Let me see your duck yards/runs

[KikiDeAnime]

I'm planning on getting my older brother a Runner duckling or two when our local feed store gets them and I'm going to be building a yard/run for them.
I need ideas for what I could put together.

Also what would be a great color to get? The feed store is getting assorted color ducklings.
And how do ducks do around chickens? I don't want our hens attacking the duck or the duck attacking them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Please get at least 3 Runner duckling they really are very flock oreinated. More so than other breeds. Of course ducklings need to be brooded with heat for their first 5 weeks or so depending on where you live . As for colors it may depend on what they get in as to what color you can choose from. I have black blue silver and 3 Fawn and white coming in April all gorgeous colors. As for pen size go as big as you can Runners are busy ducks and like a lot of space. There is a search up top where you can find ideas on pens housing etc. my flock forages on a little ove a half acre fenced in during the day and sleeps in secure housing at night. They live with chickens and all get along ducklings need to be introduced over time to any birds already resident at your home. I take mine out on nice days and sit with them that gives the other birds a chance to meet and also I can keep anyone from being nasty. If the ducks will eventually be free ranging then the pen size won’t need to be as big just depends on these factors. If they are going to spend all their time penned up then go large. If free ranging most of the time the. Chose run size accordingly. Oh and does your brother want the responsibility of caring and raising ducklings? There is a lot of information he can get right here while waiting for his duckling to arrive at the feed store. Go to the learning center here on BYC.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Please get at least 3 Runner duckling they really are very flock oreinated. More so than other breeds. Of course ducklings need to be brooded with heat for their first 5 weeks or so depending on where you live . As for colors it may depend on what they get in as to what color you can choose from. I have black blue silver and 3 Fawn and white coming in April all gorgeous colors. As for pen size go as big as you can Runners are busy ducks and like a lot of space. There is a search up top where you can find ideas on pens housing etc. my flock forages on a little ove a half acre fenced in during the day and sleeps in secure housing at night. They live with chickens and all get along ducklings need to be introduced over time to any birds already resident at your home. I take mine out on nice days and sit with them that gives the other birds a chance to meet and also I can keep anyone from being nasty. If the ducks will eventually be free ranging then the pen size won’t need to be as big just depends on these factors. If they are going to spend all their time penned up then go large. If free ranging most of the time the. Chose run size accordingly.

Sadly, because of where we live noise is a problem so I can only get 1 boy. So unless 2 or 3 drakes can live peacefully without fighting, I can only get 1.
We free range with supervision as there is a hawk that keeps coming back and I haven't been able to kill it.

 

[Amer]

You should be able to keep a few drakes. As long as there aren't any hens, they shouldn't fight too much.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

You should be able to keep a few drakes. As long as there aren't any hens, they shouldn't fight too much.

Raising them together as ducklings will help a lot, right?
Will I need to supervise them around our chickens because of them being drakes?
Will they leave our Silkie rooster alone? Because our rooster thinks everything out to kill him, even me so he's a huge wimp and I don't want him getting hurt or killed.

 

[Amer]

Raising them together as ducklings will help a lot, right?
Will I need to supervise them around our chickens because of them being drakes?
Will they leave our Silkie rooster alone? Because our rooster thinks everything out to kill him, even me so he's a huge wimp and I don't want him getting hurt or killed.

I should probably pass on the answer to someone more experienced. I raise Calls, which rule the flock, but they also can't do any damage.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes drakes will go after Chicken hens especially if there aren’t any ducks. No way you can separate so the drakes can’t mingle with the chickens? As for keeping just drakes @thumper650 is my go too they have 4 drakes and no females.

 

[KikiDeAnime]

Yes drakes will go after Chicken hens especially if there aren’t any ducks. No way you can separate so the drakes can’t mingle with the chickens? As for keeping just drakes @thumper650 is my go too they have 4 drakes and no females.

We have 3 separate runs. 1 covered run for our hens, 1 covered run for our rooster, and 1 that is currently empty and uncovered. The empty run is right next to our pool and is the biggest run.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well sounds like you have the solution as far as runs go.

 

[thumper650]

Yes drakes will go after Chicken hens especially if there aren’t any ducks. No way you can separate so the drakes can’t mingle with the chickens? As for keeping just drakes @thumper650 is my go too they have 4 drakes and no females.

I have 2 pekins that we think are brothers, raised together forever. They faught so bad we had to seperate them last year.
I have 2 runners that were raised together, so far this year I gave seperated them into pairs and they're fine. They were all together yesterday and blood was drawn!

You're going to get different results from different individual birds. No way to really tell what will happen.

Maybe a Muscovy pair or trio would go good in that run. I know they are good if noise is a concern.