Ok so I have had chickens for 10+ years but around 7 years ago a family friend gave us two Pekins at 5 months because they were 'too much work' aka they impulse bought due to cuteness and not out of actual wanting the ducks -_- we had the girls for 4 years until we moved to a New house and were to late to discover there were poisonous Newts on the property after letting them free range for about 2 months 
Now we live in a new house 'still have newts but they're much harder to find unless breeding season' and I want to get Cayugas! We have 8 ducklings coming Wednesday so here's some questions:
1:Breeding wise what's a good ratio? I know most will say 1:6 or such but they say that about chickens too and I've had flocks of 2 r: 6 h and 4 r :8 h and been totally fine. I'd have then in a 8×4 duck house of pallet wood inside a 10×20 foot pen, but most of the time theyd be free range on our back acre. They math tells me I could comfortably fit 6 ducks whith room to spare based on the 6 sq ft per duck rule so could I do 2 drakes, 4 ducks(I'd like 2 breeding pairs to prevent inbreeding if someone trys to breed ducklings from my own, plus heavy predation in our area)? I have room to seperate them if need be during breeding season, but I just don't want a Ginormous flock of ducks like 1drake to 6 hens each when ive already got 11 main birds plus 25-40 other young birds on the property at a time. Heres a pic of the basic set up I started working on the other day(there was wild roses all over the area I've cut out so I plan to cover it in a inch or 2 of compact dirt to prevent ducks finding thorns or buried twigs) also what are good landscaping plants for ducks? I was thinking of planting some sedge, tulips, and blueberry bushes. And maybe clematis for the fence, any other good plants?
Picture below is basic layout, the pallets are the location of duck coop.
Also due to ridiculous amour of thorn bushas is it better to leave the surrounding ones? I just wondered if they'd dissuade any ground preds from trying to get over the fence due to the work of getting past 40 feet of 4-5 ft thorn bushes first lol.
Now we live in a new house 'still have newts but they're much harder to find unless breeding season' and I want to get Cayugas! We have 8 ducklings coming Wednesday so here's some questions:
1:Breeding wise what's a good ratio? I know most will say 1:6 or such but they say that about chickens too and I've had flocks of 2 r: 6 h and 4 r :8 h and been totally fine. I'd have then in a 8×4 duck house of pallet wood inside a 10×20 foot pen, but most of the time theyd be free range on our back acre. They math tells me I could comfortably fit 6 ducks whith room to spare based on the 6 sq ft per duck rule so could I do 2 drakes, 4 ducks(I'd like 2 breeding pairs to prevent inbreeding if someone trys to breed ducklings from my own, plus heavy predation in our area)? I have room to seperate them if need be during breeding season, but I just don't want a Ginormous flock of ducks like 1drake to 6 hens each when ive already got 11 main birds plus 25-40 other young birds on the property at a time. Heres a pic of the basic set up I started working on the other day(there was wild roses all over the area I've cut out so I plan to cover it in a inch or 2 of compact dirt to prevent ducks finding thorns or buried twigs) also what are good landscaping plants for ducks? I was thinking of planting some sedge, tulips, and blueberry bushes. And maybe clematis for the fence, any other good plants?
Picture below is basic layout, the pallets are the location of duck coop.
Also due to ridiculous amour of thorn bushas is it better to leave the surrounding ones? I just wondered if they'd dissuade any ground preds from trying to get over the fence due to the work of getting past 40 feet of 4-5 ft thorn bushes first lol.
!!!
