Did I order too many ducks?

[Ratchnick]

What kind of coop do you have for your ducks? I'm hoping to put the next couple weeks to good use. I just can't decide what to build!

I'm in anchorage Ak, but don't let that scare you, i just had a bunch of quail eggs shipped from Ohio and they made it just fine. I ordered top show quality saxony and cascades. No plans to show them but i figured if its the last holderread stock i will get might as well get the best i can. Definitely excited to get more genuine holderread stock. Didn't think that would happen since they are closing shop.

 

[Knighstar679]

I love East indies, where did you get yours??

I hatched mine from eggs from a person in Chicago.

 

[Floof]

Should I build a shed style coop for this many ducks? I imagine it's more important to have a lot of floor space since they dont roost. What size would be good for 22 or 23 ducks? Could I get by with 8x10?

 

[Floof]

Something like this for the pond and coop?

 

[Teneniel]

I think that’s a reasonable number if you’re trying to be self sufficient!
But grain of salt because I am in the worst part of brooding my first ever 6 ducklings and I just ordered 6 more for my 1/8 acre
I mean, what if I have too many males??? Right???
For my dozen I have a large pen that takes up about 1/4 of the backyard with a bathtub pond
that drains to the culvert, and a home built shed style coop that’s 6x5. I plan on putting a sail shade up to deter raptors. I’m in a cascade foothills valley in NW WA.

 

[neo71665]

Back when we had ducks we started off with 2 hens and a drake. Year later we had a bit over 30 of them. Ours lived on our stock pond and the foxes and coyotes ended up eating them. If you have never had duck eggs they are rich. I can normally eat about 2 chicken eggs but only one duck egg. Our mallards had a bad habit of just dropping eggs wherever they were at the moment. We would find them in all kinds of random places in the pasture and pond. I built them a laying house by the pond but they never used it. They would roost in a pine tree by the pond.

Used to get a kick at feeding time. They would come up to the house and start raising cain. They would then form a single file line following ya down to the pond. Everywhere they went was a single file line like a bunch of school kids.

 

[Ratchnick]

At least 4 sqft per duck is optimal for housing.

 

[CindyinSD]

Something like this for the pond and coop?

IDK about the preferred size yet, but make it a dirt floor if you can. Mine run around happily in the snow and sub-zero temps, but I like them inside at night for protection. Still, if you have several feet of snow, driving winds, ridiculous temps, it's nice to know you CAN keep them inside. A lot depends on how many you keep beyond butchering age.

 

[Floof]

IDK about the preferred size yet, but make it a dirt floor if you can. Mine run around happily in the snow and sub-zero temps, but I like them inside at night for protection. Still, if you have several feet of snow, driving winds, ridiculous temps, it's nice to know you CAN keep them inside. A lot depends on how many you keep beyond butchering age.

I'm actually pretty lucky. We might get a sprinkling of snow and the temps dip into the 20s a couple nights a year but it stays in the 30s and 40s most winter nights.

 

[CindyinSD]

I'm actually pretty lucky. We might get a sprinkling of snow and the temps dip into the 20s a couple nights a year but it stays in the 30s and 40s most winter nights.

Cool! So you can get away with the 4 sq ft @Ratchnick cites. I'm not certain, but I believe we probably have worse weather than Ratchnichk (you wouldn't think so, but...) based on what I'm seeing online and also knowing Anchorage has much more versatile gardening weather. If I were worried about having to confine them for a week or two at a time on a semi-regular basis, I'd want more like 10 sq ft per bird. This past winter hasn't been so bad (so far), but the winter before was well nigh apocalyptic.

I guess if it came to that, I'd want to put the waterfowl in the greenhouse, which is very generous (I don't remember the exact dimensions atm). I had chickens in there this winter and they did pretty well.