The internet is a liar...

[Vantic]

I have Silver Appleyard's (2 boys, four girls). I read stories guide to ducks, many posts here, watched youtube, etc. I do love some research. They all said ducks are good with the garden, just don't let them near the tender (young) plants. So the ducks came of age as my garden was finishing anyway, so I built them a large pen in the corner of the garden and then started letting them out into the garden.

My green beans were striped to 2' high, my black beans were easy to pick as the bean is all they left, then the tomatoes and the cabbage and the Brussel sprouts. Oh ducks you are not garden friends. The internet lied.

Well looks like they will be mobile with all the other feathered friends come spring, everyone lives in the garden in the winter.

If someone has a way to get them to eat just the bugs and not the beans and everything else listed, I'm all ears.

Thanks
Vantic

 

[KaleIAm]

Yeah.... My ducks also enjoy making the internet lie. They will trample and rip up/eat basically everything in my garden. The only way I'll have found to fight back against the quacking invaders is to over plant, and not let them in until things get really really tall. And they'll still destroy stuff. They stand on their tippie toes and jump! So if I need 10 kale plants I sow at least 50. As the plants get taller I thin them repeatedly.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Ouch! Thank you for setting the record straight! I do not have ducks but have considered it. After reading of your experience, I think ... not. I have chickens and no garden. I think the only way to have both is to build a chicken moat around the garden. That is to say, double-fence around the garden and let the chickens have the area between the two fences. ... Nah. Too much like work. I'll just stick with the chickens. I can get tomatoes at Walmart.

 

[CHlCKEN]

Someone out there had a blind duck who must not of known he was in a garden. Thus, the Internet adapted this and spewed it all over for us poor souls to realize the truth the hard way

 

[21hens-incharge]

Yeah....pretty much if you want a plant to survive chickens or ducks fence the plant in or the birds out.

 

[BigLar368]

I had the same experience. Our garden was coming to it's end in the middle of the summer this year and the ducks and chickens were just coming of age to be able to free range without them slipping through a small hole under the fence. They did not care much for tomato plants but anything with a pepper on it the leaves were stripped as high as they could reach. I was really hoping the ducks could keep the pest down in the garden next year but that ain't gonna happen.

 

[Featheredwonderment]

Lol.. This made me giggle because we had same problem. Our ducks ate every cherry tomatoe they could reach and then some in one day.. Haha... Yup we learned too

 

[Trisseh]

My one older duck is a perfectly behaved lady that doesn’t destroy them. She may sample a tomato or 2 but she doesn’t strip plants. But I had the drakes using team work to pick pole beans... one would grab the corn stalk or leaf and pull as hard as he could, and the other 2 went to town once the beans were within reach. they broke one of the smaller stalks and I guess they discovered it works to pull on them from there.
The most frustrating was my jersey pulling down my entire pea trellis though. somehow stretching her scrawny neck over the electric fence and grabbing it. They all had a field day with that.

I put a short fence around the more worrisome plants, 2’ high with bamboo stakes and chicken wire. They can still pick through it but they can’t reach everything to strip it. Lol. And moved the electric fence back a foot or 2. Haha.

 

[Ratchnick]

Ducks poop by their water. Put your ducks water in the garden beds in winter when your beds are fallow. They will sift through the beds collecting pests and pest eggs as well.

 

[AngelaY]

Huh, I've never seen anything about ducks being good for gardens but I've never looked either. I'll make a note to not let my ducks in the garden if I ever plant one! I did read that Guinea fowl are good for gardens though, does anyone know if the internet was lying about that too?