Pekin Owners - Page 2

i just got 2 today and so far one is really friendly and lets me hold her the other is skittish so i have to work with her for a bit.. so far i like them! i hear great things so good luck!

They are generally very nice. Loud. Mine all developed health problems in their first 2 years of life and died between the ages of 1-3. That was my first year with pekins and did not know how to properly care for them but i do now. My expiriences. Though If theydont develope health or foot problems they can live a good 7-8-9 years.

I have two Pekins, and I have to say I really enjoy them. My Pekin drake is THE most social duck I have. He is also an ornery turd. lol  My Pekin hen is calm, and good natured too, although not quite as "in-your face" friendly as my drake. She is currently broody and sitting on a nest of 6 eggs.

Here they are:

My drake, Bella.


My drake on right, and my hen, Georgie on the left:


And finally Bella and his old kitty bff:

Love my three but they are like having three-year-olds running around all the time.  They seem to always be getting into something or causing trouble.  But they are so funny and cute you can't help but love them.  Loud and vocal for sure. 

They can't fly, but they sure think they can.  Kinda funny when they expect to soar through the air, but instead do a flop into the pond.  But they keep trying.

They are the most friendly of my ducks and always make me laugh.  They are just plain silly.

This is Clyde  , Hes a 1 year old Crested Pekin Male Duck.



He is in Love with a Rhode island red chicken named Miss Red.



He enjoys long swims in the pool , Cleaning himself & miss red. Chasing Roosters is his hobby .He really needs a reality check that hes not a chicken
We are hoping to get him a female duck sometime soon- just so hard to get one female duck...

we love our pekin, despite her tantrums

So I have 3 Pekin hens on the way, got about 750sq.ft. of backyard space in New Orleans. Lots of grass, worms, bugs, good stuff.

With 3 of them, I'd like to have a small enough pool that I can clean out once a week and dump contents on the yard.  This shouldn't
kill my grass, right?

Any other things I should take note of, as I've built them a pretty spacious fortress.  I was thinking of using banana plant leaves, dried of course,
as the bedding/flooring for their house... does this sound like a good or bad idea?  Just trying my hand at reusing what I've got growing.

-Pete

We dump one of our pools into the grass. Problem is it makes it grow faster lol We also dump the pool water into our plants which definitely makes them grow FAST!

I'd think they would eat the banana leaves pretty fast and make them not wanna eat their regular food. I wouldn't suggest it.

So as far as a pond goes, an old kiddie pool will do just fine and it would be ridiculous of me to think that I could somehow
turn it into an unfiltered pond using natural oxygenating plants that will keep the pond clean so I do not have to dump it?
SOunds like that would be a bad idea, or that the ducks would just eat the plants anyway.

Thanks for the advice on the banana plant leaves, was trying to be economical.

I'm pretty psyched, I have a big worm compost bin, and our kitchen waste goes into, but soon
enough some of that waste can be used as feed for the ducks, which I plan to free-range a few hours
each day, so I imagine for treats the ducks can have a few worms from my bin(s)... cycle of life all in a backyard!

-Pete

p.s. also nervous that I will royally screw up duck ownership... is it super hard? I'm pretty diligent, and organized, I don't imagine it will be
crazy difficult, mainly worried I'll annoy neighbors (though they have a 4yr old kid who would prob love to play with ducks).

Ducks are pretty easy. Pekins are VERY loud though so hopefully your neighbor isn't too close to you
As far as the plants, they can eat some, you just don't want them to get full on plants and not eat the duck food that has the nutrients they need. I throw grass cuttings, dandilions and various cuttings from stuff we eat. Our ducks not only get their regular food, but once a day or less they get stuff from the garden or leftovers from our meals.

My ducks LOVE worms. We dig up worms for fishing then throw them some. We also give them and the chickens some of the fish we catch...especially the guts because fish has a lot of protein.