To Duck or not to Duck - Nearby Neighbors

[telandra2]

Fleas and ticks: The folks next door have told me the ticks are way down since my flock of six moved in. I also have a daily mouser cat... so he might contribute by helping eradicate the host animals.

Nuisance: I was worried about this as I have 'its legal as long as no one complains' zoning. All the neighbors say they love the ducks. Then one of the neighbors got 2 geese. I borrowed the pair, he moved, and now I have 6. The neighbors say they like the geese too.

Ancona ducks. Gossipy chatter teenage phase where they discuss everything, but mostly quiet as adults ... until one decides yelling would be fun.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

What is your neighborhood like? It is like normal suburban style? More rural ish outskirts? Buttoned up community?

My experience is limited but I will tell you, birds are all different. My Welsummer chickens are considerably louder than my Australorps (which are pretty much The Perfect Chicken, j/s). Our Welsh Harlequin ducks are beautiful, but noticeably louder - when they want to be - which is not all the time, by any means. Mostly it's jusy cute little muted honks, unless they are displeased, in which case they Will let you know? Personally, I find their chatter to all be part of the appeal of having them around.

Moreso than noise, I would be concerned about logistics. Do you have perimeter fencing and a pond? That's ideal because ducks need their water to splash in, and they root around in the grass and make holes, and the mud spreads all over the pen and kills the grass. So you'd need to be constantly moving their enclosure and refilling water tubs which is all a big pain in the rumpus. I saw a cool pen design with a French drain and rock / gravel floor that could be hosed off, if you are interested in looking at a duck pen setup like that, might keep the mud and destruction down. I also saw a Carolina Coop design with a dug out drain for the duck dipper that you could drain like a bathtub and refill, but most people are probably not going that crazy with it. Ducks' needs are different than chickens, so that's something you would need to *seriously* consider, and set up ahead of their arrival, ideally.

I would ask why specifically you want ducks? I mean besides the obvious lol. As wonderful as they are, my experience has been that chickens are considerably easier to keep and maintain their living quarters, (depending how you do it.) There are lots of cute little coops that would accommodate 3 chickens that you could easily add a bump out for a run, or put a covered fence around it, and even potentially keep it all lightweight enough to move around your yard so it doesn't get too badly destroyed. Either way, you'll want to give some serious thought to what your setup will be.

IMHO, three is an annoying number - I don't know where someone starting out is just getting three chickens, unless you get started pullets, or buy from a local neighbor. As in, tractor supply has a four chick minimum, and almost anywhere that ships will require you to buy more, so If it were me, I would do a cute little chicken set up, and grab (four) little cuties from TSC once the chick days start up again, and leave it at that. I guess you could get six to split with a friend if you really want to follow the rules! Lol

But if you really have your heart set on ducks, I'm sure it can be done. I do recommend the Welsh Harlequin ducks, they are just gorgeous and lay a creamy white egg, or Magpies are supposed to be excellent layers of more colorful eggs, although Indian runners are supposed to be good layers, too. I think it all comes down to personal preference. There is no duck that is going to be quiet 100% of the time, and unfortunately, I think potentially tearing up the yard could present more of a problem with neighbors than noise.

Ha my welshie can wake the undead. Her name is Frank because that's what she screams. And screams

 

[Ridgeback825]

Our pekin hen is significantly louder than a hen....all the time. We have a pair and the 2 of them start courting and the honks get flying. She's the loudest in the morning when I'm rinsing and refilling their pool. Our neighbors don't seem to mind because she's silent at 5am. The best part is we got an egg from her every day for the whole month. Jumbo eggs to boot!

 

[3xhhheather]

Have you ever gotten Bumblefoot from the mulch? I use sand but have to keep adding it and I am up to about 6 ton and have two more to put in. I put a lot of water in the pen while filling up all of their buckets and emptying them but they love to splash in it and the pen is very big. I was just curious on how the mulch worked. I was concerned that something in it might poke their feet?

I’ve had a few cases, but not enough to make me think it’s the mulch. I get mine through ChipDrop, so the amount changes (one time I got a whole tractor trailer’s worth). It’s definitely eliminated the mud and smell issue.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Hmmm. Definitely seeing pros and cons. What attracted me initially is:

1. Could get naturally flightless breeds. 1/4 of our fence is only about 4ft high, and I had to add and repare netting to keep the chickens in that section. So if we go back to chickens (had to take a break due to a health thing thats resolved), thinking the fence would need an upgrade. And a simple baby gate could keep them off the deck stairs and deck.

