[nutterly_uts]

I'm reading how ducks like to eat slugs and snails. So I'm wondering if keeping a couple of ducks in the garden/veg patch would work or would they trash the plants and veggies as well?

I think I could free range them for a couple of hours a day with supervision - currently where I am has no foxes (not mainland) - would they need supervision or could they be out all day and just herded to bed at night?

[HesterF]

If you've got no foxes (or badgers?), they could be out and about quite happily all day long. They will trash your veggies though. They break into my pumpkin patch occasionally and cause havoc - particularly in winter when it's muddy and their big paddly feet stamp it all down.

[Womble]

We have a fenced area around our polytunnel which also has some raised beds 2 feet high. I built a custom duckolator that allows the ducks access out of their regular area so they can free range around the outside of the polytunnel and raised beds (they can't get up onto the beds).

Since we started doing that, the number of slugs we find around that area and inside the polytunnel has decreased dramatically, so they definitely work for pest control. In contrast, the lawn the other side of the fence can be absolutely crawling with slugs if you go out with a torch on a damp evening.

I don't think they'd bother well established plants, and they don't scratch the ground like chickens. However, they do stick their bills into and under everything and go wibblewibblewibble a lot, so I wouldn't trust them near seedlings or anything delicate.

HTH!

[nutterly_uts]

Sounds promising with a bit of planning - Perfect

Hester - Jersey has no badgers or foxes. Limited polecats/feral ferrets that some people have released/lost when rabbiting so we're pretty lucky