Pekin

My pekins are very social. They like to hang out with my Mallards!

We have one Pekin, Daisy. She lives in the goat pen with our other duck, a mallard. He is more shy while Daisy will come up and eat out of your hand. We do not need to clean the goat area anymore, for they eat all the goat poop. They clean all the parasites. Daisy is messy, quirting grain everywhere but she always cleans it up. She is a sweet duck, so I would recommend Pekin's to anyone who wants a friendly duck.

My 2 pekin ducks are friendly, but loud, mine have not started to lay yet, but I hear they lay pretty good. They are messy, and will dig deep holes in your yard! but all ducks do. I love em. but can not be kept in town or where neighbors might complain.

The pekin is a great looking duck and everyone loves watching them in the pool. Aside from that, there is nothing about these ducks that makes them worth keeping. The females are so loud my neighbors 6 houses down can hear them. When nervous (which is constantly), the females make an annoying warning quack sound and won't stop until they're satisfied that whatever it was (usually me) is far enough away. The males mate aggressively with the females, and this is loud too. The pool must be emptied and rinsed daily, or it will immediately grow algae as they turn it black within a few minutes of getting in. My small flock of 5 ate so much that I went through a bag of feed every 6 days. They also stank up the coop so badly with their mucky poop that I needed to change the straw nearly every day.

Never getting these ducks again.

we raised our 2 female pekins from a few days old as pets
They are now over 6 months old and we still love them as much as we ever did

although they startle easy (very nervous birds), they are very comfortable around people (even when we introduce them to new people) as long as you don't try to pick them up or the chase will be on! But we did train them into being settled once they are picked up. I still don't think they are overly fond of being picked up, but they seem to accept defeat, and begrudgingly put up with being cuddled lol
They will follow us around the yard gossiping away to each other like a couple of old ladies. We've even trained them to go back into their house with a particular motion of our hands.
One of our ducks in particular is quite vocal if we don't visit them at least once a day and let them out of their house for a run around the yard and splash in the pool. Otherwise they seem to be happy to entertain themselves. Fortunately for us (and our neighbours) they are dead silent once the sun goes down.

They are EXTREMELY messy birds though and eat a lot. We can't believe how 2 relatively small animals can make such a mess in less than 24hrs!
But having said that, they aren't fussy eaters. They will eat almost anything. Just as happy to eat the grass in the backyard as they are to eat their proper feed. They also eat bugs, ants, mice, millipedes.....

Great family pets, but you need to spend a bit of time with them if you only have a couple of them. They like attention

I only have 1 Pekin that we rescued. I named him Frosty and he's the best pet ever. He loves me. I think it's true when they say that a Pekin's friendship towards humans rival that of dogs. We even introduced him to our Muscovy and Magpie ducklings, and he only nibbled their necks and feet every here and there. He loves water, but he gets less and less protective over "his" pool. He only eats what I give him, and he drinks a dog bowl of water a day. I am beginning to let him out with me every morning to get some exercise with the ducklings while I finish up the chickens.

I have a few ducks and my pekin drake is very stunning and for a male, gentle. He's very easy going and adjusts well when we get other ducks. Although, during breeding season he does tend to give you a few nips that I really don't appreciate but mostly he's very well behaved. If you want a pekin or any duck for that matter, you have to be prepared for them to dig up your garden and make a real mess.
Perkins are excellent ducks and are friendly, great if your new to owning ducks.

We primarily have Muscovies. We also have a pair of Pekins; the Pekin hen did lay one egg a day all winter when the Muscovies were off, but she is not at all broody. The Pekin drake is a noisy and aggressive thug who bullies the younger Muscovy drakes. He doesn't take on the senior Muscovy drake, who is my favorite bird; if he ever does, I will have that Pekin for dinner..

I love my Pekins. Their eggs are not overly strong, massive, and they lay 1-2 eggs a day for me. They take a 1 -2 month rest period which varies. I have 3 Ducks and so I get a continuous supply of extra jumbo eggs. And if you bake they are amazing for baking. Ducks eggs are higher than chicken eggs in protein so kudos to that. Plus the shells peel more than they do crack, so you don't have to worry about shell getting into your batter.

They are butcher weight in 8 weeks. We eat our extra drakes, and it is easy to tell gender by their quack, as early as 4 weeks in age.

Speaking of Quacks. The females quack just like Donald Duck laughs. Always brings a smile to my face. They also like to make a merry-go-round when swimming. Mine do fine with the chickens and they love their rubber splash tubs and puddles. They are just dirty birds. They love it when I toss scratch into their puddle.

At night they are light sleepers, anything comes around and they start quaking. So it's easy to know if something is out there.

