Considering raising ducks...

[NotaZoo]

Thanks to all for the info, one more question. Do you need a drake to get eggs?

 

[Finny]

Thanks to all for the info, one more question.  Do you need a drake to get eggs?

No females produce eggs even without a male. Males can fertilized these eggs.

 

[buff goose guy]

This is gonna he a Cayuga/mallard x Rouen

Do you have an incubator ?

 

[Joshua G]

Quote: I agree, watching them play makes up for having to clean up their mess.



What kind do you have ?
Pekins.

Oh, all awful-looking things look better the longer you're around them. The Muscovy drakes don't actually look that bad, they just don't look like the typical Mallard most people associate with the term "duck".

I don't have Muscovies but I agree with you there.

 

[buff goose guy]

Ohh beautiful ducks

I've owned some a long time ago


I'm getting more this summer though to put with those Cayuga mallard Rouen mixes

 

[NotaZoo]

Sorry but I have one more question. Can ducks bedding be pine shavings, that is what the lady at our local feed store said would work best, but I have read other places to use straw or hay.

 

[Amiga]

I use pine shavings for my adult ducks. When they were little, they tried to eat it - so we used old towels.

 

[foothillsco]

Sorry but I have one more question. Can ducks bedding be pine shavings, that is what the lady at our local feed store said would work best, but I have read other places to use straw or hay.

Pine shavings work really well. It depends on what your plan is to dispose of them. For me, with a city yard, I rake the shavings into the grass and the assimilate into the grass pretty quickly. Straw doesn't break down quickly so it wouldn't work for me. I think shavings are best.

On a related note, getting shavings for free is pretty easy. Any small manufacturer of a wood product pays to dump them rather than sell them. I go to a window shutter manufacturer and he fills my trashcan up with shavings from birch, bass, oak wood. Of course, never reuse anything made from walnut (due to the corrosive oil in the grains) but walnut is a pretty rare wood species today.

If there isn't a supply like this near you, I suppose that wood chips would work also and arborists (professional tree cutters) seem to be everywhere.

 

[naturespace]

Can you let a broody hen hatch and raise ducks?

 

[Amiga]

People have done it, yes.