Duck Info for UK Garden

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Hi there!

First of all, I have zero experience in ducks (other than obsessively loving them), so anything you can advise me on would be super appreciated. We've been considering getting chickens for a while now, and have the space for poultry (an aviary + garden) but the chicken coop that was being built has kind of come to a standstill.

I read a few BYC articles on ducks and ducks vs chickens etc and that really set my imagination going...

Apparently they don't harm plants overly when foraging, how true and to what extent?
Some breeds (khaki campbell) can lay 300+ eggs per year how true?
They/certain breeds/species don't require much water, how true and to what extent?
How messy are they?
How much space do they need?
What kind of shelter do they need?
How hardy are they compared to chickens?
How quiet are they?
How needy?
What breeds are best?

Do they mess ponds up? We have a small pond in the garden with fish, would the duck droppings be bad for the life in the pond?

We often have wet weather here but it's never to bad. We used to have quail in the aviary and they were fine with it. We also don't have any dogs/cats. We have rabbits and cockatiels in the aviary.

I really want to know what's the right decisions and to be responsible.
Thanks in advance

 

[ruthhope]

Great questions. I am a duck keeper from the UK now keeping ducks in the USA.

Firstly, ducks can take any weather the UK can throw at them -- they survive in the transcontinental, extreme, wrather conditions of the northern US states and Canada.

Unlike chickens, ducks do not scratch the soil. They may eat some plants: salad crops and ornamental with long leaves like lilies and ginger ate preferred.

Ducks poop everywhere but unlike chickens poop it is not concentrated ("hot") and can go straight on the garden as fertilizer. Duck poop can be flushed if pathways and papers by hose.

Ducks are intrinsically nosy and will want to know what you are doing--following you around your garden, congregating by gates and looking in glass doors.

Some ducks are very loud -- call ducks -- others dont quack and are very quiet. Muscovy drakes make a huffing puffing sound when they are excited. Muscovy females are quieter still communicating with a soft bubbly or gurgling sound. If avoiding disturbing neighbours is your aim, muscovyvare your ducks.

Pekins -- white ducks -- are good layers. My son keeps pekins for eggs. Muscovy are good layers and good meat birds. I have muscovy although they are drakes ( no eggs) and not destined for the cooking pot. I commend both breeds to you -- lovely commical birds!

 

[kattabelly]

If avoiding disturbing neighbours is your aim, muscovy are your ducks.

Muscovies WILL dig though, in my experience, if there's something in the soil that they want. YMMV.

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Great questions. I am a duck keeper from the UK now keeping ducks in the USA.

Firstly, ducks can take any weather the UK can throw at them -- they survive in the transcontinental, extreme, wrather conditions of the northern US states and Canada.

Unlike chickens, ducks do not scratch the soil. They may eat some plants: salad crops and ornamental with long leaves like lilies and ginger ate preferred.

Ducks poop everywhere but unlike chickens poop it is not concentrated ("hot") and can go straight on the garden as fertilizer. Duck poop can be flushed if pathways and papers by hose.

Ducks are intrinsically nosy and will want to know what you are doing--following you around your garden, congregating by gates and looking in glass doors.

Some ducks are very loud -- call ducks -- others dont quack and are very quiet. Muscovy drakes make a huffing puffing sound when they are excited. Muscovy females are quieter still communicating with a soft bubbly or gurgling sound. If avoiding disturbing neighbours is your aim, muscovyvare your ducks.

Pekins -- white ducks -- are good layers. My son keeps pekins for eggs. Muscovy are good layers and good meat birds. I have muscovy although they are drakes ( no eggs) and not destined for the cooking pot. I commend both breeds to you -- lovely commical birds!

Thank you so much for all of the great info! I love muscovies!
Random question, would they eat daffodils?

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Muscovies WILL dig though, in my experience, if there's something in the soil that they want. YMMV.

I'll keep that in mind!

 

[ruthhope]

Thank you so much for all of the great info! I love muscovies!
Random question, would they eat daffodils?

Let me first say that my muscovy do not dig: they are likely to fat and lazy. They do love to burrow through piles of autumn leaves looking for grubs, and so I leave them piles of raked leave to entertain them.

I do not know about eating daffodils. My daffodils were in the front garden and the ducks in the back garden when I had daffs. Mine were adept at knowing which plants are poisonous and to be avoided, and which are not. Likely because the toxic plants are bitter. I can see ducks chewing daffodil flowers but I dont think they will go for the leaves. Im guessing though.

