Woke up this morning to find one Mum duck and her ducklings all missing from their pen. I found a few feathers and a small amount of blood and that was it. I am presuming a pine marten or polecat had found a way in and had them. This is the first time we have lost birds like this and one of the reasons for building our new pen area.
All the birds have been placed inside dog crates in their pens tonight while others have been moved from the barn to our dog kennels.
I have yet to figure out how access was gained but will be investing in a few cage traps to put down incase the culprit returns.
Not good!
- lancashire lass
- Legendary Laner
- Posts: 6539
- Joined: 28 Jun 2007, 15:17
Re: Not good!
sorry to hear you lost one of your ducks and her ducklings
Have you managed to find out who is the culprit (pine marten / polecat does sound like a possibility) and are the other birds still safe after your intervention?
Re: Not good!
So far there has been no more issues but I will be adding an extra electric fence barrier in the coming weeks and continuing using dog crates for a while. Problem is we have a batch of broilers hatching at present, another batch of turkeys in a few days plus geese and ducks in rapid succession so a lot of juggling of pens along with work checking to ensure all is secure.
"Not all those who wander are lost"