2. No scratching/dust baths everywhere. We have some blueberry bushes that the chickens kept trying to murder that we had to fence and then unfence to get at the berries and then immediately re-fence…but it’s just a few bushes so a whole permanent fence and gate seemed dumb.

3. Pest control. The chickens helped with this too, but not whatever attacked my squash. (Do ducks eat fleas and ticks? the chickens DID seem to help with that?)

4. Cuteness, no pecking, potential for a male if we decided to breed (roosters are banned here).

5. Fewer diseases.

6. More steady egg production and more nutritious eggs.


Cons seem to mostly be:

1. Mess

2. Changing water all the time

3. Noise (does anyone know the decibel level of a quack vs a cluck vs an egg “song”?! Would love to know how much more annoying they could be compared to hens)

. I am probably overthinking this. Maybe we should just try it with the idea that perhaps we rehome them.

Ohhh last thing - can you even get sexed ducklings? I don’t see them online, but aren’t some breeds pretty reliable to sex by beak color? I don’t want to end up with multiple boys to process. Which is also technically not allowed unless I go to my friend’s farm to do it.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Not sure if ducks eat fleas & ticks, we’ve got grasshoppers bad here and they love those!

Not gonna lie I HATE chickens for serval reasons, a lot of them you listed. Hands down when it comes to chickens vs. ducks I’m picking ducks, even knowing how messy and what pains in the butt they are.

Yes they are very messy, I only do pool water once a day. Their water buckets in the coop I only have to do a couple times a week

Not sure on the decibel level, but I’ve had chickens who love to egg song and I have ducks who love to hear themselves talk. The majority of my ducks I would say are quieter than a typical chicken egg song. But I have 3 LOUD MOUTH DUCKS! But it’s not something that’s happening all day long. It’s usually when they’re excited or need something. Every once in a while I can hear them in the coop at night but again it’s not all night. A couple quacks and then back to silent. Drakes on the other hand are super quiet! I find chicken noises super annoying, but I love hearing the ducks quacking, so does my husband.

Rehoming is hard, atleast in my area. I don’t know if I would go into it with the idea of rehoming. This is gonna be an unpopular opinion but I would consider a duck dinner in that case pleas nobody burn me at the stake

Yes you can get sexed ducklings. I use metzer farms and have been super happy with them! I haven’t ever seen sexed ducklings at feed stores such as TSC, it’s just a gamble.

The only breed I know of that is sex linked by beak are welsh harlequins and I know it’s not 100%. In my case of the 3 I have it was accurate. But I think there’s lots of variables to go along with that.

Pekin mom and khaki dad I was able to sex link babies at birth
My chocolates are girls my blacks are boys
But it’s also a pain when selling them as I know what they are and can’t lie
I would much rather not know the sex
I let the school hatch a batch of my eggs and all 6 were boys
Usually I get 50/50 or 70/30 more girls

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Hmmm. Then maybe for my neighbors’ sake I need to go back to the hens idea. They were fine with the hens before; not sure if they’d feel the same about quacks. Sad.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Shoot - if you CAN legally have ducks, then have ducks! I can legally have any kind of livestock. My neighbors are far enough away that it doesn't really matter, but if they were closer, they would have to tolerate the noise because of the ordinances.

I can legally have them UNLESS they become a “nuisance,” either because they escape OR because “a reasonable person finds the noise or smell a nuisance when standing at or within their property line.”

Sooo…not sure how that would play out if someone decided to call the ordinance police (or whatever they are called) about quacks?

I also don’t want to be on the ordinance peoples’ radar, period. And honestly I would prefer not to bug my neighbors. Wish I could rent a few ducks for a couple days and see what everyone thinks .

 

[Aunt Angus]

I can legally have them UNLESS they become a “nuisance,” either because they escape OR because “a reasonable person finds the noise or smell a nuisance when standing at or within their property line.”

Sooo…not sure how that would play out if someone decided to call the ordinance police (or whatever they are called) about quacks?

I also don’t want to be on the ordinance peoples’ radar, period. And honestly I would prefer not to bug my neighbors. Wish I could rent a few ducks for a couple days and see what everyone thinks .

Maybe you could! Lol! Find someone who has some and borrow them.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Maybe you could! Lol! Find someone who has some and borrow them.

Hmmmm. How do I do that? Craigslist ad? (Serious question.)