Are ducks easier to raise than chickens?

[francisfarms]

I just hatched some Khakis yesterday. 4 of them to be exact and have 3 more in the bator. You have to make sure the humidity is higher than for chicken. I sell my eggs for 5 dollars a dozen and I get it without any question. I have 4 dozen sitting in the fridge now, I will most likely be back at work on Monday so they will be gone that day. I thought about getting pekins, I am still on the fence about it. I prefer the khakis though. I do have one rouen that got mixed up in the bunch when I got them as babies. I am getting eggs from her everyday. She was bred with a Khaki so I should have some nice birds from her. They should grow faster than the pure roens as they will be a hybrid. They do eat more than chickens, They are part Italian as they love pasta!!!!

 

[BaronRenfrew]

I've never had khaky's but have had muscovies and others.

they are easy enough to tame, and ducks are considered better foragers than chickens.

Muscovies are known as being fly catchers, likely the only bird that catches insects airborne. Mine were trained with bread. toss small pieces at them and not a piece will hit the ground. Certainly tame, once when gardening found a nest of moles. the muscovy hen swallowed them fast and she followed us around the garden forever after.

the males grow big and can be hard on the hens. Their breeding behaviour can be nasty.

 

[tvtaber]

How is the Cayuga for a pet? Egg production sounds great but are they friendly? And how noisy?

 

[vfem]

I have NOT cared for ducks yet. We are 'expecting' duck parents. BUT we do have a bunch of ducks (yet to figure out what kind) on our pond. They are VERY loud at night. We go out cat fishing and they'll be out on the pond chasing our casts at 1am. Making for a hard fishing night for sure. Can't catch anything while they're around making all that noise.

They also come up and steal the chickens treats I throw out around the lawn. OH, and they've chased me out in the rain because they knew I had food in my pockets.

They don't belong to anyone I know, so I assume they'd be a bit mean if I got around them. Yet they do run from my daughter when she tries to feed them.

 

[Bex]

TvTaber, the friendlyness of any duck is going to depend on how much time you spend with it. Our Cayuga hen is very loud - she is the deepest and loudest of all of our ducks, even louder than our Call ducks.

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
Khakis are famous for their egg laying abilities, not for their brooding. You can use the 6-1 ratio , however I found that I get a better hatch if I drop down to 3-1. Most farmsteads raise the 2-1 ratio as they get to incubate some eggs for replacement ducklings but continue to get eggs for the household table. They find it to be very satisfactory amount. For my Pekins, which I raise for meat, I use the 6-1 ratio as each hen would lay 8 to 15 eggs before they go broody and quit laying at that point. After they hatch the ducklings, I take them away and they in short order lay the next batch which they raise. I sneak in a few Khaki eggs under the broodies to get more egg layers, but not too many as the males usually get processed and they don't produce nearly as much meat as the Pekins. I would recomend you subdivide your area to keep each male with his females seperate from the next pairings. You will be much more happier. (my next door neighbors baught a dozen ducklings [Malard/Pekin], he dug a nice pond [12 x 20 x 2 ] with a pen [30 x 50 ] around it. Grew up to be 4 drakes and 8 hens. At maturity, the drakes started to chase and breed the ducks usually all at the same time. One day they actually drowned one hen on the pond [ she saw it happen] when all of them tried to breed her at once. I became the beneficiary of 3 of those drakes that day... tasted mighty fine). With 18 mouths to feed I would recommend that you subdivide your 36 x 36 area into 2 or 3 pens. One or 2 small pens with a drake and 3-6 hens [each], then a large pen with only females. You should probably lobby for more space to keep it from becoming too messy/ smelly. The number of hens should depend on the number of eggs that you would need, ie one or two eggs per member [ daily or every other day] plus some for baking.

 

[jmc]

Thank you, Boss.........

much to think about. I think we'd rather go with too few birds than too many, so I think I'd choose the 1:3 and maybe divide into two pens.

I would--only occasionally though--let the birds into another area to range....but only very occasionally

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

I didn't take the time to read this whole thread...

But I would say there is pros and cons to both..

But I would go with..

Chickens are eaiser to take care of that mallard derived ducks

now Muscovies.. thats a different story.

They are easy to take care of,

-They don't make noise
-Are happy with a small kiddy pool

 

[jmc]

One thing I really like about our (possibly soon to be departing small flock of chickens) is that they come right up to me when I enter the pen. They'll sort of follow me around. Not that they love me for my mind or anything! We all know they just want to stuff their crops

But I think it would be a drag if we were to end up with 8 Khakis that just ran away when I got within 5 feet of em.

I know I'm talking pet stuff here; but that is an appeal about at least the chickens (Prod. Reds and NHR) that we have now. They sort of 'relate' to me. I know it sounds silly, but it would be nice if the ducks could do that, too.

 

[MilkMaid]

I have about 30 or so ducks of many different breeds (pekins, campbells, mallards, rouens, cayugas, swedish) and they have always been pretty easy to raise. They also seem to do fine brooding and raising ducklings. The rouen and mallards in particular are very good at brooding and raising ducklings. They will sneak away rather than come in to their pen at night so that they can secretly hatch a clutch of eggs and show up one day with a bunch of ducklings! My ducks are not very friendly, but I know that they *can* be if you take the time to give them lots of attention. I just started raising chicks this summer, but so far I am just noticing that the ducks are way messier. I think the ducks are generally cuter than the chickens, as adults especially, not that it really matters. They are very entertaining as well.