Some questions about duck management...

[brandislee]

This is the pen I plan to use... totally not pretty, but effective. The covering is only poultry netting, BUT it's inside of a 5 foot high welded wire garden fence. Last year I kept 6 Gold Star hens who didn't like to stay in my yard in here, letting them out into the garden later in the season when most of the harvesting was done. Does it look okay for ducks, and how many would you suggest in this space? The shelter (obviously a truck cap...) is about 4x5 and the pen area is about 5x 10. And I'll throw straw or shavings or something in the shelter. That's all ducks need, right (besides food and water and a pool, obviously).



Because they're in the garden, I was thinking I'd let them out into the garden once the plants are good and established and big. Ducks don't scratch, and they prefer grasses to broad leafed plants to eat, right? So they will cause even less damage than the chickens hypothetically... (who, for the record, didn't do too much damage- they ate a few cucumbers and tomatoes, but otherwise mostly ate bugs and scratched, and since the garden was well established by then it didn't hurt the plants- biggest problem, they started hiding their eggs in the garden instead of in the nest boxes

). So I was thinking about putting a little pool in the center of the garden (there's an open space there between beds) because the splashed-out water would water surrounding plants, and I don't really care if they make a mess there. Please point out my bad ideas

On the topic of free ranging- I would LOVE to let them out to free range with my chickens, but here are my perceived problems with that- see the open area beyond the garden in the above picture? That is, in effect, one of the "barriers" I use to keep my chickens in my yard (to the right of that picture is my neighbor's yard, and that rise on the horizon is a highway). They don't go into the open area, staying mostly on the other side of the garden, which is wooded, and in a group of lilac bushes near the coop. But I get the impression that ducks are not so deterred by big open areas as chickens are.

And I'm concerned about them having issues with my existing flock.

Lastly, I want to build a little pond/water garden with some fish in it. That, I can guess, would be a hot mess if the ducks got into it.

Oh, and I'm getting Pekin ducks. Mostly for meat. But I might keep a few over winter to breed next spring. Of course, now that I say that out loud I'm thinking it would be cheaper to buy new ducklings next spring than to feed a trio over winter here...

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Megan Amber]

Wow sounds like you got it down! I think the pen would fine, keeping other things from getting in is more of a problem then them getting out! But the wire perimeter fence should do a pretty good job of that. I recommend keeping four or five in there (five at the most) they will make a mud mess of the thing! Letting them out to free range AFTER the garden is established is wise and even then my ducks can be real leaf strippers, but they prefer to skim along the ground. And no ducks are a little more afraid of closed in places then open ones(at least mine are!) and one more thing is that they don't see in the dark very well! So you would want to lock them back in the coop at night! Looks like you have a gorgeous setup!

 

[brandislee]

Gorgeous is a kind word I really prefer things to be pretty, but you can't beat free (which this truck cap was).

It's kind of like I'm having my second kid. When I first got chickens (the first kid...) I was nervous and anxious and sure I was going to screw up and kill them all. Now I'm like "eh, I'm sure this will be fine." Just wanted to make sure I don't miss something in the differences between the species!

 

[Megan Amber]

I totally relate! The good thing is though they are not to much different.

The one other thing I thought of overnight was that you do have to watch ducks feet for frost bite in the winter. Most of them are smart enough to know how to protect themselves but sometimes you get one that just doesn't! They LOVE to drill in mud so I wouldn't let them in your garden right after a rain either. Good Luck with your new Adventure!!

 

[Peeko]

The pen:
I love the reuse of the truck canopy!
I can see plenty of spots that rodents can slip through (along the bottom wood frame). Predators that dig (like fox, raccoon, coyote) and manage to get in the yard will have no problem getting inside the pen. Digging some boards deep into the dirt to deter this will help.

The garden:
Our ducks love nibbling on chard, kale and lettuce if it's in reach. But of course, it's preferable to take a bite of each leaf, instead of eating one entirely. Our drake likes to eat flowers now and then. Sometimes he just bites them for fun, which can be annoying, like when he bent all my daffodil stems because it was just too much fun to bite at the flowers and pull on them. Different ducks have different tastes. Find out what plants they like and either plant a few rows so you can share with the ducks or put it in containers high enough the ducks can't reach.

The chickens:
If you have drakes, they will try to mate chickens and can kill them this way. It's best to keep ducks separate unless you have all female ducks. Most folks keep a barrier between new and old birds for a few days so they can check one another out without fighting until they get used to each other.


The yard:
If the ducks are happy with their home, they won't wander far. Ours established their own boundaries that they won't step or fly over. They won't cross the road or fly over our fence. Something on the clothesline spooked our drake the other day and he took off flying away from me, turned the corner around the house and kept flying between the house and fence until he ran out of room. He was high enough to go over the fence but wouldn't. It cracked me up. But, if left unattended, I imagine our ducks would wander the neighborhood eventually.

The ducks will love any of your pond endeavors. Get fish that are too big to swallow if you don't want them to be eaten.

Ducks are also good for eggs! If you don't like eating them, you can sell a dozen for $5 easily on Craigslist.

 

[Going Quackers]

If your looking at the large breeds not too many in that. Also definitely, evaluate your predators level as that set up will provide none, at least from things that are bigger (foxes, dogs so forth)

Chickens dig like no tomorrow i swear my chicken pen, looks like a set-up for a new garden lol Ducks don't do that, mind you in to concentrated an area will cause mud and flatten grasses out this fall true especially for the bigger breeds which is my concern for that pen size.

