Want some ducks - looking for input

[louis]

Hi all. I have a small pond on my place (an oval about 50ft x 30ft). It's actually a tank a previous owner built decades ago. It's about 4 feet deep at the center and has a lot of underwater plants, bugs, tadpoles, and a couple turtles. Now I'm thinking I would like to put a few ducks in there and I'm just wondering if I could just brood a few ducklings and then basically turn 'em loose in the pond after 6 weeks or so and then not have to worry about feeding them and building a little 'coop'? Do you think they would stay put? To be honest I really just want 3 or 4 to look at and hopefully they would clean up some of the bugs and plant life. I don't want to have to really care for them like I do my chickens so if it's a bad idea I'd rather spare them any harm or neglect. Oh and any breed recommendations for my situation would be appreciated! Thanks...

 

[muscovy94]

All my ducks free range 24/7 and I have never had a problem with animals getting them. I always recommend muscovies, but if your only wanting a few, muscovies are very broody and have a lot of babies so you might not want them, but they can fly which is a bonus if your scared of predators. I also like pekins. They are easy to find and almost every TSC has them. ANd they don't go broody so you will only have a few, but they can't fly which makes them more predator's prey. I think muscovies would be the best bet. They can fly if a predator tries to get them and if you don't want babies you can just takes eggs away.


Hope this helped. Ducks are very fun and interesting to watch.

 

[monarc23]

are there snapping turtles in the watering thing? if so i'd try to irradicate those first because they LOVE ducks and I don't mean that in a nice "lets be friends' way. I say this and I have a pet snapper

LOL I wouldnt want to see you lose some duckers so just wanted to put that input in here.

 

[louis]

Quote:
It actually helped a lot. Thank you! Knowing yours range 24/7 and the info on the breeds is pretty much all I was looking for. As for turtles, I've only seen three red-eared sliders sunning themselves occasionally. Never seen a snapper but I'll keep an eye out.

 

[streemers]

i would do something still close to the mallard family. like a mallard, khaki campbell, whelsh harliquin ect... mascovies are good to they just arnt my fav. but then again i have never owner 1.
the ducks arnt going to spend all there time in the water. they will go exploring around the pond and if you have a flower bed or garden you'll need to fence it off.
hope you do get some though. i just love them and the eggs are wonderful yummy goodness

 

[Lach Cnoc Farm]

my muscovy free range all day long and have never messed with my flowers, the chickens try to eat them to nothing though, lol.

mine hang out in the creek but do run around looking for bugs. mine are basically organic because of all the goodies in the creek. the male i just got rid of was about 15lbs, lol.

hope that helped!

 

[streemers]

yeah mine dont normaly eat the flower they dig around the bottoms looking for bugs. also they love to make nests in my beds. i have 2 nests in there right now LOL