The nitty-gritty of ducks

[DB_Tex]

Ah yes, Pacific northwest Banana slugs. They're just everywhere.

Watching the ducks swim is too much fun to give a pool a miss, but the biggest thing I've learned was to go for the smallest kiddy pool. They will muddy up a swimming pool in the same amount of time no matter how big or small it is so it might as well be the easiest one to dump once or twice a day.

I think the funniest thing I've ever seen was a couple days ago. I've been letting my heifer out in the same 1 acre yard as the birds and I tossed out some apples that went mealy... one of my layers got a bite, and started MOTORBOATING the apple! She killed that whole fruit in about 30 seconds 4 x as big as her head.

 

[Tivona]

My ducks love slugs including those giant banana slugs. In defense of the banana slugs I will say that they do eat poison oak, although they also eat just about anything else as well. Before I got my ducks we had tons of slugs here, mostly brown slugs with about one in ten being a banana slug and occasionally some other type. Now I find very very few of any type.

 

[clucknpeck]

Thanks everyone! This has been very helpful. I just have a few questions...
If I do get ducks I just want 2 or 3 to start. Because of the issue with drakes hurting hens while mating do you think it would be beneficial to order online so I only get females? Shipping is just so expensive. :/
Would it work to turn a large wooden dog house into a duck house, and what does a duck house need?
And lastly, I would love to hear some opinions/ recommendations on breeds!

 

[clucknpeck]

O my word! Just found out efowl has free shipping on their ducklings and chicks! Ok, so I can order females! Now time to think breed...

 

[Tivona]

Thanks everyone! This has been very helpful. I just have a few questions...
If I do get ducks I just want 2 or 3 to start. Because of the issue with drakes hurting hens while mating do you think it would be beneficial to order online so I only get females? Shipping is just so expensive.

Would it work to turn a large wooden dog house into a duck house, and what does a duck house need?
And lastly, I would love to hear some opinions/ recommendations on breeds!

Do you want a drake for babies in the future? Technically you don't have to have a drake in the flock if you just want eggs and to see ducks running around. However if you want ducklings in the future it would probably be easiest to raise a drake at the same time you get your female ducklings. Also be aware that many hatcheries only send "standard run" and not sexed ducklings. So be sure factor that in if you do or don't want a drake.

I use a large dog house for my geese as a nesting box and something similar for my ducks. I have the house part inside of a wire run that is totally inclosed for safety. So as long as you can lock it securely at night (either in a run or alone) the dog house should work. Uh providing they are not over crowded. I have to have 2 for my ducks as they don't all fit in one dog house but as they usually sleep in the locked run part at night it really doesn't matter.

For breeds go with something that will work for your duck needs. I personally love my Golden 300 Hybrids. I was looking for really good layers and don't really plan on making ducklings so the fact that they don't breed true doesn't bother me. And they are amazing layers. I also have a Black Swedish who is very friendly and a Buff Orpington that is very sweet and gets along with everyone. There are lots of great breeds, just consider what your wanting from a duck breed. Eggs, meat, slug control, beauty, or broody/good mothers for hatching. Most breeds will fit multiple needs. Here is a page Metzer Farms has on a comparison of their ducks. It might give you an idea of what sort of breed to look for.

I hope some of this will help. Perhaps others can give you ideas on breeds if you tell us what your sort of looking for.

 

[clucknpeck]

I do like the idea of being able to hatch babies... I mostly want ducks for laying but maybe I would like babies eventually. If they are free ranging on half an acre with my chickens will the drakes still try and mate, or is that only if they are in the same pen? Also, do you just clip their wings to keep the, from flying away? I assume they can fly better than chickens.
I think I will probably just end up getting 3 straight run ducklings from the feed store if I get ducklings. That way I can see how I feel about them before I spend a fortune online. This means I will probably have at least one drake though, and I dont want to build a whole other pen if I can avoid it.

Ok, one last question. Someone in my town is selling Muscovy ducklings. I did some research on them... Am I understanding correctly that they only lay about 20 eggs a year? I like the low noise factor but I want eggs!