 

[kattabelly]

I had a group of Muscovies work their way across a field of tatties a few years back, digging down to all the shallowest tubers with their beaks and then hollowing them out.

Fat, lazy pet Muscovies might well be different though.

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

Let me first say that my muscovy do not dig: they are likely to fat and lazy. They do love to burrow through piles of autumn leaves looking for grubs, and so I leave them piles of raked leave to entertain them.

I do not know about eating daffodils. My daffodils were in the front garden and the ducks in the back garden when I had daffs. Mine were adept at knowing which plants are poisonous and to be avoided, and which are not. Likely because the toxic plants are bitter. I can see ducks chewing daffodil flowers but I dont think they will go for the leaves. Im guessing though.

Thanks again! I hadn't realised Daffodils were toxic. We have a slug problem in our garden and I was thinking ducks would be good at that as well.

 

[Alpine Bobwhite]

I had a group of Muscovies work their way across a field of tatties a few years back, digging down to all the shallowest tubers with their beaks and then hollowing them out.

Fat, lazy pet Muscovies might well be different though.

We don't grow vegetables that often because the rabbits and slugs demolish everything!

 

[Jenbirdee]

Ducks ARE good at slugs for sure. But you don’t want them to eat TOO many - slugs are full of parasites

You asked a lot of questions. I’ll give it a go at a few. -

Some breeds (khaki campbell) can lay 300+ eggs per year how true?- 100% true
They/certain breeds/species don't require much water, how true and to what extent?
This I never heard of. Ducks need at least a bucket of water, deep enough to dunk their head in and keep their eyes and nares clean. They do not absolutely need a pool to swim in however it is recommended to keep them themselves clean and they have so much fun swimming in a pool, I fill their pools whenever the weather allows
How messy are they?- haha they are messy with water. Yes they like to make mud so put your pools or buckets in a place where the downflow goes out of your yard not into it. And don’t give them water inside of their coop unless it’s extremely hot in there I do it occasionally in the middle of summer when we get days that feel like 112, the coupe only cools down to about 80-90 at night, so I give them a water bucket, but it’s a lot of wet bedding the next morning.
How much space do they need?
They need a minimum of 4 ft.² each for their coop, sleeping quarters. As far as Outside my 18 ducks presently have 2000 ft.² or so, if you are going to keep them in a run, I don’t really remember what the standard requirement is, but I wouldn’t want them to have less than 100 ft.² each if they had to be in a run and not get to free range on a regular basis.
What kind of shelter do they need? Very secure and sturdy building four square feet each and must have one square foot each of ventilation up high above their heads at the top of the walls , all windows covered securely with half inch hardware cloth (I use two layers one inside and one out) a gentle slope ramp is OK for them. It must be wider than for chickens. Their house should be off the ground, but not too high. It needs ventilation underneath, and you should skirt it with hardware cloth around the bottom. I dug into the ground 2 feet deep sort of a moat around my duck house and put the hardware cloth going down into it and then bent it going out 2 feet. Then filled it in with dirt. Anything that tries to dig will not get under.
How hardy are they compared to chickens?
In my opinion, ducks are hardier than chickens. They don’t get parasites or worms nearly as much as chickens. I’ve never had a parasite or worm issue for 12 years with Ducks, but I had chickens for three years and had all kinds of issues with that stuff . Had to buy dewormers and parasite sprays and powders., etc also had crop issues with chickens never had one with a duck. And the chickens need shelter from rain during the day, but the ducks have a party when it rains.
How quiet are they? That depends. I have a few that are quiet, but some are pretty loud my Pekin and silver Apple yard are my loudest right now. I also have a golden 300 That’s pretty loud.

How needy? / what do you mean by needy? Ducks need to be with other Ducks but they don’t need your presence however you will enjoy it if you hang out with them of course they need clean water every day. They need to be fed proper feed and have secure housing most especially overnight.
What breeds are best?- This is certainly a matter of opinion.
I believe golden 300s are one of the best at being hardy and laying eggs, runners are the best at entertaining you, Welsh Harley Quinn’s are the best eye candy, pekins are the best at waddling, lol oh and Cayugas are also gorgeous and mine has been pretty quiet. Khaki Campbell’s also quite hardy and tends to be quieter than others., and They do lay a lot of eggs. They can fly a little more than some of my other breeds so I had to make my fences a tad taller.