Re: My Ducks won't leave their pen

Linda Hardy wrote:
Hi Group,

I recently got 2 new female ducks, muchovies, they seemed to of settled in, getting on ok with the other two khaki campbell drakes, however I've opened the gate to their pen (my ducks tend to wander around the field most of the day), and the girls don't want to come out, no amount of enticing will make them leave the pen, I don't want to push them out but thought they might like to wander around the field as well, any tips to get them to be more sociable.

Oh dear - agoraphobic muscovies! Or could it be low self-esteem?

Can you persuade them to come out by walking backwards while dropping bits of something delicious just a little way ahead of them, till they actually get out of the pen far enough not to do a screeching U-turn and hurtle back home?

By the way I've been herding chickens because the pre-teens weren't going in and getting mash. By the time I was up and doing in the morning they were out in the run, and if I put mash out there it would have enticed even more sparrows and I'm too mean to waste good mash on sparrows! So I've been shutting the door, and if I want them to go in at night before they're all ready I tromp around over the sticks and tyres with my bamboo stick, rustling the point of it against the ground or the prunings or whatever till they all go round to the ramp and up into the house and I can close the door. I remembered the pictures of the Little Goose Girl with her stick. It really works. Much less fuss and panic than trying to gently shoo them along with your arms and hardly any break-outs dashing back in the wrong direction.


A L P

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