Lots of Duck Questions * Pleae help*

[silkieluvr]

Hey everyone, we have decided to venture into raising ducks now!!!

I have tons of questions so if anyone could help me I would be forever in your debt!! So here goes:

1. On duck breeds, give me some recomendations because I want friendly, hopefully unflighty breeds.

2. Will ducks go into a coop at night? My coop is split in half with wire down the middle so could I have my chickens sleep on one side and the ducks on the other?

3. If I make a small pond or get a kiddie pool for the ducks, will my chickens fall in and drown? I was hoping to keep the ducks and chickens in the same run.

4. Are there any other big needs/differences between raising ducks and raising chickens?

Thanks!!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I will try my best

1. It depends on what you want ducks for, eggs, meat, both, or just to have .I like cayugas for the look, eggs, meat, and they are calm.

2. They will go in if they want to. We herd ours in and close the door, they are really easy to herd.

3. We have had a couple birds drown but that was before we had rocks/ramps for them to get out. We have 2 larger rocks on either side of the pool incase a bird falls in.

4. Ducks are messy. You need to clean the brooder daily with ducklings, they drain waterers super fast and they have runny poop.

Hope that helps

 

[Green Moose]

1. On duck breeds, give me some recomendations because I want friendly, hopefully unflighty breeds.

Our first and only experience this year was with Rouens. They are incredibly friendly and seem to choose not to fly. They get really fat and are tremendously fun to watch. If you are growing them for meat, they are also good for that.

2. Will ducks go into a coop at night? My coop is split in half with wire down the middle so could I have my chickens sleep on one side and the ducks on the other?

Ducks are messy. We had 12 and each day I added a new layer of ferns for bedding because the completely o) soiled a 10 x 8 enclosure, just overnight as they free ranged during the day. I wouldnt keep them with the chickens if you have more than a few.

3. If I make a small pond or get a kiddie pool for the ducks, will my chickens fall in and drown? I was hoping to keep the ducks and chickens in the same run.

Not sure here. In my little experience you want to keep them seperate simply for sanitation reasons.

4. Are there any other big needs/differences between raising ducks and raising chickens?

This was our first year. Chickens are extremely easy after the start up of building a coop and such. I keep their water and food bins topped off every few days. Ducks are a two to three times a day chore unless you have a big pond and lots of acreage for them to roam. Next year we will raise some more, but I will have an automatic waterer and a very large enclosure for them.

Good Luck.
Moose

 

[Omniskies]

1. On duck breeds, give me some recomendations because I want friendly, hopefully unflighty breeds.

Most of them seem pretty skittish unless you go for the Alysbury or Rouen. I'm a big fan of the Muscovies right now. If you're undecided then I'll recommend Welsh Harlequins. They're nifty and need more breeders.

2. Will ducks go into a coop at night? My coop is split in half with wire down the middle so could I have my chickens sleep on one side and the ducks on the other?

Yes and no. My ducks don't exactly go into the pen at night - they sleep in the doorway. When I go down to shut the door they grudgingly get up and waddle inside. As was mentioned, ducks are extremely easy to herd.

3. If I make a small pond or get a kiddie pool for the ducks, will my chickens fall in and drown? I was hoping to keep the ducks and chickens in the same run.

Probably not, but why take chances? We keep random items inside our tubs in case anyone gets in and can't get back out. They're kept mostly below water level and have saved some of our younger pullets who tumble over inside and get too wet to fly back out.

4. Are there any other big needs/differences between raising ducks and raising chickens?

Yes. Read up on them. Ducklings suffer from "drunken duck syndrome" if they run out of water or are too enthusiastic about drinking. They can't eat medicated chick food because they'll OD on the medication. There are a lot of little differences that are good to know before you start.

And be warned. If you have ever heard of anyone talking about how messy ducklings are they aren't exaggerating. If nothing else, they aren't emphasizing enough at how dirty keeping ducklings can be. You will be cleaning out their water dish regularly since they keep dropping food in it while eating, you will be filling the water dish regularly because they happily splash the water everywhere, and you will be cleaning regularly because droppings + feed + water = flies and a horrible odor.

They're still worth keeping

 

[dixygirl]

With regard to ducks getting food in their water.... why not just feed them a soup of water and feed mixed in one bowl daily and not worry about it being mixed? They can use the kiddie pool to clean their nostrils.

About their mess, if you put a lot of pea gravel and river rocks on a sloped terrain, you could just hose off each day for maintenance? Or maybe get it down to sloshing out a bucket of water daily to wash off the rock and don't even try think about using wood chips with water loving ducks.

Fly predators might be good to get for ducks as well as horses and other livestock.
Or Country Vet makes a Country Home Flying Insect and Air Freshening Kit you can attach to the wall in their pen. It automatically sprays non toxic fly spray and air freshener every 30 minutes. Runs on batteries.

But definitely don't mix them with chickens. One is an earth creature and the other likes a water habitat. And you know when you mix earth with water you get mud so you shouldn't be shocked when it happens.