Ducks in a small urban garden?

[TeePants]

Hey all! I joined this forum almost ten years ago when I lived in south Louisiana! I had a much larger yard then, and kept chickens and eventually ducks!

Almost ten years later, I'm all the way up in Seattle, and we just purchased our first home - a townhouse with a very modest garden. Because this type of home is pretty common in Seattle (at least I assume so) the laws for fowl are much more lenient than in the rural south - coop must be at least 12 feet from the nearest neighboring home (in Louisiana it was 30). That being said - our yard is REALLY SMALL.

Our useable yard space for "free ranging" (lol) fowl is 135 sqft - 14.8 x 9.1 ft. Most of the yard is occupied by a small outbuilding we use as an office.

Not pictured is the grass that is now growing in the raked dirt area, lol! It's crazy how fast it grows; we had to clear the yard and actually remove two huge trees (one was hitting the house behind us).

I miss having a backyard flock, but I'm not sure if this is enough space for a couple birds, specifically ducks. Obviously we'd be using the "kiddie pool" method, which I have seen many opinions on. I also can't seem to get a good read on SQFT for ducks - have seen anything from 10-30 sqft per? Ideally, we'd like a pair of female khaki campbells.

All this to ask - is this too little space? Should we consider chickens, batnams, or quail instead? I have kids now (crazy what 9 years will do to you right?!) and they're absolutely stuck on the idea of a pair of ducks.

Thanks all!

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

Hey all! I joined this forum almost ten years ago when I lived in south Louisiana! I had a much larger yard then, and kept chickens and eventually ducks!

Almost ten years later, I'm all the way up in Seattle, and we just purchased our first home - a townhouse with a very modest garden. Because this type of home is pretty common in Seattle (at least I assume so) the laws for fowl are much more lenient than in the rural south - coop must be at least 12 feet from the nearest neighboring home (in Louisiana it was 30). That being said - our yard is REALLY SMALL.

Our useable yard space for "free ranging" (lol) fowl is 135 sqft - 14.8 x 9.1 ft. Most of the yard is occupied by a small outbuilding we use as an office.
View attachment 2609823
Not pictured is the grass that is now growing in the raked dirt area, lol! It's crazy how fast it grows; we had to clear the yard and actually remove two huge trees (one was hitting the house behind us).

I miss having a backyard flock, but I'm not sure if this is enough space for a couple birds, specifically ducks. Obviously we'd be using the "kiddie pool" method, which I have seen many opinions on. I also can't seem to get a good read on SQFT for ducks - have seen anything from 10-30 sqft per? Ideally, we'd like a pair of female khaki campbells.

All this to ask - is this too little space? Should we consider chickens, batnams, or quail instead? I have kids now (crazy what 9 years will do to you right?!) and they're absolutely stuck on the idea of a pair of ducks.

Thanks all!

For a pair of ducks? I’m sure that’s plenty of space! I’d get a pond in there, though. @DucksAreBest @KaleIAm (I should really stop tagging you guys)

 

[Ratchnick]

You can fit 2 or 3 ducks in there but do yourself a favor and stick to small breeds. Bantam breeds like black east indie, or calls or maybe Campbell's or Welsh Harliquin. Bigger ducks mean more poop and you basically have a run not a free range space. If your actually going to garden in that space get quail instead as the ducks will wreck your garden.

 

[TeePants]

You can fit 2 or 3 ducks in there but do yourself a favor and stick to small breeds. Bantam breeds like black east indie, or calls or maybe Campbell's or Welsh Harliquin. Bigger ducks mean more poop and you basically have a run not a free range space. If your actually going to garden in that space get quail instead as the ducks will wreck your garden.

Thanks! We want Khaki Campbells, so I'm glad they're on your list! We have a raised bed not pictured in the yard that we use for gardening (off to the left, it actually gets poor sunlight so I have grow lights on a tripod), and then the row of planter pots against the shed that I intend to fence off (they're right below the flowerbox).

 

[TeePants]

For a pair of ducks? I’m sure that’s plenty of space! I’d get a pond in there, though. (I should really stop tagging you guys)

Huh, I had remembered reading that installing a very small pond was not worth it as it couldn't possibly filter well enough to deal with the poop! I'm not entirely against running to the hardware store to buy a kit, I had just assumed it didn't usually work out. (I can hear Monty Don saying "water feature" in my head now!)

 

[fatty and friends]

khaki are awesome, you will love your girls

 

[Weeg]

You can get ducks in there, definitely two. What I find with space for ducks though, is the more room, the better. In my opinion, 15-20 sq feet per duck is minimum. Anything less then this I find gets muddy, dirty, and nasty really quickly.
With this in mind, especially since you have no were else to rotate them to, or free range them to give the area a break, you will want to choose the right breeds. I would go with Calls. They're little, cute, and there will be more space for them in the run. Thus, you can have 2-3, with less mess, and more room, keeping the area cleaner.

 

[TeePants]

You can get ducks in there, definitely two. What I find with space for ducks though, is the more room, the better. In my opinion, 15-20 sq feet per duck is minimum. Anything less then this I find gets muddy, dirty, and nasty really quickly.
With this in mind, especially since you have no were else to rotate them to, or free range them to give the area a break, you will want to choose the right breeds. I would go with Calls. They're little, cute, and there will be more space for them in the run. Thus, you can have 2-3, with less mess, and more room, keeping the area cleaner.

Aren't call ducks very loud (our neighbors, as you can see, are VERY CLOSE, so that makes them kind of a big no-go)? We are specifically interested in ducks or chickens for egg laying, which really limits the duck breeds we'd consider. I do remember from when I had a pair of ancona before that they're quite messy; but we had a 30ftx20ft space which is roughly twice as big as our current yard, so it wasn't as noticable. Plus they honestly couldn't compete with what the six very inventive hens could do!

 

[Dux]

I wouldn’t get them if that was all the space I was working with. While I think roughly 9’ x 15’ is enough space for them to move around in, it would get messier than I would want to sign on to deal with every day for years. I have 3 ducks who live in a 16’ x 33’ space during the winter months (ie when it freezes consistently at night) and who live in the same space the rest of the year but spend most of the daylight hours in the warmer months in a 6’ x 15’ duck tractor that I move to fresh lawn daily. Over the winter the grass in their pen gets reduced to bare ground from the amount of water and poop so I have to keep topping it up with fresh layers of wood shavings. (In the summer, I’ve been planting grass, which stands up reasonably well to the wear and tear only because they spend the days in their tractor and because it’s actively growing. By the end of the summer, there are still bare patches and the area is somewhat poopy/slippery. (Disposing of the not inconsiderable volume of accumulated wood shavings in the spring is something else to consider, if you don’t have a decent sized yard with areas that can use the mulch.)
Something else to think about: unless you have somewhere else to drain it, in a 9 x 15 space, every time you dump the water out of a kiddie pool (which you will probably be doing every day or two) you’re going to be soaking a lot of the area. When I empty mine, I can tip it through the fence and downhill, so it mostly doesn’t exacerbate the mud situation in their area.

Sorry to be a bit of a joy kill. I write this knowing that if someone had told me the above before I had ducks I probably wouldn’t have listened (because ducks are adorable!!) but I thought I’d share my own experience in case something in it is helpful or maybe you can find some workarounds.

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

Huh, I had remembered reading that installing a very small pond was not worth it as it couldn't possibly filter well enough to deal with the poop! I'm not entirely against running to the hardware store to buy a kit, I had just assumed it didn't usually work out. (I can hear Monty Don saying "water feature" in my head now!)

It probably isn’t. But they need water.