Weve never raised poultry before. Now were considering getting some adult ducks, primarily for slug control.
We live in western Oregon. Our cool wet autumns produce a super-abundance of garden slugs. Im sick of spending over an hour outside every night with a flashlight, slug-hunting. If I dont, pretty soon we wont have any plants with functional leaves left in the garden!
Our neighbor across the street has a flock of 8 ducks (dont know what breeds). He may be willing to part with 1 or 2 of the males. If keeping males works out for us, we may later get some adult females and start getting eggs. (We've been thinking about chickens for some time, but ducks are supposed to be better foragers, less destructive of gardens, and easier to care for.)
Specific questions:
1. Whats the minimum number of ducks recommended? Does it matter what their sexes are?
2. If we take our neighbors birds, theyll be able to see their former flock across the street. (We both have chain-link fences.) Will our new birds be tempted to try to re-join their flock? Will they be unhappy to be separated from their friends?
3. The former owners of our property had chickens. They left us their chicken coop; its been sitting unused for 1½ years. How thoroughly do we need to clean it before using it for ducks? Rinsing with a hose? Soap? Bleach? Do we need to be concerned about the ducks catching chicken diseases? (We have no way of contacting the former owners, so we cant ask them any questions.)
Any other advice for first-time owners?
Thanks in advance for your help!
We live in western Oregon. Our cool wet autumns produce a super-abundance of garden slugs. Im sick of spending over an hour outside every night with a flashlight, slug-hunting. If I dont, pretty soon we wont have any plants with functional leaves left in the garden!
Our neighbor across the street has a flock of 8 ducks (dont know what breeds). He may be willing to part with 1 or 2 of the males. If keeping males works out for us, we may later get some adult females and start getting eggs. (We've been thinking about chickens for some time, but ducks are supposed to be better foragers, less destructive of gardens, and easier to care for.)
Specific questions:
1. Whats the minimum number of ducks recommended? Does it matter what their sexes are?
2. If we take our neighbors birds, theyll be able to see their former flock across the street. (We both have chain-link fences.) Will our new birds be tempted to try to re-join their flock? Will they be unhappy to be separated from their friends?
3. The former owners of our property had chickens. They left us their chicken coop; its been sitting unused for 1½ years. How thoroughly do we need to clean it before using it for ducks? Rinsing with a hose? Soap? Bleach? Do we need to be concerned about the ducks catching chicken diseases? (We have no way of contacting the former owners, so we cant ask them any questions.)
Any other advice for first-time owners?
Thanks in advance for your help!
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