My ducks have disappeared - not a trace 😞

[silversealilies]

Morning all,

Sad day here at our tiny farm - our three Miniature Silver Appleyard drakes have disappeared.

They're about 6 months old, and have a very strict routine - out of the coop at 7am, they spend all day in our garden, always come to visit us up on the patio, and are basically ALWAYS around. Then at dusk they make their way back to the coop and hang out in their pond 'til we put them in the coop when it gets dark. Every day, without fail.

On Tuesday, the ducks were all doing their normal daily ducky stuff all day, and when I went to put them into their coop, only one duck was there. We searched and searched and there was no sign of the other two anywhere. We locked the one away alone, and kept checking outside until midnight when we went to bed, and no ducks. We were hoping to wake up and they'd be there, but...

Nope. No ducks, just our one sweet little Pancake boy. We let him out of the coop and he was very lonely all day, calling for his little mates, and just spent his time going back and forth between the back garden and the front pond. All was well, until we went out to put him in the coop last night, and he wasn't anywhere to be found.

Woke up this morning to no ducks at all. There's no sign of anything - I assume if it was a fox there'd be feathers or something somewhere, but we've looked everywhere and they seem to have vanished without a trace.

Any ideas? We're all so sad, they were our favourite little pets and so lovely and friendly Are domestic mallards prone to flying away (they've never really flown much, just very short distances)? We're all hoping to go out there and see them back from an adventure, but probably not gonna get my hopes up.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

Sorry you're going through this. What kind of area do you live in? Any predators in your area?

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Morning all,

Sad day here at our tiny farm - our three Miniature Silver Appleyard drakes have disappeared.

They're about 6 months old, and have a very strict routine - out of the coop at 7am, they spend all day in our garden, always come to visit us up on the patio, and are basically ALWAYS around. Then at dusk they make their way back to the coop and hang out in their pond 'til we put them in the coop when it gets dark. Every day, without fail.

On Tuesday, the ducks were all doing their normal daily ducky stuff all day, and when I went to put them into their coop, only one duck was there. We searched and searched and there was no sign of the other two anywhere. We locked the one away alone, and kept checking outside until midnight when we went to bed, and no ducks. We were hoping to wake up and they'd be there, but...

Nope. No ducks, just our one sweet little Pancake boy. We let him out of the coop and he was very lonely all day, calling for his little mates, and just spent his time going back and forth between the back garden and the front pond. All was well, until we went out to put him in the coop last night, and he wasn't anywhere to be found.

Woke up this morning to no ducks at all. There's no sign of anything - I assume if it was a fox there'd be feathers or something somewhere, but we've looked everywhere and they seem to have vanished without a trace.

Any ideas? We're all so sad, they were our favourite little pets and so lovely and friendly Are domestic mallards prone to flying away (they've never really flown much, just very short distances)? We're all hoping to go out there and see them back from an adventure, but probably not gonna get my hopes up.

I'm sorry about you ducks. We had a hen duck and she just disappeared this weekend. No sigh if something got her or any thing, she was just gone. I hope yours come back.

 

[silversealilies]

Sorry you're going through this. What kind of area do you live in? Any predators in your area?

We're in South East England - only foxes. We have buzzards (hawks), but from everything I've read they don't normally take anything as big as a duck, but could be - just weird that all three went without a trace within 24 hours.

 

[CHlCKEN]

It seems like you should have heard something if you were outside when the last duck went missing. In my experience ducks are very good at vanishing without a trace. I lost my Buttercup that way. The cameras caught her sneaking out of the chicken run, and she never came back. I was heartbroken. Keep watching for signs of predators around, even if there are no ducks left the predator will still come back. Hawks do try and take things as big as ducks. It’s sad but unlikely that all three of your ducks were killed by a hawk within 24 hours of each other, if you have never had hawk issues before.

 

[Freie Family Farm]

Keep an eye out and hope for the best, i can only imagine how you feel

 

[Chicalina]

I was reading about buzzards and other British birds of prey the other day, as I saw a bird and wanted to identify it and see if it was a threat to my chicks. It was a sparrowhawk. We get Red Kites here too. What county are you in? Are you rural/suburban/urban?

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-w.../bird-a-z/buzzard/hunting-and-feeding-habits/

Miniature Silver appleyards are small ducks but from what I've read, active healthy ones are very unlikely to be Buzzard prey.

A fox is a possible culprit but with no blood or feathers left behind, it seems very unlikely too. Foxes will carry out a mass slaughter and its noisy and messy. Were you home when they went?

The ducks are good fliers however, and it is much more likely that the spirit of adventure took them and they flew away. And then the next day the drake was lonely and flew off to look for them.

They may well come back! I would traipse round some local lakes with a dog crate and their favourite treats for a couple of weeks to see if you can find them. If you do manage to catch them, or they come home, then clip their wings.

 

[silversealilies]

I was reading about buzzards and other British birds of prey the other day, as I saw a bird and wanted to identify it and see if it was a threat to my chicks. It was a sparrowhawk. We get Red Kites here too. What county are you in? Are you rural/suburban/urban?

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-w.../bird-a-z/buzzard/hunting-and-feeding-habits/

Miniature Silver appleyards are small ducks but from what I've read, active healthy ones are very unlikely to be Buzzard prey.

A fox is a possible culprit but with no blood or feathers left behind, it seems very unlikely too. Foxes will carry out a mass slaughter and its noisy and messy. Were you home when they went?

The ducks are good fliers however, and it is much more likely that the spirit of adventure took them and they flew away. And then the next day the drake was lonely and flew off to look for them.

They may well come back! I would traipse round some local lakes with a dog crate and their favourite treats for a couple of weeks to see if you can find them. If you do manage to catch them, or they come home, then clip their wings.

Awww thanks, I'd love for the latter to be the case! We've been home both days and heard nothing like a fox attack - just silently vanished. We're going to go on a hunt for them, would be amazing if we could find them. Might even put up 'HAVE YOU SEEN THESE DUCKS?' flyers around the surrounding villages, haha.

 

[Annalyse]

I'm sorry you have to go through this. I couldn't imagine how I would feel. I hope in your hunt you find at least one. I'm guessing the last duck either flew away to look for them or he heard one of their noises and vanished with them.

 

[Aapomp831]

A friend of mine had a duck disappear without a trace; then about 2 weeks later she just flew back from wherever she had been, completely unharmed.
Ariel predators still leave evidence - you would see piles of feathers somewhere.
Idk, I’m thinking they may come back....
They could have gotten spooked by something and are waiting until they feel safe again to come back home.