Are Ducks good Backyard Birds???-Or are they too loud/neighbors

[Faithnthyme]

We have a flock of Khakis for eggs. They have an enclosure that gets muddy in the spring after all of the heavy rain. Then it greens up and is self managed. The ducks free range in the rest of the yard during most daylight hours. They have not destroyed the yard by any means - they will attack the strawberries or tomatoes if they get a chance so fencing some of the garden becomes necessary during certain phases. They don't produce anymore mucking work in their night run than my brothers chickens do for him. As for noise - they let me know when they want out in the morning or if they think they need feeding or something. Other than that, they are pretty quiet. It is more likely to hear a neighbors dog barking than the ducks. We have a small pond in their pen - 7' diameter and 1 kiddie pool we move around in the warmer months in the yard so they can keep their feathers clean. Our neighbors hear them on occasion and are not bothered by them - granted we are the small lot in the 'neighborhood' out in farm country. We tend to keep 5-6 hens and it keeps 3-4 households in fresh eggs most of the year plus some, not to mention the slug,fly, mosquito, spider control we get out them. We have the best of both with my brother having the chickens and only living a few miles away. What ever you decide, good luck with it!

 

[nettie]

i keep two runners in a town house that is connected to other's on either side. We also share a backyard with our next door neighbor. (who luckily is chinese like my fiance and loves duck eggs. We promised to send as many as we could his way when they start laying.)
They can get loud, seeing as they are both most likely female (my white/fawn was supposed to be male). They usually quack ludly when they want something, but are otherwise quiet. They also spend a lot of time in my house. MY backyard has their coop and their pool. They also have a mud tub, which essentially is a shallow container full of mud which we resupply with worms, slugs, bugs, plants, etc.

Our ducks are strictly pets, and we don't plan on eating them or anything like that. MY backyard is maybe 30ft across x 12ft wide. Just beyond our big fence is a somewhat busy street. And like i said we share half of the backyard with a neighbor (who does give our ducks treats and is a very very nice man). I guess it works for us since our ducks spend most of their time on our indoor/outdoor patio area and in our front room. They also have a section of my art studio all to themselves upstairs (half of the space is a giant coop i built them) they get to sleep in.

I guess whether ducks would be good for you would depend on how involved you could be, exactly how big your space is, how many ducks you want, how much effort you're going to put into making them coops/pens.

HAving pet ducks in smaller spaces is possible, you do not need to have a farm in order to keep them. You just keep them differently than people with bigger spaces. It can be tricky and time consuming, but i love my ducks and it is worth it.