First of all, if you’re thinking about raising poultry, let me tell you that it is a very exciting decision to make. I mean who doesn’t like animals, especially those feathered friends with their beautiful, sweet loving eyes that look back at you, right?
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Pic by @MGG - BYC
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Pic by @HappyDuckie - BYC
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Pic by @HappyDuckie - BYC

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Pic by @MGG - BYC
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Pic by @human1 - BYC
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Pic by @Dottie the Chicken - BYC


This article is focused more on ducks, but some tips on here are also relatively the same for other poultry. So by now you’ve likely got your gears turning thinking and hoping about getting Ducks. To get you started off, here are a few tips I’ve learned throughout the years:


Tip 1- Do Some Planning:
One of the most important things to start out with, though, is a plan in mind. That will take you a long way towards making that hope a reality. I don’t know your circumstances, so it’s up to you to figure out what’s best for you. The basic variables include:

  • Figuring out a budget
  • Deciding which breeds you think are the best
  • Deciding how many
  • Designing or buying a coop
  • Whether you want to free range them
  • How you plan to care for them
  • Why do you want them?

Firstly, figuring out a budget. The budget has to do with almost all of the other variables, too. (See above) This involves lumber, if you plan to build a coop, or if you plan to buy a coop, how much that will cost. It also involves how much you are willing to spend on the ducks themselves, the maximum yearly/ monthly cost for feed, and the accessories like feeders, waterers, bedding, and heat sources.



Second, deciding which breeds you would prefer, and how many. Here are all of the most popular breeds of ducks:

  • Mallard
  • Pekin - Crested White, Jumbo, Regular
  • Rouen
  • Khaki Campbell
  • Cayuga
  • Swedish Black & Blue
  • Buff
  • Muscovy - various colors
  • Silver Appleyard
  • Welsh Harlequin
  • Saxony
  • Hookbill
  • Various colors of call ducks
  • Ancona
  • Various colors of Indian Runners
A few duck breed examples:
Mallard drake:
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Pic by @HappyDuckie - BYC
Mallard hens:
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Pic by @MGG - BYC
Pekin:
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Pics by @HappyDuckie - BYC
White Crested Pekin:
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Pic by @Duckbreeder2020 - BYC
Rouen drake:
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Pic by @HappyDuckie - BYC
Khaki Campbell drake, hens & ducklings:
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Pics by @docteurmccoy - BYC
Swedish Black & Blue:
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Pics by @HappyDuckie - BYC
Buff Orpington:
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Pic by @Duckbreeder2020 - BYC
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Pic by @Weeg - BYC
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Pic by @Duckbreeder2020
Muscovy hen:
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Pic by @Misfits Farm 92 - BYC
A few colors/varieties of Call ducks:
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Pic by @HuffleClaw - BYC
Ancona:
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Pics by @HuffleClaw - BYC
Cayuga & Black Swedish:
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Pic by @Weeg - BYC
If you’re just starting off as a poultry keeper (specifically ducks), I would suggest starting with a few, like 2-6. One thing to know is that ducks will get depressed and/or lonely if you only keep one.

The Khaki Campbell is the overall best egg layer there is, with roughly 340 eggs laid a year, while other breeds lay around 100-240 a year. Calls and Runners lay a great amount as well. Calls are slightly different from the typical breeds of duck. They lay, not constantly, say every other day, but are seasonal layers, and it can vary how many are laid in a 12-month period. However, Pekins and Rouens are the friendliest (all breeds are very friendly, though). Then the Muscovy is the quietest breed of duck. There are several great qualities of each and every duck, though. Pekins and Cayugas are typically used for meat. One thing to keep in mind for Pekins is that they are bred to be very hefty and weighty, which at times will cause health issues such as in their legs and joints.


Thirdly, figuring out whether you want to design your own coop, or buy a pre made one. Here are some important things to include in a design:


  • Good Ventilation. For example a window on one side, and some drilled holes on the top of the front
  • A duck-sized door for getting in and out of the coop
  • A waterproof roof for if it rains or snows
  • Any wood you are using, MAKE SURE IT’S LABELED FOR OUTSIDE. If it isn’t, it will get weathered and ruined very quickly. I have found that using good, sturdy OSB sheet wood has worked very well for my coops. You can also use pressure treated wood, which is also an example for outdoor-approved wood.
  • Be sure to include a nest box area on one side, for a nice, organized egg laying spot
There are also several different pre made coop options, for example, you can buy one already built, or one with slight assembly required, or even do both! Some people provide the option of custom built coops, where you can send in a design and they build it for you. Included in this decision is also figuring out if you want to free range them. Which is also...


