Ducks for improving your lawn

[columbiacritter]

A friend was watching my ducks free range my yard and how they work their bills right down through the grass. He walked over to an area they'd grazed and laughed, "Hey, can I borrow those ducks? They did a better job dethatching and aerating than the expensive lawn service I use."

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

My husband is very in love with his lawn... and he HATES the duckies, cause of all the icky, poop. i bet your friend's lawn guy doesn't leave squishies to step in.

 

[greyfields]

geese do even a better job

the advantage of ducks, of course, is they'll eat slugs & bugs, too, whereas the geese just graze, nibble and taste everything

 

[columbiacritter]

Our "lawn" is just old pasture we've mowed for the past 4 years. We've thrown some real lawn grass seed down, but it han't really taken well.

Still the ducks have actually improved it since the munch down the dandelions and have made a serious dent in the slug and grub population.

We're in Oregon, the regular rain washes away the squishy duck poop before it becomes a problem. Unfortunately the dog poop sticks around.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Yeah, they mow, weed, fertalize, and arieate, plus we use the water from their pool to water. All summer my husband kept saying our backyard never looked better, halfway through we realized we didn't even need to mow anymore, (well we're not real fussy anyway) it should probably be weed-wacked around the edges.

But now we see there is too much "ariation" going on, hope we don't have a mud pit by next spring. I kept wanting to throw down grass seed, but worried the ducks would eat it, I think they treat it with chemicals that could be bad. Anybody know more about this?

 

[mountaintopchicken]

I don't put my ducks and geese on my lawn past the time when they are babies - poo issues and the chickens are the ones who get the lawn.

But I have used them to improve pasture and turn it from an unfertile mix of bad pasture plants (including buttercups) into something that looks like a lawn. I just rotate them across the pasture with movable electric fence. If they miss some rough patches I go through and mow after them. Once in a while I deliberately let them overgraze an area, then reseed. Works great!

 

[Ivagrovegirl]

I like to put my call ducks out to graze because the poo to benefit ratio is very good. They get the job done like big ducks without the nasty poo.


Emily

 

[shelleyd2008]

Well, my ducks must just be weird then! All they do is hang out by the pond all day, never ever do I see them in the grass!