Thinking About Adding Ducks - Some Questions

[Kevin565]

Ducks are truly party animals. My call loves to quack at 3' O clock in the morning

 

[OldGuy43]

Since everyone is voting 'good idea' I'm guessing that they won't disturb the chickens?

 

[nickie]

Since everyone is voting 'good idea' I'm guessing that they won't disturb the chickens?

My ducks throw some smack down on the chickens. Truly hysterical.

Eta: only when the chickens get too close to their greens pile in their feeding area. We have a happy group here. In fact, the ducks great the chickens when they are let out.

 

[Hunter0704]

My female Welsh Harlequin's and female chickens get along great...they have been together since they were three days old. Chickens sleep in coop and ducks sleep under coop (enlcosed on three sides) inside run on lots of straw. My ducks are very quiet...the only time one of them speaks up is when I am approaching them in their run and the leader duck greets me. Love 'em to pieces!!!!

 

[sherylreno]

Call ducks are the loudest of all ducks, hence the name call. We love our harlequin's very much. We bought a horses trough made from plastic and buried it into the ground and they take their baths their. The live in the run and sleep either in the run or under the coop where there's cover on 3 sides. We open the run everyday to let them free range all they want. The ducks always great the ladies in the morning and they clean them up too. My drake isn't even attempting to mate with the chickens he is very happy mating with the ducks only. I heard Muscovies are the ones who will mate with chickens.

The females are very loud when they want something right now. They are really quiet at night though and I believe it's so the predators don't hear them. No noises until the chickens get up and then they are singing a ballad.

My ducks go into the run themselves when the chickens go to bed. I don't make them go there, it was their idea in the first place.

 

[JP101010]

I voted bad idea- but only because the question is "to add ducks to the flock"
I vote that its a good idea to get ducks in general , especially if you loovvve one gallon projectile poops

,
but if you have an existing chicken flock it might be less stressful for everybird if the ducks are given
there own flock ( seperate coop / run ) instead of trying to put everyone together.
I have raised 3 day old ducklings and chicks together with no problem until... sexual maturity for male ducks. they sometimes become territorial to dominant chickens during mating season and if there is no female ducks , the males will try to mate the hens and they can get hurt/ drown.

feeding time can be exhausting and expensive if they are all together in the same area... Ducks need duck chow or waterfowl feed but which in my area is considerably more per pound price wise than chicken feed. Ducks are like Vacuums , they will suck down there own food (which should be provided in water or directly next to water) and then steal all the chickens food.. Mine can clear a 5 Gal chicken feeder... Chickens also love Duck Chow thats in water and like i said its 3x the Price of chicken feed.. We had to create a separate run area for feeding purposes..

I had 2 silkies drown in the ducks kiddie pool filled half way with water and buried on a tilt to have a shallow end

also purchased a group of ducklings from the farm store (straight run) and they were 100% male

I have always wanted to go to my local Counties Animal Control to adopt ducks that were seized and nursed back to health. . There are Ducks listed for adoption through rescues and county animal control on http://www.petfinder.com

Whatever the outcome , Goodluck and keep us posted!

 

[OldGuy43]

Thanks much for all the responses. OldGal and I have decided to start small with 2 hens. By choice, if I can find them locally we'll be getting Welsh Harlequins, second choice will be Khaki Campbells. For a pond we're thinking a plastic horse feeding pan.

They're really tough and it would be easy to change the water. While on that subject, how clean do we need to keep the water?

 

[ke.appaloosas]

I've never seen Bert the Muscovy drake try and mate any of my chicken hens! EEK at the thought...however, he's very busy with the 4 duck hens so maybe he's already gettin' enough! I LOVE my ducks and, in fact, almost prefer them to the chickens.They are definitely different but in a good, quiet hiss-instead-of-a-squawk-sort of way. I feed everyone ( 5 Muscovys, 3 Silver Spangled Hambergs, 1 brown Leghorn,1 EE and 2 Guinea hens) a mix of All Flock and Layer pellets with Grit and Oyster shell on the side and add corn on occasion. Kitchen scraps of veges and fruit whenever possible (daily if the girls had their way!) and occasionally buy them their very own produce.

 

[ke.appaloosas]

Oh..and as far as water, I have a Rubbermaid tub that I use just for them and fill/change the water daily. I have lots of horse water troughs everywhere and in the summer you might find them in one of them instead LOL.

 

[jbourget]

Female ducks are not loud, come on people

now 80 female call ducks....now that is loud......you should hear when i go out to water. like the comedy central channel just turned out with all the "laughing" and shreeking of my calls. Normal ducks, ide go with Runners, and campbells for eggs. they will produce more then you will knwo what to do with. Buffs lay well too, and blue swedish. Oldguy, i saw a egg laying chart somewere im sure you can look it up and see just what the average per year for each breed of duck is! it was a thread here before... good luck!!!