Ducks or Chickens? Pros/Cons

[chiqita]

Ducks are louder and more work then chickens. we have both, and the ducks make a mess everywhere. The place they sleep is close to our house, and they respond to light, so if Im awake, they are making noise.

Ducks are awesome for snail control however, so our 3 are worth it. But they take 4-5x the amount of work the chickens do. we jsut got or first eggs yesterday, so Ill find out if theya re worth ti! lol

 

[HollyBird24]

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I have cold winters also... its 25 degrees here as we speak. I believe laying ducks as a rule are less susceptible to climate changes affecting their laying habits. That was my point.

Cold is a relative term. To me, 25 degrees is like a warm summer day compared to the -15 to -20F and colder we get on a regular basis come January and February.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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By white layers I think you mean white leghorns. Funny, because I have several in my flock and they actually seem to be smarter then some of the others. Same with my ISA Browns which could also be included in the hybrid catagory as being designed to live in a cage.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
I have cold winters also... its 25 degrees here as we speak. I believe laying ducks as a rule are less susceptible to climate changes affecting their laying habits. That was my point.

Cold is a relative term. To me, 25 degrees is like a warm summer day compared to the -15 to -20F and colder we get on a regular basis come January and February.

Thats similar to what I get in the winter, do you provide heat for your birds at all?

 

[goosedragon]

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Well if you let them out of the enclosure from time to time runners tend to stick together and are easy to herd, try that with a bunch of chickens! Ducks are messier though. what answer did you expect on a duck board?

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
Well if you let them out of the enclosure from time to time runners tend to stick together and are easy to herd, try that with a bunch of chickens! Ducks are messier though. what answer did you expect on a duck board?

I was wondering the same, most of the people posting in this section are duck people. Hense the reason your getting a very one-sided opinon on which is better

 

[aoxa]

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My ducks go to bed before my chickens

My production red will stay outside until it is pretty darn dark! She will also stay outside when it is POURING rain. I mean the kind of rain that soaks her to the skin. She is the only one that will.

My ducks don't want to go to bed at all! I got so sick and tired of having to chase them in every night that I just started leaving them out. If you aren't in by dark when I shut the door, your gunna sleep outside.

I'm hoping that with temps hovering around -35C (-31F) some nights they'll learn that its much warmer inside with the geese. So far no such luck.

Wow. My ducks are the last to come out in the morning too! I wonder if it is because they are young..

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
My ducks don't want to go to bed at all! I got so sick and tired of having to chase them in every night that I just started leaving them out. If you aren't in by dark when I shut the door, your gunna sleep outside.

I'm hoping that with temps hovering around -35C (-31F) some nights they'll learn that its much warmer inside with the geese. So far no such luck.

Wow. My ducks are the last to come out in the morning too! I wonder if it is because they are young..

My geese are the first ones out on the nights that the ducks actually DO go inside.

 

[jaycee]

Quote:
By white layers I think you mean white leghorns. Funny, because I have several in my flock and they actually seem to be smarter then some of the others. Same with my ISA Browns which could also be included in the hybrid catagory as being designed to live in a cage.

I think by white layers she meant hybrid ducks bred especially for egg laying.

 

[JulieNKC]

Quote:
Well if you let them out of the enclosure from time to time runners tend to stick together and are easy to herd, try that with a bunch of chickens! Ducks are messier though. what answer did you expect on a duck board?

I was wondering the same, most of the people posting in this section are duck people. Hense the reason your getting a very one-sided opinon on which is better

I have both. I've had the chickens longer than the ducks, but now that I've had both I prefer the ducks because of their laying ability. If I had gotten muscovies like I wanted I probably wouldn't be as impressed, but after getting an egg a day from my 2 ducks for the past month and 1 egg a day average from my 16 chickens who are all over 6 months and less than 18 months I am about done with the chickens. I'll be cutting those wayyy back here in the next few weeks, to make room to expand the duck flock. I just wish the ducks weren't so loud and messy, but they make up for it.