal impact.

They cost $30 for all four. You can get them cheaper if you buys a bunch of babies, but I don't want to deal with that. These four are all about half a year old.

We let them go in the pond and they are on there own. I built an island in it just for this day, which should give them a safe place to sleep at night. We made sure they were on the island when it got dark tonight. We also don't know if they have ever had a pond to swim in before, but they don't really like swimming. They really like it along the edge of the water, but on land.

Steph took these pics so every one could see them.

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

Hey Eddie, looks like your family keeps growing!

I always learn something from your posts. I am thinking of a "Very" small pond down by the creek behind the house. Any ideas on how to keep the foxes away from the ducks. I've lost a few hens last year and imagine ducks would be just as susceptible

Curt

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Eddie, do you have many predators in your area? Around here we do not get very many ducklings unless we buy them from a store. Between the fox, mink, snapping turtles, racoons, coyotes and crows there are too many predators for our ducks to be self sustaining. We have to add some every year in hopes they will live long enough to be wise to the predators. Every time a duck sits on a nest a racoon will find it before they hatch. We trap the coons out of here non stop but there are always more. The hard ones to catch are the mink and weasles though and they will take a full grown duck.

But if you don't have the predator problems there like we do here then the four males will be fun to watch.

 

[LMTC]

Turtles are absolute "heck" on ducks. Big bass as well. Even medium bass can and will take ducklings.

"It is best that such wetlands not have many bass larger than one pound because bass eat small ducklings"

Good luck. We've never been able to keep ducks around. Fish, turtles, racoons, etc. are too tough on them on a small, easily accessed pond.

 

[Tororider]

Eddie,
I noticed you referenced your ducks in another post. Any update on how your ducks have fared and what your predator situation is? I think you made that pond so I don't know if you have been able to keep turtles out, and I know you got larger ducks so I am guessing bass weren't a problem. Just interested.

We have coyotes, but if, when we build our pond we put an island in it, they may have a chance.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm down to two ducks from the original four. The goose left just before Christmas last year and never returned. Steph and the kids still comment on the goose and hope it comes back, but it's not looking good.

The ducks fought pretty bad with each other at first. Two were bigger then the other two and for awhile, they bullied the smaller ones around. Then something changed and the two smaller ones started attacking the biggest one. He started spending time away from the other three to the point that he'd leave the pond and sit out in the trees. One day he was gone.

The smaller two then went from ignoring the big one, or attacking him. It was pretty sad and we all felt sorry for the big one, but we also remembered how he attacked the smaller ones too. They started wondering off out of the pond quite a bit. At first, we'd see them in our yard eating bird seed from our feeders. Then we'd see them out in the trees even further out. We told our son, who was 6 years old at the time, to go ahead and chase them. He loved that!!! They would run to the pond and always get away from him, but if he was older and a little more experienced, I'm sure he could have cought them pretty easy.

We did what we could to keep them in the pond, but it got so bad that we had pictures of them on our game came at our deer feeder. That's 200 yards from our house and probably about the same distance from the pond. A day after the pictures were taken of them on the game cam, the other large duck disapeared. We're sure a coyote got him, but it could have been a bobcat or ???

Since then, the other two have stayed in the pond. We think they got the you know what scared out of them and they finally learned no to leave he water where it's safe.

These two get along great and it seems to be a good fit. We feed them corn on the shoreline and they eat the catfish food when we feed them. They have eaten every bug that was on the pond and are doing a great job of keeping the spider population down in that area.

There are no bass in that pond, just catfish, bluegill and minnows. The catfish are just over 3 pounds in size, so it will be some time until they are large enough to bother the ducks. Do catfish attack ducks?

So far, there are no turtles in that pond. It's kind of hard to describe, but the pond is sort of at a high spot on my land. My neighbor has land that's higher and the water flows from there to the pond as does some from part of my land. But otherwise, it's a long ways down to where the turtles live. It could happen, but they will be walking for out in the open for quite a awhile to get there.

Otherwise, they are fun to watch while fishing or while we're just hanging out in that area.

Eddie

 

[charlz]

Time for a couple of females! Nothing cuter than little ducklings following Mom all over. Since there is an island they would probably have a chance to grow up. I imagine the predators would keep the population down for you. I had a really good old female who hatched out 13 one time, all but one made it to adulthood. The one that didn't was because the neighbors dog caught them traveling across the hayfield.

 

[wushaw]

Ya can't keep turtles out of a pond since they migrate from pond to pond.
Ever wonder why you see so many in the road?

 

[Tororider]

Eddie,
I know you have rouens, but Charlz, what kind do you have? We don't have a pond yet, but we are working on having one dug this winter and the idea of pond ducks sounds pretty cool. So I am extremely interested in learning from all of you guys.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Depending on your location and where you put the pond if you have predators it isn't going to matter what type of ducks you get as they will be food for something. If you don't have predators and want the ducks to be friendly I have had better luck raising the ducks individually as if they are in a group when one runs they all run. Raising them seperate they look to you as their parent and are like a kid. Our best duck is a mix between a Rouen and a Pekin (sp?) It ended up all black with a little white and has stripped feet which are kind of neet.

Racoons are terrible for nesting ducks. Regardless to how many hens we have (we had 7 pairs at one point and a few extra males), the hens go off and hide their nest as best they can and the coons will still find them here some how. The one was nested tight to our house in the flowers. We didn't notice her there for the longest time. Just about when we thought the eggs were ready to hatch a coon got them. We trapped 26 coons in one month this spring. We trapped coons all of last year also. These coons are not let go here either. They are either eliminated or given to a friend who takes them to the reservation to train their dogs. I don't know how we get so many but I wish they would go away for a year so the ducks can hatch out a bunch of little ones. Hopefully they will stay out of the big pond where the bass and turtles are till the little guys are big enough to avoid being eaten. The lone pair of Canadian geese gave up nesting here (or were killed) They nested here 4 years in a row. Each year the nest was in the same spot (it was a great spot) then one year something found the nest and they moved to a new spot that was not as good and then left and haven't returned. Of all the time they were here they hatched out a good group each year but the last and of all the little ones only 2 ever made it to be big enough to fly away.

I like ducks but be prepared to lose some or all if you have a lot of predators. And if you are raising them from ducklings make sure you have a good home for them that rats or weasles can't get into as they will wipe them all out if they can.

The best pond for ducks is a shallow pond with no bass at all. Turtles are going to find it but the bass are the worst enemy for baby ducks. Crows and hawks are also a predator for baby ducks.