My African geese were WAY cleaner then my ducks...by a lot! Here is what I have learned owning ducks and geese:
Ducks: Wet messy poop that stinks
Geese: Grassy poop that dries up fast and isn't stinky
Ducks: Root their bills at the base of my plants and trees...tearing up the roots and killing my plants and trees. Also Eat any and all branches they can reach on my young fruit trees.
Geese: Do not bother the roots of plants and trees, but will tear up any branches in their reach.
Ducks: Will poop and mess in their little pond VERY quickly! I have to change the water once, even twice a day!
Geese: Will not mess the water up nearly as fast, plus, their poop isn't as stinky.
Ducks: Will stampede, breaking down fencing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. (fencing was 2 ft. tall UVA/UVB resistant plastic chicken fencing held up with renewable
bamboo posts. This fencing works great for chickens, turkeys, and geese...but ducks break it!)
Geese: Will not break down fencing.
Ducks: Females have a loud quack all the time for no particular reason.
Geese: Only makes noise when valid flock disturbances occur. Such as an intruder, or when she detects panic in the flock. Geese make great alarm systems!
If I were to do it all again, I would skip getting ducks, and get geese and chickens. The list I made were on my own observances of 6 geese and 2 (now 1, thanks to that mangy mutt!) geese in my own flock.
Quote: I will agree that ducks tend to be (MUCH) messier and smellier, but not that they are noisier. Not even thinking of my ultra quiet muscovies here. When we had mallards, Minnie would occasionaly quack--usually if I was out checking her babies or otherwise disturbing her. If no one was out there, or were not near her, she was pretty non-vocal. Mr D, as a drake was not noisy at all. My geese will honk up a storm if the wind blows wrong, if they think a chicken should be elsewhere, if a leaf chances to fall off my African sumacs (
), etc. The ducks cannot be heard next door. The geese can be heard from far, far away.
