Breeding pen size

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I was wondering how big to make a breeding pen for ducks. This spring I would like to have "pure babies" and I am guessing I may have some mutts if I let them go on as I do now. They are all in together along with the chickens.

Thanks, Michelle

 

[duckyfromoz]

It can depend on the breed a little- ornamentals can be housed in a smaller area. I have seen them as small as 1 x 2 metres but I certainly wouldnt want my ducks confined to such small areas. How much space do you have??? The area I separate my trios into are around 4x 7 metres each and I find that a good space that leaves them plenty of room so the grass can still grow and they dont end up living on mud.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

We live on 13 acres. Space isn't too much of an issue, I was thinking of the breeding pens would be in use only when we want babies so not put into use all the time. Right now I have them in the barn- they have the run of most of the main floor and we also built them a run outside that is 25 x 50- smaller than what they have inside but not too crowded when everyone is outside.

I am in the process of building the pens for the chickens and thus wanted to start thinking of the ducks. The smallest ducks we have are the mallards, we also have jumbo Pekins and WH and it looks like we ended up with a few standard sized pekins (they look like they are half of the bigger pekins).

 

[kangababy]

before be built our big avairy the pen we raised 100 mallards in was 16x30...
Depending on how many birds you have I would do a 10x10 per pair. We only raise ornamental waterfowl in the aviary but we have mallards, buff and white crested (chef looking) ducks on our pond. The pond is about an acre and it sits on 10 acres.
Though they didn't cross breed this year they could have. They all kind of kept to theirselves. The only problem you might have with that is if you have more drakes then hens.. with the domestic ducks you can have 2 or 3 hens to 1 drake. You just don't want 2 to 3 drakes to one hen because they will kill her all trying to breed with her. sounds though if you already have a 25X50 pen you should be good as long as you have the right ratio of drakes/hens...

Our aviary is 124X75 and we are plannin on building a 60X40ish.. or 30x70 (200ft around) to put the babies in when they are about 4-6 olds, depending on the breed.
The do best raised on wire then they do on the hard floors.

Hope this helps

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I am working on weeding out drakes- right now we have too many. I think when I am done with culling I will have 4-5 drakes and 15-16 females between the three breeds.