shawnamaverick You should probably get some duck feed as ducks require different nutrition than other birds. Provide some small gravel for digestion. With our farmed ducks we have the heat lamp at about 90 degrees F the first week and decrease it by 5 degrees per week. It may be illegal where you are to keep a wild duck so you should check into that. Duck will need fresh water every and food that meets it's nutritional need. Depends on the type of duck, but if it's a water fowl it will likely roost on the ground so just a safe place for night. You may find that the duck will not accept the chukar. Ducks imprint very strong on what they see when they hatch. In this case it believes it is a duck. If it was hatched out by humans it would believe it was a human. Ducks can be very aggressive so be prepared for that. You may find you have a loudly quacking baby on your hands for a while, they are flock animals.

Okay... I have a clearer picture of the set-up now, Coldiron. I think! Is it feasible to put wire across the pond, so that the birds have a section for swimming that is enclosed, along with their shelter? It wouldn't be pretty, but it would be safe. If you put the wire across the narrowest part of the pond and built at the end, it would not take all that much extra wire. If that is not a possibility (and it is difficult to tell from here!) then I suggest making their night shelter secure and locking them in it at night. A bit of a pain, but if you bribe them with goodies at bedtime, it could work. My geese are fond of their routines and if I am much delayed putting them in they start calling me! As far as raccoons and other predators... how far will they go for a meal? Depends on how desperate they are. A big old raccoon can certainly take down a duck -- ducks are pretty defenseless. It might not be able to kill a full-grown goose, but it could certainly injure it. Raccoons don't mind swimming... not sure about coyotes, foxes etc. And you know that domestic dogs can be fond of the water and of killing birds! If your pen and shelter are covered, your birds should be safe from hawks and owls. They are most a risk this summer while they are young and inexperienced. Guineas may raise the alarm... but they are useless for actual protection. And I don't know how they would be with ducks and geese. Never had any. My geese chase (but do not harm) the chickens. Although they half plucked a cockerel last year when he trapped himself in their side of the poultry house! He lit out for the woods and lived there for several months until some predator got him. I hope these ramblings are of some help. It is difficult to advise because my situation is so different (no pond, no ducks) and all my birds free range by day and are locked in at night. Hope whatever you decide works for you! GennyM - If your Canada goose has bonded to the ducks he may not be lonely. In any case, when he matures this fall he may decide to leave you and join the wild geese. Don't be too sad if that happens... it is, after all, his natural, happy life. And who knows? Maybe he will decide to stay with you and the ducks.

I'm with Mother Duck, feed high in protein will cause them trouble down the road or even when they are young. They think angel wing is from foods too high in protein and they have all kinds of leg troubles with too high protein. Also corn makes them fat so they can't get off the ground to fly they say. I fed my others cracked corn or chops as they call it and they seemed to have no problems with it at all. Mine really really like what they call, Thunderbird. It has several different grains in it. But if they have been eating something else they will have to be given some mixed in with their other food and keep taking out more and more of the other food until they have all new food because they seem to like getting stuck in ruts on what they eat! lol They say rolled oats and wheat are good for them as well. Muzuri has something called maintance but I haven't started mine on that yet because I had a trash can full of food they had to eat up first. I feed my ducklings muzuri waterfowl starter and it comes in small balls and they don't waste it like they do the purina poultry starter. PLUS I was mixing the two and they would pick out the balls and leave the other and start squaking for more food. So they liked the muzuri better than the chick starter. PLUS it's FOR waterfowl! They do have different vitamin needs than poultry.

Every once in a while I see a question that peaks my sense of curiosity. I found this question exceptionally interesting because as a kid I grew up on a farm in N.E. Ohio where we had a large flock of about 60 domestic geese and I had a firsthand knowledge of the feeding & nesting habits of geese. I was then curios to see how that compared to the wild Canadian Geese? Every spring and fall we see flocks of wild geese in their familiar V shaped flight formations as they migrate north and south. From that we are all led to believe that all Canadian Geese are migratory birds wintering on the southern Gulf coast and summering on their breeding grounds in Canada, but according to the National Audubon Society and my local Ornithologist that is not the case today. Due to extreme hunting pressures by 1940 wild Canadian Geese were on the endangered list and nearing extinction. It was actually hunting groups such as the NRA and Ducks Unlimited and local conservation clubs that promoted setting strict hunting limits and introducing a project to breed geese in captivity then release them into the wild to help maintain the species. The breeding & release programs worked very well as far as improving the overall population of Canadian Geese but there were a couple unforeseen problems. While the few wild Canadian Geese continued to migrate from Canada to the Gulf Coast and due to the strict hunting limits, they tended to come back very well but most of the geese that had been farm raised were released along the flyway rather than in the summer breeding grounds or the southern wintering grounds. As a consequence there was very little social interaction between the wild geese and those that had been introduced into the wild. This meant that the geese that had been introduced had no navigators to lead them on the migration so they tended to stay year around in or near the point were they were released. In addition, the farm raised geese did not share the natural fear of man that is prevalent in the true wild geese. So much so in fact, that in many areas geese are now a nuisance on golf courses, city parks and even shopping mall parking areas. Even though geese are aquatic birds, by nature, geese are vegetarians preferring to graze on tender young grasses in open fields or occasionally on aquatic vegetation found in wetland shallows. They prefer to nest on tiny islands covered with rushes, cattails or other low cover where they have an open view of their surroundings over open water, which helps protect them from predators. Due to their large body size geese and ducks cannot just jump up and fly like other birds but rather they must get a running start to get up their airspeed in the same manner as an airplane running down a runway. That is very difficult for them on open fields that are covered by tall grass, therefore both ducks and geese prefer to feed on fields adjacent to rivers, ponds or small lakes where they can easily walk to the feeding area, but get back to the water where they have an unrestricted flight path for takeoff. This also accounts for why they like to feed on a golf course, park or the grassy islands in your local shopping center parking lot because the grass is low enough or the parking lot pavement is open enough that it does not hinder their takeoff. You may have also wondered how they can sit on open water in mid winter without freezing. The answer here is very simple although generally overlooked by most people. Sitting in the water is warmer. When the water is iced over the surface temperature of the ice will be nearly equal to the air temp, which is sub freezing and may even be sub zero, but when they find patches of open water on larger lakes or moving river streams they sit in the water because the water is warmer. Keep in mind that to remain liquid the water must be 32degf or warmer.