Mine free range, they go a pretty good distance i'd say they cover a few acres. That said they also return back to their barn and fenced area throughout the day, this is where the food is, the pools and so forth. This helps draw them back. They know where home is.

I have 1/3 of an acre penned around the duck barn, there are 14 ducks all Muscovy, so a heavyweight breed. The pond? tricky, i have a small one outside the front of my house(90Gal) and it has fish, they generally let it be but Muscovy aren't big pond breeds preferring their pools or puddles/low laying water. It's a risk though, they will mess it up and could eat the fish if small enough.

 

[brandislee]

Thanks for all the feedback! I'm not concerned about predators at all- there's a fence inside of a fence there, and because of the location of my house I have next to no predator pressure- the combo of the highway and all the houses (which are mostly concentrated around the highway, so there's plenty of more rural area and they aren't pressured to get near the houses) keeps the coyotes and the foxes out, and I'm sure my dogs deter them further. I almost never shut my chicken coop- I never shut it all of last summer (I do shut it most of the winter, but at the moment I can't get any power to my coop to run my automatic door, so I just screwed it open) and I've never (knocking on wood right now) lost a bird to a predator. And we have mice but no rats.

I'm pretty sure I'm just going to keep the ducks in the garden pen and garden (good warning about the mud- I didn't know that, so I'll be sure to keep them in the pen until the soil dries out a little). I haven't officially ordered my ducks yet- I was going to order them through our local feed store, but they have a minimum order of 15 (they don't keep any birds in the store) and I DO NOT have room for that many. The feed store in another town gets Pekins in a few times over the spring, so I can get as many as I want- I'm thinking 6.

I am definitely considering getting ducks for laying as well, but this is kind of my "test run" to see if I can handle ducks and if they work well with my property. About the drakes hurting the hens if allowed to free range together- is that a risk with the smaller breeds as well? If I get layer ducks I would get khaki campbells. Do the drakes hurt/kill the hens just by squishing them, or do they grab the necks and harm them that way?

I am really working on my husband to let me completely fence our 3 acres. If he caves and we can find the money then ITS ON and I will have pretty much every animal I ever wanted, except a horse because we don't have enough to graze both a horse and a cow (and dairy goats... yeah) And then wandering ducks (assuming I don't get flyers...) won't be an issue.

But so far as the chickens digging in the garden- I kept 6 chickens in my garden last summer, and once everything was established I had no problem with them digging up plants- after I had dug most of the onions they did dig up the rest, and they did a very decent job of digging around the mulch, but they were much more likely to scratch in the unplanted areas than around the plants. But this is probably because there were only 6 chickens in a 50 x 50 garden, and because by the time I was consistently letting them out they had room to scratch under the asparagus, in the early cabbage and lettuce bed, and not long after the garlic bed. If I were to do that again the only change I would make would be to put some garden fence around the tomatoes and the cucumbers as long as they're still producing.

 

[Peeko]

Do the drakes hurt/kill the hens just by squishing them, or do they grab the necks and harm them that way?

Ducks, unlike most other bird species have external sex organs; chickens do not. Drakes will, how can I put this delicately...they will penetrate the hens which can seriously damage organs and cause bleeding...This website has a quick tutorial about duck mating.

Have you checked craigslist or your local 4H club for ducklings? I think it's a much better way to buy birds. Factory farmed ducklings can all die on you once they arrive, either from the stress of the trip, bad breeding, or disease. There was a big salmonella outbreak from one of them recently.

I know a lot of folks have success with mail-order birds, but I always contact local farms first for animals. I want to see the parents, the behavior of the babies and where they were raised. I think those things are important to know when choosing animals.

 

[ChristineR]

I think you have a good set up. I'm like you and don't really have to worry about ground predators, even though I live in a rural area and see racoons, foxes, and coyotes on a regular basis, because my dogs keep them away. I have lost a Pekin duck to a bald eagle, though.

If you leave the ducks in the pen a lot you're going to have a big mess, especially when it rains. Moveable pens are great because you can move them every day before they turn their area into a mud hole. Yours doesn't look light enough to move, but you might be able to find a cheap dog kennel on craigslist. If you keep them in one spot, I would let them out as much as possible and wouldn't put a pool in the pen with them. Ducks love water and drill holes with their dabbling in the mud. You would have a mud pit in a day with the pool in there. I suggest you keep a pool for them outside their pen and let them in it every day or so, but don't let them have it all the time.

In my experience, ducks will eat plenty of broad leaf plants. They love dandelions. Mine will eat my berries, too. They chow down on the strawberries, but they also root around for the slugs hiding under the leaves.

I like buying from small breeders, too, but if you're going the hatchery route, I really recommend using Metzer Farms. http://www.metzerfarms.com/

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this. Good luck! I think you will love ducks. They are funny little critters.

 

[brandislee]

It's actually pretty movable- the wooden base isn't attatched to the cap. So I can detatch them, and (with help) move it all to a different spot in the garden. Since it's inside the garden fence I don't have to worry about keeping the ducks in while moving it.

So I had this friend who had no idea that roosters fertilized eggs while they were still inside the chicken (in short, she didn't know chickens had sex...). I feel that dumb right now. I honestly didn't know most birds had external sex organs. I've pretty much decided I'm not going to free range the ducks. In fact, I canceled my duck order (in favor of buying them at a different farm store that gets them in the store, so I don't have to special order them and could get fewer than the minimum, but I like your point about looking for them locally, so I may do that instead). So hypothetically I can still just not get ducks. I do that sometimes- chicken out (pun not intended...)