North Idaho/East WA/West MT DUCK TALK

Hi neighbors, I have 16 ducks and I am wondering who else here has ducks? Lets share our duck stories & pictures. I moved to northern Idaho Aug of 2014 with my DH 2 dogs, 6 chickens & 2 ducks (Fawn & White Indian Runners,, Peekin & Boo (get it Peek n' Boo). When my DH bought the 2 ducks from the feed store the sales person told my him that they were Pekin ducks, NOT! My first ducks. I have so much fun with them, they follow me around, help me eat worms & grubs in the garden. Then a year & a half later I wanted a mate for them & ended up with a min order from Metzer Farm. Now I have 16 ducks, 5 drakes & 11 ducks. They are alot of work & worth it. 2 of my ducks are broody right now, so I will definately have some ducklings soon.
I have 3 Pekins, 4 Buff, 4 Chocolate Runners, 3 Blue Runners, & 2 Fawn & White Runners. My DH built them a duck house & they love it & so do I.
I want to post pics, but don't see an option for this.
I know this site has many duck threads, but I am hoping we could have ID/WA folk to talk to. If there is already a site for our area, i couldn't find it. Please let me know.
Thanks for your input.

I'm getting ducks and geese this spring and am excited. Been reading everything I can so that they are taken care of properly. I'm not quite in the geographical area but am in western Montana.

There are boxes at the top of the page where you typed your message. First you have Size, then Text color, then Bold/Italic/Underline then there is the link place..and the next one is the insert box. The first one in the insert box is for adding pictures. So please, do add your pictures.

Hi, wamtazlady more pictures can be found in my profile/albums... I would love to find more Duck lovers/owners in our area... I know where Kalispell, MT is very well.. We drove through it 4-5 times when we were moving to northwestern Idaho from southeastern Idaho 1.5 yrs ago. We are about 4 hrs from each other, not too bad.
What kind of ducks and geese are you looking at? I may get a couple of geese next year??? I have so many now, I'm not sure. Take care, nice talking with you. Here are a few pics of my ducks...

My plans are to get 3 African geese. I read they can sound the alarm if Mr Fox comes snooping around. The winter house sitter is used to tending the chickens but I think geese will be much more work. I learned that the HS loves duck eggs for eating and baking. So am, getting him 4 ducks so he won't mind the extra work. I think I'm going to get one Buff, one Cayuga, one Blue Swedish, and one Hybrid 300 (all females) from Metzer's Hatchery.

I have so many plans and decisions to make. The geese and ducks will probably free range on the acreage during the day. Have to build a new house for them out of a shelter that was only built 3 years ago so the wood is still good. Need to figure out how big it needs to be and where to build it so I can put up electric poultry netting for safety at night. I'll also need to figure out a watering system for winter. I have found so much information on chickens but not so much on ducks and geese. Good thing I'm starting way before getting the ducks and geese. Hoping to have them delivered early May.

I'll bet you drove right past our place when you traveled through Kalispell. Small world.

@ wamtazlady The African Geese are beautiful, I googled them and saw the Chineese Goose, they are beautiful too. You mentioned your "winter sitter" who or what is that? Our property butts up against pine forest and 2 logging Co's own the land. We have alot of wildlife around us. I haven't seen any fox, thankgoodness. Where we use to live there was a den of Red Fox and they ate a few of my chickens. Here, where we live now we have alot of Coyote's, they haven't done any harm, so far. We have 2 dogs that roam the hill sides and keep them at bay. At night I lock my ducks and chickens up.
You said that the "HS" loves ducks eggs for.... what is HS?
Yes, you do have alot of decisions and planning for your geese. I didn't think about it too much and have just been adjusting to what I need for them and buying and building as we go. Not the proper way to do it, but it has worked out so far. The only thing I need right now is a water hydrant a little closer to the duck house. We had to dig a well shortly after we moved in and we put water hydrants (5) all around the house/property, but where I need one now is right smack in the middle of 3 hydrants, so I will need to put 2-3 hoses together to reach the ducks. So my suggestion is to think about where your water source is and where you will be putting their water/pool for your geese and ducks. Oh, and an electrical source for pluging in your water heater in the winter months. I have a floating heater in one of my pools. In the spring summer and fall I always have at least 3 pools filled, in the winter I only have 1 pool filled at all times. We have apond nearby, but my ducks have not ventured all the way to it (almost) but not all the way. I am ok with that, because I can't see them (from the house and garden area, when I am outside) if they were over there and we do have alot of hawks and I saw a bald eagle for the first time, this week. He didn't stop in for a snack (to eat my ducks or chickens) thank God!!
What kind of ducks are you looking to get? Some ducks roam further than others, the indian runners I have go very far, too far for my liking, so I just walk out in the fields and wrangle them back home.
Well, I've talke enough... later gater

