duck eggs

[Miss Lydia]

My ducks and chickens sleep in the same house the only thing separating them is a door with chicken wire on it, I have not seen any build up moisture in the coop at all. I don't keep water or feed inside the coop though because ducks are very messy and can really muck up the bedding splashing their water out. they also have wetter poop than chickens, actually I don't think my chickens would appreciate having to sleep in the same room with the ducks or vise aversa

 

[RangingChicks]

I was considering get ducks and I had a question. Do you have to have males and females or can you have just females?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I was considering get ducks and I had a question. Do you have to have males and females or can you have just females?

You can just have females and they will still give you eggs just won't be fertile unless you have a drake. and some keep just drakes which will usually get along as long as there are no females present.

 

[RangingChicks]

Thanks for that info. Do you know of any hatcheries that just sell females? The only ones I have found have found sell in pairs of one male and female.

 

[Kevin565]

I'm pretty sure Metzer sells sexed female ducklings.

 

[RangingChicks]

Thanks Kevin. I will take a look.

 

[Kevin565]

It's no problem at all. They seem to have a pretty good reputation on here so hopefully they will be a viable option.

 

[Chickeneggineer]

Metzer does sell sexed ducks, I purchased 6 from them a month ago, they all arrived safe and healthy and are doing great. I would order from them again.

 

[sherrybintally]

Love my Khaki Campbells and they will crank out the eggs all year round. The eggs are like the size of an extra large size chicken eggs. I thought they were suppose to be quiet ducks also and I guess that's all relative. They are very noisy at the crack of dawn when they want me to get up and let them out of their pen. Other than that they are only noisy if I pen them up and I go outside. Then they very noisy again until I hustle to the pen and let them out. I live in town and I am worried my neighbors may complain. So, I try to hurry and get them to be quiet again. One good thing about Khaki Campbells as far as color is no they aren't as colorful as Welsh Harlequins. But I lost one earlier this year to a hawk so I'm very glad they are more brown and can blend in and be camoflauged a little than a bird with a lot of white. The only time my ducks haven't laid is when they were molting. I let the molt naturally so it took awhile. But they didn't molt all at the same time so I was never without eggs.

 

[Blackberry113]

My last set of ducks were Black Runners and Khaki Campbells, but I got them at the feed store and they weren't sexed. I wanted all girls for the eggs, but since I didn't know what gender they were when I got them and had to wait until they were older to find out, it turns out that I got ALL DRAKES! This time, I bought my ladies from a poultry farm and had them shipped(these ones were sexed) from the place, Metzer Farms. Metzer Farms has a website with online ordering and breed info. I got five ducks, all mild tempered and good laying breeds: two Buffs, a Cayuga, a Welsh Harlequin(WH's are SUPER cute, and the color on the females is beautiful, my daughter's favorite duck is her WH, she named it Comet), and a Golden 300 Hybrid Layer. Out of all my ducks, the Golden 300 is the best laying breed. In fact, Golden 300 Hybrid Layers are one of the BEST laying breeds you can get! The number 300 in their name comes from their laying ability: they lay about 300 eggs a year! You should definitely consider this breed! Also, Welsh Harlequins are VERY good layers, but their most prominent feature is that THEY are one of the calmest breeds you can find! I hope my info helps!