Rural Gardening: Wood ducks with clipped wings - needing advice, 1 by fleursdefouquet

fleursdefouquet wrote:
Has anyone ever been to a Peabody Hotel? They are famous for their mallard ducks - live ducks that 'march' down the elevator from their rooftop pens every morning, pass through admiring guests in the lobby to the large fountain, spend the day swimming in the fountain, then 'march' back in the evening?

These ducks are retired every few months and we are adopting a drake and 3 hens. Their wings are clipped so they cannot fly. A friend who has had hers for several months started with a pen but they didn't like the pen. They preferred to stay on her pond. We do not plan to build a pen but thought we would make a floating duck house in the center of the pond to give them a safe place away from the skunks, raccoons, coyotes, etc. I'm afraid they would be 'sitting ducks' in a pen because the varmits will dig under and they would be trapped. We have wild mallards visit our pond frequently. Maybe they would make 'friends'. LOL

I can't imagine these ducks penned up when they are natural water fowl and we have a pond. My question is: am I nuts??? Both situations have risks - being trapped in a pen and easy prey for any digging varmit or being on the pond with clipped wings. So far, our friend's ducks have done fine on her pond. Does anyone have any advice?