thinking of getting ducks! a few questions

[peterlund]

I have 16 chickens and just added 10 Muscovy ducks to the lot. Unlike the other BYC answers to your questions, my ducks come home at dusk to the coop. Stay fairly local and eat regular layer pellets. They love to free range. Messy?? YES! compared to chickens at least. Get plenty of pine shavings to layer up the coop. Keep the run dry as possible to keep smells to a minimum. Muscovies are not a big water duck, so you dont need an olympic sized pool...
My 2 cents!
Good luck.

 

[GMT]

Quote:
You only need to trim the long flight feathers, and really only on one side. A duck with trimmed flight feathers will still have enough flight ability to get out of trouble, while lacking the flight ability to get into it (as has been said the big non-Muscovy duck breeds don't fly that well to begin with, but can sometimes fly just well enough to get over low fences.) The feathers grow back every time the ducks molt, so it's not like they're being permanently crippled. And this applies more to the lighter breeds than it does to the heavier breeds.