Ducks on a river?

[oliverbrisbo]

1 - semi-dam the river

2 - put a 6 foot fence around it - have about 1/2 an acre fenced off

3 - start off with just a few ducks and add more along the way

4 - get a large duck house and lock them away every night

here is a clip of my river

 

[1stepcloser]

My poor duck gets smacked around by all the chickens.

As far as "quiet" ducks. I figured out Muscovy drakes only hiss...no quacking.

 

[rainplace]

Wow... someone had 12 chickens starve to death and they didn't know what was happening? And it was blamed on the ducks?

 

[sonew123]

I have one duck-he has a big pen and his own pool with a little house-he NEVER used his house but I do have a chicken who discovered it and starting laying her eggs in it! I let my duck out several times a day to free range with chickens and never have had a problem-I also have a over sized dog crate that he gets locked up into everynight-with the chickens-This is where he will be all winter too-Im trying to keep his smelly mess confined-I avent noticed him eating more than the chickens either-its about the same...

 

[farrier!]

We have one duck....
We also have a creek. Duck roosts with the chickens at night and goes and plays in the water during the day.

 

[DiVon80]

Quote:
This is very nice! Down here(SE,Louisiana) anywhere there is water is gators. I would get a kiddy pool!

 

[keeperofthehearth]

If you do not pay close attention and feed plenty of food, your chickens will starve to death. Ducks devour all the food. The will also destroy your chicken pen.

hmmmmmm,

I had one drake and 4 muscovy hens reside w/my chooks thru part of last winter. The ducks and chooks get along fine as long as you have enough room. The only problem we had was when the drake would set himself in front of the pop door not allowing the chooks back in. I had to smack his bottom a few time and tell him to move.

He learned.
As far as the food goes, of course you have to feed them more.... you have extra mouths and bellies to fill. I find my chooks eat WAAAAAAY more than my Scovies. I'm astonished at times at how much those chooks eat compared to all my Scovies.
If your friends chooks starved to death then I would have to wonder how much food they were putting out in the first place. You should be putting out as much as they are going to eat in a day/night if not more.

Ducks DO make more mess with their water and wet poo as well as seem to chew on everything.

I separated my Scovies and chooks for that reason though I have a pretty splash Ameraucana Roo that hangs with the Scovies all day because he thinks he's a duck, sigh!!, well .... he is generally the same color as most of them & he does go in to roost every night. I also get a few Scovy gals that cross over into the chook yard and hang w/the chooks on and off.​

 

[Duckingham Palace Guard]

Gonna chime in her. Male ducks have a corkscrew penis. Chickens, both male and female, don't seem to enjoy that experience

 

[JoJoM]

I don't live on a river, but we have a huge pond (3 acres or so). The first week of letting the ducks out on the pond, in the evening we would have to row over to the island they liked to spend their day on and shoo them back home. We only had to do this for the week and now they just come back on their own. I think if you had some temporary fencing to contain them for a bit until they learn to come home, you should be fine. I also limited their food a bit until they were in at night so they wanted to come home.