Duck Info For Beginners

[David Barkey]

Straw is a must in the winter to allow them to keep there feet warm when sleeping . Very well ventilated like chickens .
Dave

 

[David Barkey]

Thank you! What color eggs do your runners lay? I have definitely read that ducks are messy haha! Do you use tubs for their water?

Large white egggs . They have a small pool as of this year and a small tub to bath in on nice days in winter . In the spring we will be finishing the big pond .
Dave

 

[ChickensForEggs2500]

Large white egggs . They have a small pool as of this year and a small tub to bath in on nice days in winter . In the spring we will be finishing the big pond .
Dave

Ooh cool! They are going to love that big pond!

 

[ChickensForEggs2500]

Straw is a must in the winter to allow them to keep there feet warm when sleeping . Very well ventilated like chickens .
Dave

Thank you!

 

[ChickensForEggs2500]

Hi everyone! Thank you for all of the wonderful replies. I was wondering, what do you feed your ducks? I am planning on starting them (if I end up getting them) on unmedicated chick starter with nutritional yeast added. Thanks!

 

[SolarDuck]

That would work fine, getting a duckling feed would be ideal. I use Purina duck pellets which are good for all stages of life.

 

[KaleIAm]

Hi everyone! Thank you for all of the wonderful replies. I was wondering, what do you feed your ducks? I am planning on starting them (if I end up getting them) on unmedicated chick starter with nutritional yeast added. Thanks!

If I were to get ducklings again I would start them out on duckling food. I didn't start my ducklings on duckling food - I just bought what the feed store told me to use. But I wouldn't risk it again now that I know more.

If you do get ducks and you want to feed Mazuri waterfowl I would love to split bags with you. I'll even pay more than half and bring it to you/meet near your place. Bags come in 50lbs and my 3 ducks just can't eat it fast enough.

 

[ChickensForEggs2500]

That would work fine, getting a duckling feed would be ideal. I use Purina duck pellets which are good for all stages of life.

How are the Purina Duck pellets working for you and your ducks? I am on a budget, and this seems to be the cheapest with the best ratings.

 

[SolarDuck]

How are the Purina Duck pellets working for you and your ducks? I am on a budget, and this seems to be the cheapest with the best ratings.

My ducks definitely seem to like it a lot more than the chicken layer feed I had them on before. I feel like their feathers have gotten shinier. I've only been using them for 3 or 4 weeks but so far so good

 

[BigLar368]

Well...to the OP we just started this year with ducks and chickens. I started on a coop and secured run in Feb this year and finished it in late May. The chickens and ducks arrived in the first week of June. Like you I only wanted female birds as I had no desire to hatch anything. First and foremost this was a project for my grandbaby (8 years old) and secondly it was for eggs. We ordered 4 Welsh Harlequin ducks and 12 chickens of different varieties from an online hatchery. On the day they came I got nervous thinking that if some of them arrived dead my grandbaby would be upset so I went to Tractor Supply and bought 4 more pullets. Well when they arrived (USPS) they were in better shape than the Tractor Supply pullets...lol. A month later we picked up 4 more Easter eggers from Tractor Supply so we ended up with 20 chickens and 4 ducks.

This is what I have learned about the ducks we have:

They are not tame at all. I picked the Welsh breed because what I read they were good layers and had a good a docile nature. Keep in mind the wife hand raised them everyday from day one upon receiving them. Since day one they run from us as if we were chasing them with a chain saw. They will every once in awhile eat out of our hands but it's rare.

They are loud. When they don't get what they want they let the whole neighborhood know. We live in the city with not a whole lot of property and so far no one has complained. Giving away eggs helps though...lol. One thing I have noticed is that since they have started laying eggs they have become a little less noisy. Fingers crossed hoping it stays that way.

Absolutely the messiest animals on the face of the earth. They will drink from a muddy puddle under their clean water trough. The dig holes with their beaks where ever there is a puddle. They love the rain and stay out in stormy weather only to make mud puddle into mud patties.

They love to swim. Unlike some folks I can't stand the smell of the dirty pond in our back yard. It's a Tractor Supply stock tank that I elevated and put a drain on. It drains right into a sewer clean out I have for my shop so it's convenient. I drain it and rinse it out every day. I have a water well for my garden so it does not cost any money for the water. I also have the water well hooked up to the water trough in the coop. I have a drain valve on it and it empties into a drainage ditch in the alley. They fill that trough up with mud every day. I flush it twice a day. I also have chicken nipples that they all use as well so there is always at least clean water for them when they dirty up all the other water sources.

They eat a lot. We have always just fed them the same thing we feed the chickens. They are all now eating the Purina Layena pellets. I also feed them corn scratch in the afternoons. Rice is also cheap so I will cook up a few pounds along with some split peas mixed in and they get a quart of that in the evening as well. I can assure you the ducks and even the chickens are very healthy and have yet to exhibit any problems.

They can fly. From everything I have read they have a hard time flying. I have seen one of ours get startled and fly out of the stock pond and get as high as the fence. If they wanted to they could easily fly over the fence but that has not yet happened. They all free range the back half of the yard during the day and get locked up in the run at night so I guess they are content with staying in the yard.

Our ducks sleep on the ground in the run. Our coop is tied into the run but is elevated about 4 feet off the ground. The ducks sleep fine on the ground. We live in a pretty mild climate with it rarely dipping below freezing. It was 33 degrees the other morning and the first thing they did when I let them out was get into the stock pond so I'm pretty sure they are ok with sleeping on the ground without needing the protection of the coop. We just recently had a very hard, windy rain that put a lot of water in the covered part of the run. It made a muddy mess. I added straw to the floor for the first time and I wish I would have done it much sooner. Keeps the mud from forming. It also keeps their eggs from getting muddy as well.

Our ducks lay eggs where ever they sleep. We got our first eggs just this last Tuesday of Christmas week. They are in their 29th week so we have been expecting it. I had tied some 5 gallon buckets together and put straw in them but they will not use them. They would rather pull all the straw out of them along with the chickens. I actually found one eggs buried in a mud puddle after the hard rain a couple of nights ago. That tells me that duck probably slept in the mud puddle...lol. I had read that ducks would make a nest to lay eggs. That did not happen with ours...lol.

Our ducks are bullies. I had read that I would have to watch to make sure the chickens did not harm the ducks. Trust me....that's not happening. The ducks push those chickens around I assure you. And when one duck goes after a chicken they ALL go after the chicken. This is not much of a problem because the chickens are much faster than the ducks.

Well I think that's everything. Sorry for the long post. With all that being said our ducks are probably some of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen up close. Their coloring and plumage is absolutely beautiful and their eggs cooked over easy taste like nothing else. It was a lot of trouble but it was worth it in the end.

I will attach a few pics of our set up. Maybe it will give the OP some decent ideas. To the OP good luck and hope all goes well. Happy Holidays.