dooleysm
Platinum Member
All this chicken talk has reminded me of a duck question I have.
We had various ducks around 2 summers ago, but they all ended up disappearing. In all but one case, the whole flock disappeared (3-5 each time). That time 1 survived, but was lost in the next round of disappearances. I assume dogs, as there are a number of them roaming around at any one time. I never found any piles of feathers, but I didn't look too hard either. I figured if it was a hawk they would have disappeared one at a time. They weren't tame enough to be easy to catch, so I doubt if anyone stole them.
We just had them around as decorations more than anything. I did eat one, but it was too much work to pluck and not worth the effort. They seemed to do a good job of cleaning up the pond though, keeping weeds down and so forth. Plus they were fun.
All that to say we want to try again. To that end we've come up with an idea for a 'duckhouse'. I thought I could make something that would start on land and extend out over the pond several feet. The idea would be to hopefully provide the ducks with a place to sleep that would be safe from air and ground assault. I think I could build something fairly cheap from material I have laying around. If it worked for year or so I would think about building something a bit nicer. If not, no big loss.
Any thoughts on whether this will work? Will the ducks use it? Any better ideas? Should I even bother?
We had various ducks around 2 summers ago, but they all ended up disappearing. In all but one case, the whole flock disappeared (3-5 each time). That time 1 survived, but was lost in the next round of disappearances. I assume dogs, as there are a number of them roaming around at any one time. I never found any piles of feathers, but I didn't look too hard either. I figured if it was a hawk they would have disappeared one at a time. They weren't tame enough to be easy to catch, so I doubt if anyone stole them.
We just had them around as decorations more than anything. I did eat one, but it was too much work to pluck and not worth the effort. They seemed to do a good job of cleaning up the pond though, keeping weeds down and so forth. Plus they were fun.
All that to say we want to try again. To that end we've come up with an idea for a 'duckhouse'. I thought I could make something that would start on land and extend out over the pond several feet. The idea would be to hopefully provide the ducks with a place to sleep that would be safe from air and ground assault. I think I could build something fairly cheap from material I have laying around. If it worked for year or so I would think about building something a bit nicer. If not, no big loss.
Any thoughts on whether this will work? Will the ducks use it? Any better ideas? Should I even bother?
