Considering ducks... looking for advice!

[CoopdeVillage]

I keep Muscovy ducks because they are really good foragers/grazers and can get a significant portion of their diet from your lawn (and they aren't noisy). It looks like there would be enough diverse plants to munch on in your yard. But that means they need to be excluded from any gardens you don't want nibbled to death. Our ducks love to sample all the plants, like they forget which ones they actually like to eat. However, they don't work as hard as chickens to get into things, so we just got a cheap wire folding fence from Ace for our seasonal garden and built some wattle fences (free!) for the flower gardens. 12" height keeps that breed out if their wings are clipped.

They don't relish the water like the mallard-types do, so we just have some tubs with a couple inches in them so the ducks can wash up, although I am sure any duck would enjoy that pond. I would be more worried about that "natural ecosystem" killing off your ducks than the other way around. You are going to have raccoons and mink galore around that place. So make sure you have a something akin to Ft. Knox for them to sleep in.

It looks like a sweet place for some ducks. Good luck!

Thank you!