Are You Smarter Than a Duck?

The time had come to move the ducks, and by default, the turkeys into the main enclosure with the pool! We were moving the hens out and into the greenhouse area where the ducks had been, and securing the nesting area for the broody hen to finish out her business. Even with all the handling as ducklings, it seems that ducks are just less into snuggles than the chickens and turkeys. Moving them was stressful and I did it as quick as I could, but they were not happy to be separated from the turkeys. They stayed close to the gate and yelled back to the turkeys. Once the turkeys were moved, it took them about 15 minutes to explore their way to the kiddie pool. They are used to a kiddie pool and made no attempt to explore any further. 

After 20 minutes I was impatient, and wanted to see them in the pond so I moved the kiddie pool closer to the pond. They ignored the pond and stayed by the kiddie pool. They had found the feeder and had little incentive to explore further. I tossed a few rocks into the pond, which barely grabbed their attention. The turkeys, being the little raptors that they are, were eager to check out the new space. In fact, before the ducks knew it was there, the turkeys had already had a drink. 

After another 20 minutes passed I decided to remove the kiddie pool from the equation, leaving them with no choice but to find the pond. Maybe the liner was throwing them off, but they were leery of going to the pond. Once they found it though they took to it, like, well, you know...

We were nervous about predators as the owls and hawks have been feasting on the hens lately. In the last few weeks we have lost 3. While I hate to lose any, I would be especially upset if we lost any ducks or turkeys given how young they are, how much they cost to purchase, and how much effort we have put into the pond.

The ducks would prefer to stay in their pond overnight, but until we have more than a small veil of bird netting over the pond we corral them in each night. I lure the turkeys to me with bird seed, and the ducks are just fat and greedy curious enough to come take a look. Once they are out of the pond we can shepherd them into the pen. They don't appreciate the trickery, but they settle down quickly.

We haven't seen too many fish since the ducks moved in so the feeder goldfish might be all gone. I would place my bets on the koi given how well hidden they have been since going into the pond. The same goes for the pleco. Even after a week, the pond needs to be pumped, which is fine because we've planted a mixture of green manure from Johnny's, pumpkins and leftover bird seed around the enclosure. I've always heard the pumpkin acts as a natural de-wormer, but I'm having trouble finding the science to corroborate that idea. I'll spend some time researching this and get back with another post to follow up on that idea.