Fourthly, do you want to free range them or have them in a run? If you’re not familiar with the term “run”, it’s basically just a ‘fenced in’, Per se area connected to your coop, where they can spend most times of the day in. It’s like an exposed box, with chicken wire or hardware cloth wrapped all around it.

An example of a small coop and run:

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Pic by @black_cat - BYC
A few examples of a duck run/coop:
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Pics by @HappyDuckie - BYC

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Pic by @Duckbreeder2020 - BYC

As you can see, there are several different formats and designs, so you can use your imagination as long as you include the necessities the coop and run need.



Free ranging can give them some extra exercise, as well as give them a little more of a feel for the wild, but make sure you keep an eye on them regularly.

Keeping them in a run for most of the time can also be a better option, as it can keep them a bit safer if you are in a place with many predators, and you don’t have to watch them as often.


Fifthly, How do you plan to care for them? What is your plan for if you go somewhere for a vacation? What will your daily routine look like? These questions are for you to answer. Just make sure you always have a good supply of feed and water.


And then why do you want to raise ducks? Is it for meat, for eggs, for companionship, for fun, or is it for “cheep” lawn mowing? These are also questions for you to answer. Once you know why it is you want them, that will help you figure out other things like breeds, free ranging, and others.



Tip 2- Breeding/Broodiness:
Only certain ducks are known to definitely go broody. A great number of duck breeds will go broody, but it’s a hit-and-miss with broodies sometimes.
Do you want to breed your ducks? That is an important question with many factors.

Firstly, if you so choose to breed them, it is very important that you do not have too many drakes (or, male ducks) to not enough hens (or, female ducks). That is called overbreeding, and it can injure, or even kill the females by drowning or other factors. The almost perfect ratio of males to females would be 1 male for every 3-5 females, so it is necessary to have them sexed (which means figuring out if they are male or female, if you’ve never heard that term).



If you just want to keep male ducks, or just female ducks, that is completely fine, too. Female ducks are very good to keep if you want eggs, but male ducks tend to be the quieter ones. If you do want to breed, and end up with too many males to females, it is crucial that you either:

  1. Get rid of some (harvesting, giving away, etc)
  2. Or separate them in different coops
To go back to the broodiness factor, the ducks that are well-known to very likely go broody are:
  • The Muscovy. They are the ducks that are the most likely to go broody. They are known for their broodiness and, actually how quiet and calm they are, as mentioned previously.
  • Most breeds of Swedish ducks, including Silver Swedish, Black Swedish, and Blue Swedish
  • Calls are another very broody breed, despite their size.
  • Mallards will go broody as well.
  • Welsh Harlequins.
  • Buff Orpingtons: Yet another very broody breed of duck. Sometimes a dual-purpose duck, and sometimes even used solely for naturally hatching out eggs, along with the Muscovy.
  • Rouens
  • Saxony
  • Any other mixed breeds derived from any of the breeds listed above

There are many other breeds that may or may not go broody. Just listed were a few of the main breeds that will go broody.
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Pics by @Weeg - BYC

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Pics by @HuffleClaw - BYC

But, really, in the wild, all breeds will go broody. Some duck breeds listed earlier in this article are domestic breeds, but the wild breeds will all go broody, whether they are when they’re domesticated or not. How else would they reproduce and progress their clutch of eggs to a successful hatch?

Broody chicken:

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Pics by @MGG - BYC


Tip 3- Choose Carefully What You Feed Them:
So sometimes people will ask me: “Can I feed my ducks all table scraps or leftovers or random misfits along with their feed as long as they are vegetables?” The simple answer is no. People will do it all the time, and the ‘ole reliable scrap bucket can be very convenient, but there are some foods to watch out for when using it.

