Is a pond a must have?

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I must disagree with two muscovy points. A muscovy will often end up as flock boss if it suits her. If a chicken or a rooster tries to pick on them the chicken is likely to lose. Usually a lone duck will just hang around with the chicken flock but be completely outside of the pecking order. The other is with them being child Friendly, a lone female can be very agressive in defending her nest and even worse if broody. As for a Muscovy drake, they can be worse than geese. being decended from tree livers their toenails are like a cat's claws. I always wore heavy gloves if I had to handle Muscovies!

 

[FlashPointFarm]

Welcome! I have a small number of ducks and no pond. We had a kiddie pool, but it blew away when we had straight line winds. Ha ha, wonder if it showed up in someone's yard in one piece? Probably not. Anyhow, I took a plastic barrel, cut it so it's about 12 inches high and put a horse water trough deicer in it for winter fun. I throw cat food in it for the ducks to play in. I can dump it daily so they have fresh water. The chickens and cats also drink from it. Since I set it directly under the water spicket, they always have warm water and I don't have to worry about cleaning a nasty pool.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
According to "the Poultry Site Newsletter" which is published for commercial growers. The animal rights groups in Europe were all upset about the use of automatic waterers for ducks and were demanding that they be provided with pools. The growers set up a free choice test using Waterers, pools, or sprinklers. Under free choice conditions the splinklers were best liked by ducks, followed closely by pools, waterers were dead last. There were some concerns that eye problems would be greater with the sprinklers but that was found not to be the case. Naturally the animal rights groups did not believe the results so ran their own tests that duplicated the grower's results. Now pools and sprinklers are acceptable but waterers are not.

 

[Chesher]

Quote:
Lol! I assume snorgle is a technical duck term. It definitely seems appropriate.

Thanks so much for the advice. I think we might wait on getting ducks if we need to do 2 (which I thought would be the case). We have an awful lot of projects and I thought I might just be able to slip one duck in with the flock, provide some snorgle water and enjoy duck eggs. But the idea that they need their own kind for socialization makes a lot of sense. Hubby was reluctant with 1 and I think the idea of 2 might kill him right now. Maybe next year. Bonus being that I think I won't be as crazy about my 3 year old drowning in the duck bucket.

Again, thanks for all the information. You folks are fabulous! And I LOVE the pics Wifezilla! Beautiful little pond you have there.

 

[headred]

Lots of good advice! As a side note, my hubby was NEVER excited about ducks, but he probably enjoys watching them more than he likes to admit. He's also the one most worried in the snowstorms, etc. Ducks are fun and lots of entertainment, especially for kids. I have a website about my ducks if you really want to see them from the get go. A bit of reading, but will definitely give you an idea of a year in the life of a duck. And yes, they like company! Good luck!