Pekin Duck Club!

[wildsam]

I am sure you know this but be careful! not only are they a fire hazard but acclimatize birds to temps that if the hydro(lamp) were to go could cause serious concern, ensure you have a backup plan. I am in Canada, while not the coldest part, i do know cold.

Yes and thanks. We have some of the ducks for a while already and only resort to it in the worst case (like last year).
Due to having dogs and much wildlife we go out periodically and check the grounds and animals (though the poultry is locked up at night) every couple of hours and make sure all is alright. But thanks for your concern

 

[suellen123]

Pekins remind me of Dr. Seuss's Thing 1 and Thing 2... They are so funny. Yours is beautiful too.

 

[TrishC]

We have 4 pekins about 6 mos old, 2 females and 2 drakes. We live in a suburban neighborhood. My neighbors are not very happy that we have ducks. At times, the females get very loud, especially when they bob their heads up and down and chase the drakes. I think they must be flirting. We are thinking of finding a new home for the boys in the hopes that the girls will quiet down a little. Do you think that will help? I understand they will still make some noise but maybe it will lessen. We are sad to see the boys go, but are ready to do that if it means that we can keep the girls. Any advice with be so appreciated!

 

[Onlyducks]

I would count on getting rid of the males calming the females down. They will head bob no matter whether the males are there or not—to you and to each other. We got rid of three drakes this summer, leaving only one male and one female and the noise increased to the point I don't want to see another pekin. Last year, the pekins I have were relatively quite, all five of them . They may have been all female, I'm not sure (if they were all female, they still tried to breed in the swimming water and head bobbed all the time). I think the difference is just in the breeding. Some pekins are loud and agressive, some are not. You could give it a try, but it may not work and it may make it worse. As noted, ducks have widely varying temperaments and what works for some may not work for others.

 

[needlessjunk]

We have 4 pekins about 6 mos old, 2 females and 2 drakes. We live in a suburban neighborhood. My neighbors are not very happy that we have ducks. At times, the females get very loud, especially when they bob their heads up and down and chase the drakes. I think they must be flirting. We are thinking of finding a new home for the boys in the hopes that the girls will quiet down a little. Do you think that will help? I understand they will still make some noise but maybe it will lessen. We are sad to see the boys go, but are ready to do that if it means that we can keep the girls. Any advice with be so appreciated!

Drakes are usually quieter than ducks, what about just keeping the drakes?

 

[suellen123]

I have two females and a male in downtown St. Petersburg Florida. I have a small fenced in yard and understand what your going through. My male has a quiet raspy voice. One of my females is somewhat quiet and the other is not. She is constantly bobbing her head saying "drop it down, drop it down, drop it down". I call her Charlotte my complainer. I am trying to teach her to be quiet by shhhhhshing her.

I have a routine for them daily and it seems to help keep them calm. I have a 125 gallon pond to keep them entertained during the day. I also have three water buckets that I use to keep fresh water for them. I have two hutches for them too. One for the females another for the male right next to theirs. At night I put a bucket of water in each hutch and throw some floating pond pellets in to lure them in. They gobble them up and are quiet all night. I leave one bucket of water out with fresh water for them for the morning.

Our City Ordinance is quiet before 7 and after 10 at night. A little after 7 each morning I let them all out and immediately throw floating pellets in the water bucket I leave out. It quiets the females up immediately. Trust me you don't want to set up your morning feed while they are waiting because they will be loud. Have everything ready so they can start eating and quiet down immediately. My male usually doesn't eat right away. I leave a bowl of egg layer pellets out for them to nibble on during the day.

I can hear them walking up and down the driveway and hanging out in the backyard in the morning. At about 10am I put down lettuce for them and put all three water buckets out in the front yard for them. I am lucky to have some wholesale grocery stores that sell me 2 and 3 lb bags of lettuce that are outdated for a dollar. My ducks love it as a treat.

Most of My neighbors have actually embraced the ducks and come from all over to see them. I make a huge effort to try to keep the yard up and free of visible poopies and never any fly's. The grass is a little sparse here and there but its like that in a lot of other yards too. I had compliance come to me once with an anonymous complaint. I got over 30 signatures from my closest neighbors that they had no problem with the ducks. The compliance man said he saw no problem with them. I change my pond water every 5 or 6 days (water my lawn and bushes with it) and have a gutter system flowing into it to flush it when it rains.

A challenge is keeping the feathers out of the yard. I have the most raked front yard in the city. But the feathers make it look yucky so I work hard to make it nice. I have seen a duck yard that was worth complaining about. If the yard is clean and kept up the neighbors should be a little more tolerant of the noise. Its a huge undertaking to maintain but it makes life a lot easier all the way around.

 

[TrishC]

Thanks for your advice, Onlyducks. I'm hoping my girls are well bred and will settle down a bit once the males are gone.

Needlessjunk, we would like to try some ducks eggs, that's why we'd like to keep the girls.

Suellen123, thanks for your reply. You've got some great advice. You're right about breakfast being a noisy time. I will try this morning to have the food ready before I let them out of their house. Maybe shhhhshing them would work. When we have tried to tell them to 'be quiet', they stop talking and tilt their heads at us and look and listen. They are very smart. All I have to do at dusk is call to them out of my dining room window to 'go to bed' and they head right for their penned area and house. We let them free range in our yard all day.

After reading some online forums, I think that we have giant pekins. We live on Long Island and I know that the school teacher who hatched these ducks got them from a meat breeder here. Can they survive and thrive in spite of their genetics? Are they good egg layers?
Thanks!

 

[Going Quackers]

We have 4 pekins about 6 mos old, 2 females and 2 drakes. We live in a suburban neighborhood. My neighbors are not very happy that we have ducks. At times, the females get very loud, especially when they bob their heads up and down and chase the drakes. I think they must be flirting. We are thinking of finding a new home for the boys in the hopes that the girls will quiet down a little. Do you think that will help? I understand they will still make some noise but maybe it will lessen. We are sad to see the boys go, but are ready to do that if it means that we can keep the girls. Any advice with be so appreciated!

While i am sorry to say it won't it's better to be honest. My ladies only have 1 drake and are loud even if he happens to be off elsewhere. Pekin are just chatty and loud as a breed.

 

[Going Quackers]

Thanks for your advice. I'm hoping my girls are well bred and will settle down a bit once the males are gone.

Being well bred has nothing to do with the noise, and at first frankly removal of flock members will stress them and cause more noise as they try to locate the flock members. I had one get lost the other day i could hear her quacking for miles lol

Are you allowed ducks??

 

[wildsam]

As Going Quackers said, the breeding doesn't have anything to do with the noise. Otherwise you could also stereotype humans on that as well too, and that would be a bad thing...

Anyways, I also agree that separating or even giving up the males (that they might have grown and lived with) is very stressful to birds, and might also cause quite the opposite effect of what you're trying to do. Yes, everybody wants to keep the females for the eggs but honestly, if you're wanting some quiet(er) ducks Pekins are definitely the wrong breed to go with. Not saying you should get rid of them or anything like that...

Muscovies would be very quiet, even the females, and they chirp not quack. Yet the disadvantage of those would be having to clip their wings as they can fly very well. My Khaki's are also pretty quiet, calm, good egg layers and smaller in size. Maybe that is another aspect of the annoying complaining neighbors. White just sticks out. Yet, there are simply people that will never be pleased as long as anyone around them is happy and they have to cause trouble or at least trying to get their way... I know, that doesn't help much in the decision making, but just thought I'd mention it