While this isn’t at all quite as much of an issue as other things, this subject is still important. There are a great number of vegetables and fruits and delicious snacks that ducks very much enjoy, however. Even so, before you go and start feeding your new ducks all these random veggies, make sure of just a few things:


  1. When you first get your new duckies, I’ll call them for now, for the first few weeks get into a nice schedule of regular duck feed, such as from your local feed store. TSC sells a great variety of feeds for all different animals, especially poultry, of all different ages. This feed (also comes in 40lb bag) I have especially found works good for ducks I’ve hatched and kept. It has a great, more than sufficient amount of niacin (which I will get into) as well. After about the first week or two, you can start to feed your duckies some fresh fruit and veggie snacks.
  2. In whatever food you may give them, ducks tend to really need a lot of niacin. Niacin is a type of vitamin that basically for ducks helps support their joints and limbs, especially their legs. The reason why this factor is very important is because, unlike chickens or poultry like them, ducks won’t absorb and take in naturally enough niacin themselves, so if you don’t include enough of this vital vitamin to ducks, it could start causing some problems altogether for the whole duck. The most common problem is a niacin deficiency. Here are some symptoms of a niacin deficiency in a duck:
    • Inability or no desire to move or walk
    • Shaky on their feet/prone to tripping when they walk
    • Joint issues
    • Duck will noticeably stand out as the “runt” of the flock, meaning he will grow very slowly
  • People will sometimes put just a small sprinkling of brewers yeast either over the ducks’ feed or in a separate small little container somewhere in the coop (or brooder if they are still ducklings). Another excellent, perfect example of niacin packed food for ducks is grass. It’s actually one of their absolute favorite things.
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Pic by @CHlCKEN - BYC

3. Ducks can only eat certain foods


Here is the basic list of foods ducks can eat, as well as foods ducks cannot eat:


Foods Ducks Love/Can Eat:
  • Thawed peas (one of their all-time favorites, especially when you pop a can of them on a hot summer day for them)
  • Sliced strawberries
  • Sliced bananas
  • Blueberries
  • Sliced grapes
  • Apples cut in small pieces, as long as you make sure 100% of the seeds are gone. They are toxic to ducks
  • Sliced watermelon
  • Sliced open pumpkin
  • Cabbage
  • Tomatoes, but they can be risky. You need to make sure they are fully ripe, and cut them up as you would for a sandwich ~ cut off the stem
  • Soft carrots
  • Romain lettuce
  • Mealworms
One thing I will add, unrelated to food, is that with drinking water, there are several options of waterers, but there are only certain ones that ducks require, and ones that aren’t suitable for ducks. Ducks need to clean their nares, or nostrils nearly every time they drink.
They also always like to gurgle and swish their water in the back of their throats. So it is understandable that they need waterers that they can dip their whole bills in, from the tip to the end.



Some examples of waterers ducks can’t use:
– Nipple waterers​
– Hanging waterers​
– Waterers with too small of openings for drinking​

Some examples of waterers useable by ducks:
– Flip top waterers- only when ducks are very young- as ducklings​
– Exposed waterers, like shallow large bowls​
– Buckets​
– Heated fountains​
Foods Ducks Hate and/or Cannot Eat:
  • Most nuts; they can’t swallow them
  • White and green potato
  • Avocado
  • Green tomato, and tomato stems
  • Eggplant and pepper leaves
  • Seeds or pits
  • Dried beans
  • Rhubarb
  • Chocolate
  • Onions
  • Alcohol
  • Anything with mold, or rotten foods
  • Coffee and tea
  • Human junk food (such as chips, cookies, etc)


Tip 4- Health Issues:
I only want to very briefly touch base on this subject, because there is just so much ground to cover on this that it would take hours to read, and I am only including essentials.

There are several health issues that a lot of times just happen, and it is not your fault. It could even be something that happened from as early as hatch day, or development. It could be that one hatched with a breathing problem, or two ducklings were in the brooder and started fighting and biting at each other. It can also be in their genes. Other times, there are steps you can take to prevent it.

Now, the other types of illnesses or health issues can be sudden, or slow developing, in which case it could develop so slow that you almost couldn’t catch it until it’s too late. One example of that is the niacin deficiency like I said earlier. Another common one is Bumblefoot. That can happen a lot of times in ducks. Bumblefoot occurs when a duck cuts or scrapes his/her foot on something and can get infected from the bad bacteria ether from the thing that scraped him, or anything else he may walk over from then on, thus causing or worsening the infection, similar to the well known Tetanus infection caused by rust on metals, such as a nail. As it grows, Bumblefoot may begin to look like a blister. Sadly, for Bumblefoot it usually requires some slight surgery to get it removed. But, in the recent years, many have come up with some slight alternatives that might also work for it. Before you resort to surgery, try creating a mixture of 1/2 cup of epsom salt for every 1 gallon of water, in a bath, and soak the ducks’ foot in it, or even have them take a bath in it, for at least 30 minutes. Try doing it twice a day until swelling goes down. Here is a link to an article I found helpful without much surgery, because typically surgery is needed:

Bumblefoot treatment.

