Still thinking about getting ducks, question about noise

[holiday hawk]

I know it ultimately comes down to the duck, but what are the quietest breeds of ducks? Muscovies seem to obviously top the list, but I can only find one hatchery online that sells sexed muscovy ducks, and they have a minimum order of 15 when I would like 3 or 4. I would would like to raise them from ducklings if possible. So in your experience, what is the next quietest duck? I've seen cayuga, runner, and khaki campbell all listed. My nearest neighbors are about 50-60 yards away from the run and coop. The have not had any issues with my chickens, but I would still prefer to get the quietest breed possible, especially for night time. Ducks that could be heard through the coop and into a house in the middle of the night might get a noise complaint. I had originally intended to keep the ducks further back in the yard (100-150 yards) to help mitigate the noise issue, but it would just be so much easier and cheaper to just use the same run and coop space I currently have than build and all new one for them.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Other than Muscovy, I don't think there is a quieter breed of ducks. At least from the Mallard decendents. I have 5 different breeds right now and they're all very loud, even at almost 6 weeks old.

 

[holiday hawk]

How loud would they be relative to chickens though? Some noise is fine, it would just be extremely loud quacks that are non-stop (especially at night) that would be the issue. My chickens sound like this (sorry the first half was not focused) all day, and you can't really hear them by the time you get back to inside the house, so I assume it would be the same for the only neighbor I have within 100ish yards of the run. The other neighbors that I mentioned across the street are across are not only even farther away, but it is a very busy street, so the sound of traffic really drowns out the sound of the birds too. I know noise comes with the territory, but I'm just trying to get a feel for how much louder they would be than chickens.


Just to give a sense of how far back the run is: from my side porch (closest neighbor would be across the driveway to the right.

 

[Lor]

My ducks get locked up in their house at night. Never hear quacking from them when they are in there. Very loud during the day, though. (Khaki Campbells)

 

[Canadian Wind]

You can get Muscovy ducklings from local breeders too. They don't need to be sexed, both genders are quiet. The males make a hissing kind of noise and the females trill. They are also, in my biased opinion, the friendliest, especially if raised from ducklings.

 

[ruthhope]

If you want quiet it has to be muscovy!!! I have 3 muscovy and a very noisy pekin drake -- drake!!!! He does wake up at night and get restless and chatter. My son has pekins and he has a very noisy pekin female She wakes and shouts at night for the heck of it!!!

Muscovy have many advantages as well as being quiet!! Lovely comical ducks.

https://studio.youtube.com/video/55L9bnIHfV8/edit

 

[dishrag]

I have only had 4 female ducks, two pairs at two different times. The first two were cayuga and buff and were only loud when expecting mealtime. Since I put them into a duck house most nights around 10pm, they were not loud in advance of the morning meal, and therefore only loud in the late afternoon when afternoon mealtime was approaching. Never loud between sunset and 10pm when put inside, and very rare to quack in the morning or midday (unlike chicken hens).
My current 2 are ancona and Metzer “white layer.” They are extremely quiet and could live in anyone’s backyard!
If you’re getting ducklings from a breeder or someone with a few generations of the same breed, ask them which breed is the quietest.