When I said sitter and HS I meant my house sitter. We're snowbirds. We spend 6 months in Montana and 6 months in Arizona. Even before I got chickens several years ago I had to make sure I had someone who would care for them. My neighbor used to add them to his flock. This last year my boy friend's tenants moved out of his house. He decided it was time for him to start living in it again. We had lived full time in his motor home for 8 years. So we had to find a house sitter who would not only maintain the house but take care of the critters. I'm getting the ducks for him as he loves duck eggs. He will be happy to take care of the geese if he can have his ducks. We chose well with the house sitter. He's a great guy and has been sorting through all the "stuff" in the basement and garage that was inherited from my boy friend's parents or left by past tenants. Both of us have health issues so we've asked the HS (house sitter) to live with us even during the summer. We can use the help and there is so much to do on the property.

The duck breeds I have picked out are Buffs, Cayugas, Golden 300 Hybrid, and Blue Swedish. We don't have a pond or stream but we do live on 26 acres. We back up to a state park. The foxes had their den in the park a couple years ago when they sampled chickens from the whole neighborhood. The fox family ate nearly all my chickens that year. Killed a couple foxes this spring and had a whole summer fox free. Then in October a new one moved into the area. It got quite a few of my neighbor's hens. I broke down and bought the electric poultry netting and haven't lost any chickens since putting it up and getting is electrified. I lost one young pullet that refused to go into the coop and insisted on sleeping in the lilac bush.

For swimming the ducks will have to settle for a kiddie pool. That should work okay, I hope.

My in-laws live (full-time) in AZ, south of Prescott; Wilhoit, north of Yarnell where the 19 firefighters perrished. So are you in AZ now? I wish my DH (=dear husband) could eat our duck eggs, he gets sick to his stomach, we learned that real quick. So, I have tons of duck eggs. I currently have 5 ducks sitting on their duck eggs, they should hatch in 2.5 weeks or so. I have some in my bator too.
OK, HS=house sitter, got it, thanks. We are retired and I certainly would need someone to come over 2 times a day to tend to my flocks, now that I have increased it. We use to travel alot, but we don't travel much since we moved here. We are doing a ton of home renovating and preparing our property for all our animals. We love it here, so we have no need to travel in the near future.
Sorry you have health issues. I certainly have lost alot of my strength and stamina since moving here and working so hard. I made a dog harness for my australian sheppard and my DH made me a carting shaft so my dog can pull and help me move large items around the property and pull hay to my horses, it works out very well.
So glad you found a great guy you can trust and depend on to help you in MT.
When I got my Indian Runners, they were my only 2 ducks for over a yr. they were/are my buddies, they are not afraid of me. When I got 12 ducklings from Metzer Farms I had them all together in a brooder, in the house, and then they all went outside shortly after they were feathered enough (it was June) to be outside in an enclosed duck house/horse trailer. They group together when there are so many and they were always running and screaming from me, they still do it to some extent.... I am sad about this but, i just try to reasure them that I am not here to harm them. I just walk and talk slowly and quietly and try to spend as much time with them as I can. Food/treats always bring them closer to me, until its all gone, tee hee...
YA!! for "fox free" So, I am curious about your electric netting, do the chickens get a mild zap of electricity from it? So, it keeps the chickens off your fence line also? I will be fencing in my chickens real soon, because I want the chickens and ducks seperate. I will let them free range in seperate areas, I'll let you know how that works out??? later gater...

My broody ducks: 2 Buffs and 1 Fawn/White

Hi, I have some new additions to my duck clan!

This one hatched this morning at 2:30 am I'll name her/him Saturday for now.

This is Saturday & Friday. Friday helped Saturday hatch.

This is Friday. She/he gave me a fright, her ambilica artery was wrapped around her right foot & her knee she couldnt extend her right leg or spread her toes. It all came off in time, no damage was done. Whew!

Baby ducks are so cute