I had a Pekin as a kid. His name was Jimmy. One night, he got attacked by an unknown predator. I though he was dead because he was laying there with massive holes in his neck. Well, I nursed him back to life, and he lived for many years after that...though he only had one eye after that (made for some good laughs trying to watch him run with his head tilted to one side).

I have Pekins again. I unfortunately ended up with 3 drakes and 1 duck. I haven't had problems yet, though I still plan to get rid of two drakes. They absolutely LOVE their pool. I had to take it away because I was afraid of all the males drowning her. They follow each other in a line which is hilarious. They are soooo soft! I just had my 3-year old and 16-month old nieces petting them yesterday. They loved them. The female is very, very loud. I can hear her in the morning while still penned up all the way from my house. I deal with it, because EVERY morning, there's an egg waiting for me. I had no idea she'd lay this many. I think she may have missed one day so far and has been laying for 2 months now. How could it get better than that??

The boys start to look the same after a while and I can't tell them apart. They are pretty heavy so when they decide to catch a chicken and mate with it, it's painful to watch. If they find a puddle of water, you can bet there will be a mud hole in no time! I left soaker hoses going in my garden earlier this year and they found it. It was then a big clay, mud pit....plus they ate all my lettuce.

Even so, I still love them! I'm sure they're tasty, but I'd have to be starving to eat something that cute.

Pekins are very friendly, comical and I recommend them for beginner duck owners. If you don't put them up at night you will probably lose them so you have to remember to put them up.

I raise pekins and Rouen ducks and the Pekins are my favorite they are so friendly, I look forward to waking up and going to the coop because the ducks, the pekins especially, run right up to me quacking and nibbling at my toes and shorts. they don't mind being held and they are very cuddly. They are big, fat and slow but very cute. they always have everyone laughing because they are so funny to watch play around.

I have have been raising ducks for years now. Pekins are really friendly ducks. They stay pretty close to home, they are good layers and if you are looking for white craft feathers, look no further! They are also good meat ducks and can get pretty heavy. They don't fly, so they are easy to catch and little kids love them! Unfortantly you need to have a good ratio of ducks to drakes, otherwise (because of their size) they will pick on the smaller males as well. They are also slightly messy, and if you plan on having a little pool for them, it will need to be changed a lot!

I grew up with Pekin ducks and they will always have a place in my heart!

they are my favorite duck breed ever. i have heard they lay well, but i didn't list that because mine haven't started yet.

Only had mine a year now, but love them like crazy. They are way tame, but spent some time doing that. They stick together, one male, 6 females, like a cloud, and move as one unit. Lay eggs like crazy, all winter long, some two a day, big healthy eggs with huge yolks, great for baking and egg dishes, any baker or cook would give their right arm to have a daily supply of these eggs. Easy, easy to keep, give them fresh bedding, water supply and feed once a day, they're perfectly happy. Will nest in cardboard boxes on the outside porch and come home every evening unasked. Guess it's all in how you raise them. Can see if you don't pay attention, they might not be the breed for you, but as pets, a little time goes a long way. Of course they are fatty, that's the duck you buy in the grocery store, i.e., Long Island, but those are Jumbo Pekins. The smaller breed is best to keep around for eggs and to round out your smaller farm. They don't demand a pond, are perfectly happy with a little pool, and do forage well. Just my experience, guess I got a good batch. Can't complain about them being messy, they are, but they're ducks for goodness sake. What do you want? Can't potty train a duck, chicken or any other fowl, they'll poop when and where they want to. And duck poop is great fertilizer, use their soiled bedding right in your garden between rows, not like chicken poop, it is ready to be used right away. Watch your garden explode! Tamed enough to eat from hand, and will come when called. It's all in how they're raised, like any other.

These are great little ducks we got ours when we bought a Christmas tree, why people selling Christmas trees had ducks I don't know but here we are. They are easy to take care of and run after us when we're in the yard they're great.

I love my ducks so much that I want more! Pekin ducks are really easy to raise and have really good personalities. My ducks are skittish about being picked up, but like to be close to me when I'm in the yard. The eggs are delicious and the yolk is so orange and vibrant it turned me off of grocery store eggs forever. The only drawback is that they will lay eggs anywhere, so sometimes I have to go on an egg hunt (not quite as fun when they aren't dyed in pastels). Also, the ducks aren't broody at all, so if you want to hatch some more ducks, you'll have to get an incubator or a broody hen. I highly recommend these ducks. Another plus is that after Easter, you'll probably be able to find some of these for free. That's how I got mine.It's ridiculous, but parents buy them for kids' Easter baskets and then once the ducks lose their "cute" factor the family wants to get rid of it. I call them rescue ducks.

they love the pools we have for them. they are very messy but fun to watch

I have 15 and hatching more.