Alot of Duck questions

[grandmafarmer]

I am new to ducks and have so many questions, this is the best forum, I have learned so much! I got what was suppose to be three Pekin ducks, however one is alot smaller, has a puff on top of its head and is getting brownish feathers, Does anyone know what kind of duck this is? What kind of housing do you have for ducks, I cannot leave them out at night. Right now I have them in my chicken coop (our chickens have not arrived yet). I am enjoying my ducks, they make me laugh everyday! Thanks for your help.

 

[Bobberduck]

Can't be sure without a picture, but it sounds like a Crested Pekin. You can google that in images and you should be able to tell. Need a picture though, sounds like he is a cutey.

 

[Enslaved-by-Ducks]

Grandmafarmer..........I have tons of answers for you...lol
I'm so glad more and more people are raising ducks. I started out with 24 chickens and 8 ducks. I have 6 Pekins, 2 Khaki's, 3 Rouens.
I absolutely love the pekins. They are so beautiful and graceful. The Rouens and Khakis are great as well but they are really Agressive. The key to having a manageable flock is to have very few Drakes because the drakes are extremely aggresive with the females and sometimes I wish I never had drakes. No matter what time of the year it is, Drakes are always wanting to mate and become so agressive, I have to keep them seperated from the females because of injurys. I will not get Drakes in the future because of this agressivness..........They will tear the back of the heads odf the hens to the point of no feathers and open wounds. It is really sad but It is what happens when you have more drakes then Hens. (female ducks)
If your going to have ducks, try to only have one drake to 5-6 hens. Or else, keep them seperated. I do let them play together once in awhile just to let the poor boys have a little fun if you know what I mean...lol..........but only for a day then they go back th their seperate pens.

I have two coops, one for the female ducks and chickens and then a seperate coop for the drakes.
I house my ducks and chickens together in the same pen. You don't have to keep the two seperate since chickens normally get along great with the ducks. There is very little squabbling between the two. however, like I said, I do keep the Drakes away from the female ducks during the night time hours since ducks don't have any concept of time and will play and mate 24/7
I have a run that is 100X100 feet and has two kiddy plastic pools that I keep water in for the ducks to bathe. Ducks LOVE to play in the water and you must provide them with plenty of fresh water to enjoy the days when It gets hot. You cannot keep the ducks out of the water as you will soon find out. They play, swim, nap and love to free range and eat grass, bugs and play in the mud...Please keep the ground where they are housed clean of wire, glass, rocks, sharp objects since they have very sensitive feet and will cut their feet on anything rough and develope Bumblefoot which is extremely painful and hard to cure.....Please pay very close attention to their environment in that it is soft, clean and safe. I feed the ducks the same food I feed the chickens. " All Porpouse Back Yard Flock Food " It is for chickens, ducks, turkeys, whatever you have. I keep large bowls of food available at all times for them to eat and keep their food close to water because Ducks don't usually like dry food. If you have foodd near the water, it is easier for them to eat and wash it down with water...you will have so much fun and joy with your Ducks. I love them all and spend countless hours with them outdoors. They make great pets but remember, they hate to be handled by humans so if you try to " hold" a duck, for get it...they will fight you and you must be very careful not to force your self on them because they have very frail wings and can be damaged if you handle them wrong. I hope this info helped and sorry it was so long but there is so much more you need to know but I will be here if you have any new questions. I ' so happy to help you and congrats on your new adventure. It will be an experience you will thouroughly enjoy.
Ray

 

[Bobberduck]

Hey Enslaved!
Thanks for the tips, I will use them as well! I am going to go through the pen and toss the few rocks that the chickens have unearthed. Do you know if the Cayuga breed drakes are that aggressive as well? I had some issues with my bigger drake (Bobber) today, but he has Angelwing and is going to become dinner here in another few weeks so I am not too concerned. The other drake however seems to be fairly lovey. He will herd the hens a little, but he mostly sits and preens himself and the four hens in the run... He was even preening on two of the new little ducklings we were introducing today. You know if this is 'Normal' for the breed, or if it is just juvenile behavior?

tx a bunch!
D.

 

[Karen09]

I have one Cayuga Drake with two hens and he is not too aggressive to them. I have not noticed any feathers missing and he usually only mates in the tub of water I have for them. I also have a Rouen Drake not in with the Cayuga's and he is more aggressive to the mallard hens. I have learned a ton from here also. The people here are so willing to be helpful!

 

[Enslaved-by-Ducks]

Bobberduck, You mentioned your Drake has Anglewing and is going to be dinner in a few weeks. I hope you're not doing this because of Anglewing !!!!!! If your duck developes angle-wing, this is not a reason to put the duck down. Angle-wing is only because of a lack of protein. It can be VERY easily fixed and your duck can live a normal, healthy life.

How much do you know about angle-wing ?
How old is your duck with angle-wing ?
Have you tried taping the wing down with tape ?

You don't always need to do anything with the wing and the wing sometimes corrects its self. Mine did.....Please don't tell me your killing your duck because of angle-wing.....Hope to hear from you before you decide to go ahead with this......Enslaved-

 

[Enslaved-by-Ducks]

Quote:
Cayuga's I don't know too much about but every species is different. I only have Pekins and Rouens and Khaki's...please see other message I sent you on here about your angle-wing issue.

Thanks.

 

[gryeyes]

I have a Cayuga drake; used to have a pair but a predator got Thelma when she was brooding on a hidden nest. Louie is a widower now. Louie is a LOVE duck. I've recently acquired some call ducks (hatched 'em) and some Cayuga ducklings (feed store) in an attempt to give Louie a wife and family. He is FASCINATED by them in their grow-out house and pen.

He was a very attentive husband to Thelma, but they only mated in water. She never got torn up at all, always looked so pretty.

Cayugas are my favorite breed. I've never had any others - I got them because they are supposed to be quieter than other breeds, and they are very quiet ducks. Thelma only quacked a few times, when she was very very annoyed. Mostly they just gabbled quietly to each other (or Louie gabbled to me, because he loved me when Thelma was out of sight).

Call ducks are so CUTE because they are little ducks. But the girls are noisy!

Cayugas are mild mannered and pretty calm ducks. Now and then Louie will startle me by flying about two feet over the ground across 15 feet or so, but that's the extent of his flying exertions.

 

[squeak1387]

I also keep my pekin ducks in with my chickens. They all love it

 

[Bobberduck]

Quote:
Well, we are raising them as both egg and meat ducks. As to Angel Wing, my research is that it is caused by too much protein, not too little, and that it is a genetically passed trait, so I do want to remove that from the gene pool if it is, but I will do more research. He is also the more aggressive of the two drakes though and that is another point not in his favor. Nameless, our other drake is lovey as heck. Still and all, Yes, I do know about the taping and such, but I will definitely double check the genetic pass information I got. Need to find out a final on that before I say too much here and sound like a total 'tard.

Still, I am raising egg and dinner duck, so I am not greatly concerned. Thanks for the info boost though, and I will definitely look up the info and get back on this thread with what I find. I will also grab the links so you can visit the same sites and we can all be on the same page. I find that helps immensely.

Thanks for all the help,
D.