The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Bionic on February 22, 2013, 10:24:02 am
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OH found one dead, lying upside down in the pond on Tuesday. After scooping it out he said there was blood on its legs but not much else.
This morning I noticed the other duck also lying upside down in the pond. Haven't retrieved it yet but I am wondering what is getting at them.
If its a fox surely he would be eating them.
Could it be my pair of geese? They are getting a bit tetchy as its mating time.
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Oh no! poor ducks :(
If it was a fox, I would very much doubt they would be in the pond. I think geese would be a logical explanation. Or if you have a drake, maybe he is being overzealous and drowning them?
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I have known geese to kill ducks at this time of year. :(
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I have known geese to kill ducks at this time of year. :(
Thats what I was afraid of Karen. I was thinking of getting some more at Ffairfach poultry market tomorrow but will probably wait until the geese aren't so frisky.
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How dreadful. I didn't think birds were so vicious. I live near the Gartmorn Dam SSSI where there are great numbers of all bird types - swans, geese, ducks, moorhens, coot - living side by side.Never seen any dead ones. Must ask the Rangers next time I'm there
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Drakes can drown the ducks this time of year as they get frisky.
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Sorry to hear that Bionic. Our gander gets pretty viscious just now - I've only heard of them attacking smaller birds like call ducks - runners are fairly big. Don't know what your situation is there but we lost all our runners and campbells to otter when we moved here - I thought that was unlikely until I saw a dog otter, they are over 3ft long and pure muscle. Later we found the ducks bodies at the riversides. One duck would go then it would be 2-3 days until another was taken, eventually the whole 9 were taken.
A couple of ours ducks had their heads ripped off recently - later that week there was an otter run over outside our field. They come up underneath the ducks in a pond or river and take them like that. Mink is also possible - in our part of the world though the otter have seen off the mink.
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Don't think otters are our problem. There isn't a stream or river nearby. We just have a large pond.
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I'm more inclined to blame drakes, having seen how they treat their ducks
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sorry to hear you have lost your runners .... hope you can find the source (my money is on the geese.... goose for the freezer it sounds like!)
Might bump into you if you are at market this morning
Linda
x
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We have polecats around here, which can be as bad as mink. Ferrets, stoats and weasels are also a possibility. Hunger can make them much bolder than usual.
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If it's blood at the legs/feet, chances are it is something taking it in the pond perhaps? Let us know how you go Bionic.
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That is really odd, I have investigated further, when you said there was blood on the legs, did you see if this came from the vent, only if there was any possibility of them ingesting any insecticide or Rodenticide, this could kill them and there would be blood.
http://www.duckhealth.com/duckhlth.html (http://www.duckhealth.com/duckhlth.html)
As you know, I have had Geese,Ducks and chickens- and they all roamed free range together, even though Gandalf was a bit on the aggressive side, he only used to tell the Drakes off and me, he did peck and the hens, (and one in particular he was very fond of, have you ever seen a gander trying to mount a chicken, sorry, but it is hilarious in a sort of way.)
I just felt for you finding them dead like that :hug:, though it is worth looking at other possibilities.
xx
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There definitely isn't anything living in the pond and we haven't used any insecticide since we got here a year ago.
Actually the geese were left to us by the previous owners, along with a pair of ducks. Not long after we arrived the drake went missing. We thought it was probably a fox but there were no feathers. At that time we didn't think to look in the pond. It isn't particularly accessable to me as the banks are steep and I steer clear of the area because the geese aren't friendly to humans either. A short while after that the duck was injured, a bad foot, from which she hasn't recovered but gets about by limping. I decided to get her some company a few months later, hence the Indian runner ducks.
Now I am wondering if the drake was got at by the geese too and maybe the duck but she survived.
Hmmm, strange goings on
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Yes I tend to blame the geese even when it isn't their fault ;D . Our gander and a drake had a real go at each other last year on the pond - we kept looking at them thinking they would settle down but they didn't, it was wild - my OH had to go in and grab each of them by the neck to separate them, like they were a couple of drunks in a brawl. He put good distance between them but the drake went back in again and he had to separate them again ::)
I think the gander came off worse if it were on points though. Muscovy drakes are as big as a goose but with a shorter neck.
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There definitely isn't anything living in the pond and we haven't used any insecticide since we got here a year ago.
Actually the geese were left to us by the previous owners, along with a pair of ducks. Not long after we arrived the drake went missing. We thought it was probably a fox but there were no feathers. At that time we didn't think to look in the pond. It isn't particularly accessable to me as the banks are steep and I steer clear of the area because the geese aren't friendly to humans either. A short while after that the duck was injured, a bad foot, from which she hasn't recovered but gets about by limping. I decided to get her some company a few months later, hence the Indian runner ducks.
Now I am wondering if the drake was got at by the geese too and maybe the duck but she survived.
Hmmm, strange goings on
It is, especially the blood on the legs, it just seems very odd only the Gander I had always went for the top part of the body, never the legs, he had even pulled feathers out.
I'm not sure whether you would see traces of a fox taking them, their feathers are much tighter than a chickens,though I would not dismiss other drakes either, or even wild ones.
My drakes drowned some ducks,but there was never any blood, it is all very peculiar, I hope you manage to find out what has been causing it.