Are drakes louder than hens?

[Sundari]

I'm working on a new food-producing animals (chickens, ducks, & dwarf goats) ordinance for Denver. I keep chickens and goats, but I don't know much about ducks!

We're trying to decide whether we should allow both hen and drake ducks, or just hens. (We're only allowing hen chickens, no roosters.)

What is reasonable for a small, urban flock? Is there a reason to allow drakes? Breeding isn't really on the table, since animal owners are only allowed a total of 8 fowl.

Help me out, duck owners! What are your thoughts?

 

[newgoosegirl]

Hens are the loud ones, and drakes are all quiet and hoarse.

 

[Katy]

My call hens are waaaaaaaaaaaaay louder than the drakes are.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

We're trying to decide whether we should allow both hen and drake ducks, or just hens.

Hi! I think it would be wise to allow both ducks and drakes. Ducks (girls) lay eggs and are quite noisy. Drakes (males) are nearly mute and taste good. Since they are 'food-producing animals', animals as food? or just food-producing (as in eggs)?
Unless you want to breed ducks to make more 'animals as food', keeping a drake would not be productive.

Lisa​

 

[pascopol]

If this was not for male discrimination in this country, duck females should be banned drakes allowed.

Some duck females create more noise that a rooster by their nonstop loud quacking. Duck males are much quieter than chicken hens. They are capable of only soft hissing sound.

Just saying it like it is.

 

[MomMommyMamma]

Are ducks noisy day & night or just during the day? We recently had to get rid of our rooster because he was crowing at 4 AM. Though legal where we live, we're on 1/4 acre lots which makes it kind of close for a 4 AM wake up call. I'm new to the idea of ducks, but I am interested, if they are not night time/crack of dawn noisy. During the day would be OK I think.

 

[Katy]

Mine are loud whenever they hear a door shut especially....and I sometimes hear them go off in the middle of the night. Ducks don't roost like chickens, they can be active and loud no matter the time.

 

[TV]

Get Muscovies, they are both quiet.

 

[DMSrabbit]

Quote:
Yeah, well i live in a SMALL neighborhood, directly in the city. It is illegal for me to have a rooster, but i have one anyway. He sleeps in the garage overnight in his own little isolation chamber (which is really soundproof) and comes out in the yard at noon. Nobody complains about him, but they do about the ducks! He may crow outside a few times (maybe 3 in a row) every few hours or so, but the ducks would go on, and on, and on, and on, for up to 10 minutes! I recently (yesterday) got rid of my call ducks, as well as one of the sets of my BEI's, simply because of noise. I was unaware something so small could create so much noise (and oh man they do!!!), i truly NEVER saw this coming.

Personally, im over ducks (mostly bantams), they are 100x more problematic than my chickens (even my freaking rooster!!), they squawk whenever they want (middle of the night, during the day), and offer very little in return for their services. Yeah they are pets, cute, cuddly (maybe), and maybe give some people meat, or eggs, (probably only larger breeds), but WOW i never saw how problematic they could be.

I swear, the smaller the duck, the more noise they make, especially call ducks!! Im my experience (which i know is limited), they are SO LOUD!!, i cant even explain it. After 4 nights in a row of waking up at 3am to my call duck hen (she weighed less than 2 pounds, and made LOUDER noise than the BEI) squawking at the top of her lungs, having to go out in the cold or snow, get her (and my BEI hens), and bring them into my roosters isolation chamber in the middle of the night, i was done (I almost ate them!).. I took their eggs, threw in the incubator (9 of 9 developing) and sold the ducks..

They are someone else's problem now!!

If i EVER get any more, i will get Muscovies, as someone said, they are both quiet, and actually offer something in return. You can eat their eggs, or eat them, so at least you get SOMETHING in the end from them..

Write it into your plan, but inform people to pick specific breeds that are less noisy. Goats, and chickens are MUCH better options.. MUCH better (in my tainted opinion)

Good luck and GO DENVER!!!

 

[Mom 2em All]

I had a noisy noisy Cayuga female, and a noisy noisy noisy male Runner. Those two made my yard sound like a barn-yard all the time. Not good for my neighbors. Now I have a crowing hen. And yes, she lays eggs, and yep she CROWS loudly early in the morning- as close to my neighbors house as she can.

My muscovies are very very quiet- soft hissing sounds, and little trilling sounds.

It all depends on the individual and the breed itself.