 

[clucknpeck]

Tivona, forgot to say thank you! That link was very helpful.

 

[Andora]

I've had a pair of pekin ducks for three years now.

My male pekin chases the hens and will stomp them down and hurt them. He chases relentlessly, so now the chickens have to stay penned up or I have to corral the duck when I let the hens out.

My female pekin is super loud. She honks!

Their poop isn't too messy since they range around my backyard. It does disappear into the grass. They swim in a kiddie pool that has a little ramp up to it. The pool has to be emptied once a week, sometimes more often in the summer, and it smells HORRIBLE. I try to empty it right before it rains to help wash it away. Put their pool on gravel so you can hose it all down and prevent mud.

They are hilarious pets. So fun to watch!

Gardens: Do not let ducks near your garden if you want to actually eat any produce. Last year they ate every single bud, ripe tomato, squash, and green bean from my garden. We never got one single thing out of it. They will break down small fencing, dig under it, any thing they can do to get to bright red tomatoes. This year I built (what I hope is) a duck proof fence. Time will tell!

I leave them out in my yard at night. I can't get them to go into a dog house, I've tried. I've also tried locking them in the chicken run while the chickens are locked in the coop at night. They hate going in there. Apparently ducks are nocturnal and like to float in the water at night where predators can't reach them. Great if you have a big pond, no so great if you don't. When we move to a farm I'm considering setting up some kind of duck enclosure for them to live in to be safer from predators. In my backyard we have raccoons and possums, but so far they haven't hurt the ducks. My female duck will honk in in the dead of night and the male duck will bend his head downward and run at a predator while hissing.

 

[Tivona]

Glad you found the link helpful.

All of mine, Golden 300's, Black Swedish, and the Buff don't fly well at all. I had chickens a few years ago and they flew off and on but my ducks are just too heavy bodied for getting off the ground. Only one of my girls will fly a few feet up for a very short distance before gravity takes hold. Looks really funny to see her try though. Everyone else is good at running everywhere. So I wouldn't worry about flying unless you get a Mallard or a Muscovy or something small. If your looking for an egg layer type then probably they won't do much flying. There are some breed or individual ducks that will and hopefully some others here can give you better info on that.

 

[Filet]

From my experience chickens and ducks got along fine together. I had a female pekin duck and a female "mutt" duck with one chicken. I gave the chicken what she needed, had the coop set up with a nest box, a roosting area and then had a bed with straw for the ducks to sleep on the floor of the coop. In the run I had a beer cooler tub for the ducks to swim in..it was small, but they loved it! This made it easy for me because I could carry it out of the pen and pour the gross duck water out of the run into a garden area or just have it for a portable pool for them when they were out and about in the yard. When I let them out to free range they would forage together, take naps together. I also found my pekin duck to be especially helpful because she would quack if anything was out of the ordinary, which was usually because one of her buddies were out of sight and she lost track of one of them. I would run out there and have to help her find Filet(my chicken) which she was usually in the coop laying her egg. Also having Filet made rounding the ducks up easy around dusk, the chickens instinct is to go into the coop..the ducks would prefer to stay outside if they could, but since the ducks considered the chicken one of there flock members every night before I went to shut the coop door, everyone would be in there, they followed my chicken right in
However when I moved, I had to find a home for my babies I gave them to a petting zoo who had 4 ducks and lots of chickens in the same pen. I asked them how it worked with them and they said it was fine, however they had a problem with the chickens pecking and eating the ducks eggs. So this may be something to consider. Your chickens could possibly decide they want to try some duck eggs. However, for me, I never had this problem. When my pekin started laying her eggs, she made her own nest in the straw in the coop, (apparently my nest box wasn't good enough for her ) and Filet moved her egg laying spot where the duck made her nest and Filet would lay on both of them even though it was two times the size! lol and she never bothered the egg. But who knows she may of thought she was a duck.
But my point is, it works, both can be happy, you just have to give the chickens what they like and the ducks what they like and you will be getting eggs from both of them everyday!