Then, if all else fails, don’t give up hope! There are several great BYC articles that can very detailed and easily walk you through step by step the process of the small surgery. For example:


Treating Bumblefoot in Ducks

It can be difficult to prevent, as there could be many things around the poultry yard that may accidentally scrape the foot, but it’s best to prevent it from getting any worse. once it just starts out, it isn’t near as bad as it could become, so one thing I would suggest is setting a recurring time or schedule for checking all the feet of your ducks/poultry. If you see any small cuts even, try and prevent it from the start. You can give him an epsom salt bath in this case as well. Use the same ratio and instructions as mentioned earlier.


The last thing I will again, just very briefly touch base on is a sometimes common laying issue with hens. This can in a way be prevented.

It’s called being “Egg Bound.” This is when an egg is being formed inside of the hen, and just before it is laid, it might either get stuck, as she tries to lay it, or break apart inside of her in a very serious case. Here are just a few basics that I’d like to share. Also, once again, there are several amazing BYC articles about that one subject. Here is an example of a helpful article that works for both chickens and ducks:

Quick Guide to Treating Egg Binding


Here’s what I know:




Egg binding in ducks:

What it is:
  • When an egg fails to pass through oviduct in a normal time period, or it takes an unusually long amount of time to pass through it.
  • It is caused by high fat, lack of proper diet, old age, hereditary or genetic reasons, or an improper laying environment.


How to solve:
  • In some cases, it can be solved naturally, or by itself, but other times, usually you can take some simple steps and options for taking care of this problem. Sadly, even after trying everything, it can still be a worsening issue and at that point is out of your hands.
  • Even if it looks like it might be a self-solving problem, You can crush up 1-2 tums at a time, mix it into some water and use a syringe or dropper to give her a few drops by mouth which should help it go down.
  • Supplement her with 1 mL of Calcium Gluconate 23%
Calcium Gluconate 23%
  • Bring your hen inside for a few days or until she gets better with a humidifier and lots of water, along with warmth. The humidity can help clear her airways and get the egg to slide down, loosen and make the process of the egg going through her oviduct go faster.
  • You can also set her in a baby pool or container of warm water for roughly an hour. The same principle applies as with a humidifier.
  • Massage the egg out, lubricating the cloaca.
  • Then finally, once it is almost out, you can carefully poke a hole in the egg, therefore letting the contents of it come out, then pull the eggshell out. This will help make sure the contents of the egg don’t infect the hen, and prevent open unwanted liquids inside of her. It’s ok if the eggshell breaks when you pull it out; it likely will.

Symptoms:
  • Common with new layers.
  • She might favor a certain spot, or just not move from a certain corner and single out from the main flock
  • She will drink lots of water,
  • But won’t eat much at all.
  • Dyspnea, or trouble/heavy breathing out of mouth due to internal pressure in lungs. A BYC member described it as that, mentioning that it can be because ducks do not have a diaphragm, meaning the egg goes right near the lung area, making it slightly harder for one to breath.




How to prevent it:
It can definitely be a sad and/or complicated process, the whole thing, so the best way to solve it, is preventing it in the first place! You can prevent it by making sure you include healthy treats - not just things like chicken scratch, or especially not bread or any fatty foods like it, but healthy treats like carrots, grass (which has a great source of niacin, like mentioned earlier) sliced bananas, peas, and lettuce. Try to stay away from figs, limes and lemons, because they typically can soak up all of the calcium that they need for egg laying. Another great way of preventing it is providing crushed oyster shell with each feed, which also really helps them with egg laying in general. So make sure they get a good amount of exercise, a nice healthy diet, and keep a good laying environment to keep your ducks from egg binding for the most part.




Tip 5- Enjoy Your New Ducks!
So lastly, it is very exciting being able to experience this joy, especially for first-timers, and after careful planning, research, choosing, preparing for keeping them, and preparing for the troubles that could come up, you are completely ready. With an open mind and a little bit of time, this can easily happen. Hopefully this article helped those of you who are interested get started, and best of luck to whoever may decide to keep ducks!