Are ducklings so very different from raising chicks? I know some of the basics, such as raising them in a brooder like you would chicks and I know that you cannot feed them medicated feed. Are ducks a more useful bird to keep around in terms of pest and insect control? Are they more messy or more difficult to tame? Anything you guys have to say, I'm all ears!
They are messier than chickens. But if you imprint them when they are very young, they can be even more friendly....I don't raise mine any differently than my chicks, just don't give them medicated feed....but yeah, they're a lot messier. And yes, my muscovies do very well with eating insects, especially mosquitos.
Oh I would love it if they ate lots of mosquitos, I live in mosquito-ville. I was wondering about the friendliness thing, my chicks tend to scatter whenever we try to play with them.
I have 6 ducklings right now. They are MUCH MUCH messier than the 15 chickens. They are very entertaining to watch and cute as can be, but I dare say they are more work in the brooding stage. They poop a lot. In volume and frequency. It is very wet smelly poo. They can't go on shavings for a couple of weeks. Bounty couldn't keep up with this poo, so I am using recycled rags under them. I probably go through 12 a day. Once they are done with them they go in the trash. I thought I was going to rinse and wash them, but they are wayyyy grosser than cloth baby diapers!! Thank goodness I can get the rags free from my dad. That being said, I will probably do it again. I would never get more than 6 though... thats enough! LOL
We "brood" our ducklings from day 1 in a 10 X 16 horse stall bedded with old hay or pine shavings. We keep them in there for about 5 weeks with a heat lamp in the corner. We give them several large poultry waterers - enough so we only have to fill them once a day. Right now we are brooding 30 ducklings in the stall. We LOVE having ducks around the barn. They are fun and friendly. Our flock just wanders the barn yard during the day and goes into a pen at night. I have 4 chickens and they make a much bigger mess for me then the ducks because they fly up on things and then poop on the stalls, tack racks, etc. The ducks just poop on the ground....where I can rake it up with the horse poop....no trouble at all. Maybe our situation is different, we let our poultry have run of the barnyard all day and in that situation, I would much rather have ducks then chickens.