Picking the gender of my ducks

[Heather Kohl]

Hey, I’m looking to get 2 pekin ducks. I would like to get your opinion on whether I should get a male or female. I don’t care about the eggs as much as I care about the friendliness of the ducks. I am thinking males so then I don’t have to worry about collecting eggs everyday. If I do get males will they get aggressive?

 

[sourland]

I would recommend getting hens rather than drakes. Drakes tend to be hormonally driven and can have aggression problems.

 

[Mylied]

Yes, two hens would be better than two drakes. They can injure each other trying to mate. And a drake would be too rough on just one female. Raise them from just hatched and love on them and they'll be super sweet. Of course, you'd have to get them sexed or get ones you can tell by the fluff when they hatch.

 

[Bridger Davis]

Welcome to byc! What would be the problem of daily eggs?!? Anyways, I agree with sourland. Go with hens.

 

[chickencheeper]

Hens would probably be better but if you want a very calm breed then check out welsh harlequin

 

[CarleeAnn]

I love my two girls! And now we haven’t bought eggs from the store in months. Easy to just collect the eggs when I let them out of the coop in the morning- wash them real quick and store in the fridge.

Storing eggs is a whole other bag of worms.....

Apparently the farmers market near me sells a dozen duck eggs for $18- so if you don’t want the eggs it seems like they are in high demand!

Good luck. Enjoy whichever you choose.

 

[Bridger Davis]

If you seriously could not handle getting eggs, get a low production hen. A few breeds to consider would be the mallard, white crested, or welsh harlequin. Whatever you choose, remember to do your research and see if you will need to clip their wings. Also remember that you will likely still get some eggs from these low production breeds.

 

[Bridger Davis]

I love my two girls! And now we haven’t bought eggs from the store in months. Easy to just collect the eggs when I let them out of the coop in the morning- wash them real quick and store in the fridge.

Storing eggs is a whole other bag of worms.....

Apparently the farmers market near me sells a dozen duck eggs for $18- so if you don’t want the eggs it seems like they are in high demand!

Good luck. Enjoy whichever you choose.

WHAT!?!? That's crazy!! I don't think I would have very many customers... I'll ask chickens really if she sells her duck eggs..

 

[CarleeAnn]

WHAT!?!? That's crazy!! I don't think I would have very many customers... I'll ask chickens really if she sells her duck eggs..

I know! My only concern is that if I sell a dozen eggs and get two eggs a day the eggs range to be almost a week old- I think the people who sell at the farmers market can say the eggs go bad at relatively the same time. Means they must have lots of ducks!

 

[Bridger Davis]

@CarleeAnn


They do last 6 weeks refrigerated. But yes, anyone at the farmers market probably has about 100+ ducks! I talked to a beekeeper at the farmers market and told him that my friend has 4 beehives. I asked him how many he has and he said 2,000!