Is there such a thing??

[chickhopeful12]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a duck breed that is small as well as quiet? I am looking for a duck that would be considered a good beginner duck. Any help or suggestions would be great. I did contact someone with hook bills, but I want to be sure and do a bit of research first.

Thanks so much everyone!!

 

[katharinad]

I tell you it is not only a breed thing, but also a quantity. It was really quiet when I had one girl and one boy. The girl would put one loud quack out each morning greeting me and that was it. Now I have 8 girls and one boy and they do get noisy at times. Oh forgot to mention I have Saxony ducks. They are usually noisy when they move around, like first thing in the morning going from the duck house to their fenced in yard crossing our parking lot. Otherwise they are quiet. Only when they get excited about something is when they get chatty. I think that applies to almost all ducks, but some breeds are known to be less noisy.

 

[Amiga]

I have a similar experience to katharinad. With eleven female runners, the most noise they make is as I am approaching their night pen to let them out into the day yard. They holler a little bit when the pellets run out (so I work to avoid that). They are quiet most of the time, just a few quiet bits of chat to each other as they poke around the yard. They holler to greet me when I return from running errands. Oh, and when I bring them treats, it gets noisy until their little ducky mouths are full.

 

[secretquail]

Look at Mandarins. I think they are one of the most beautiful ducks, and I'm pretty sure they are quiet. They just might be my next breed!

 

[chickenlisa]

Yes, my Mandarins are soooo quiet compared to my Australian Spot girls and Blue Swedish girls (ducks.) If I ever hear anything from them, its just a quiet mweep, mweep sound. I love to hear it...sort of like a muted little pig noise. Very cute!
Lisa

 

[HottentotTeal]

My Hottentot Teals are one of the smallest and quietest ducks you will find.

Of course, if you have plans of playing with them and having them lay eggs for you, they are pretty useless in that department.

They just sit there quietly and look pretty.


Were you looking for just domestic ducks?

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

boys tend to be quiet...

 

[chickhopeful12]

Thanks so much for all the replies. If they lay eggs fine, if they don't fine too. A pretty duck will work for me.

I will look into the hottentot teals...never heard of them. Where would I be able to find them??

 

[HottentotTeal]

Quote:
They are very small, just a little larger than your regular Morning Doves. Extremely quiet and very easy to take care of.

These were my first (and only) ducks.


I bought mine from Jamie at Mallard Lane Farms: http://www.mallardlanefarms.com/teals.htm


Boggy Bottom Bantams also recommended me to subscribe to 2 groups with newsletters and in one of them, they sent a directory of breeders. There are only a handful of registered Hottentot breeders in the US. (The ducks are African natives) Boggy will probably be one eventually again, but he is still replenishing his stock of ducks right now. If you need a list of others, I will dig them up from the directory, but I would recommend Jamie's site out of the few that are out there. She was very nice and helped answer a lot of questions for me.



They are a wild breed so if you want to be able to pet your ducks, I wouldn't recommend them. Otherwise, they are very cute and look beautiful. They can fly, so unless you have them clipped or pinioned, I would not recommend any open runs or coops for them. They loaf all day in or around the pond and are quite shy. I have had mine for about 2 months and they are getting used to me and will come up and eat from their food bowl right in front of me. They are still too scared to let me touch them though, but maybe one day they will let me pet them.

I have some pictures of them in my hottentot thread in my signature. Most of the pics with them are going to be near the end of the thread, around pages 7-9.

I'll try to post a pic or 2 in this thread, though: