welsh harlequin ducks

[horse-ducklover]

wow i might bye my own

 

[duck-horselover]

hi horse-ducklover

it is great to see you

and welcome to BYC ( back yard chickens)

 

[Sfraker]

First off GREAT CHOICE in breed. I may be a little biased since I own 16 WH's and 7 other random breeds. I love my WH the best. They are the calmest, friendliest, quietest, etc...

However, they do make a rucus when they want something. If I don't get outside on time for dinner I can hear them quacking all the way across my yard in my house! When I look out the window they will all be facing the house quacking at me. LOL! They are so mellow that sometimes herding them can be like herding snails. They have to keep stopping to get another bite of something and don't care that you are right next to them trying to get them to move. Last night I finally reached out and gave one of them a gentle push to get her going as she was ignorning my command to go to the coop and my waving arms. She just looked up at me with some weeds in her mouth like "What?" then waddled off to the coop.

I feed mine a lot of weeds from my garden and vegetable scraps to help cut back on feed costs. For example I grow broccoli, I eat the broccoli, the ducks eat the leaves. Yesterday I pulled up all the bean plants that were done producing and tossed them into the duck pen. An hour later I came out and the plants were just stems, all the leaves were eaten and the ducks were sleeping. I picked up the stems and tossed them into the compost bin. The ducks didn't finish their dinner last night since they were full of bean leaves.

You have gotten a ton of good info and found a great place for support. The people on this forum are AMAZING!

I put my answsers in all caps to be easier to read.

1. what vaccinations they need. - NONE
2.can two males be together - YEP
3. can two females be together - EASY PEASY
4.do females go broody all the time or just often - NONE OF MINE HAVE GONE BROODY BUT THEY ARE ONLY 18 MONTHS OLD.
5. what do they eat (is there anything they have to have in there diets. I FEED A LOCALLY GROWN/MILLED ORGANIC DUCK MAINTENANCE FEED WITH FREE CHOICE GRIT AND CALCIUM
6.are they calm and friendly - YES IF YOU HANDLE THEM AS DUCKLINGS
7.are they quite or really loud - MOSTLY QUIET UNTIL THEY WANT SOMETHING
8. we have a rooster who sadly has to go because he is very aggressive and loud are welsh harlequin drakes the same - DRAKES CANNOT QUACK. THEY SOUND LIKE THEY HAVE LARYNGITIS

 

[cymbaline]

I just adopted 3 WH females that are about a year old. I don't have much to add to what others have said, except for to agree that they are very calm and friendly (more so than my mallards and buff...about the same as my runner) and they are quieter than my runner girl most of the time.

 

[duck-horselover]

First off GREAT CHOICE in breed. I may be a little biased since I own 16 WH's and 7 other random breeds. I love my WH the best. They are the calmest, friendliest, quietest, etc...

However, they do make a rucus when they want something. If I don't get outside on time for dinner I can hear them quacking all the way across my yard in my house! When I look out the window they will all be facing the house quacking at me. LOL! They are so mellow that sometimes herding them can be like herding snails. They have to keep stopping to get another bite of something and don't care that you are right next to them trying to get them to move. Last night I finally reached out and gave one of them a gentle push to get her going as she was ignorning my command to go to the coop and my waving arms. She just looked up at me with some weeds in her mouth like "What?" then waddled off to the coop.

I feed mine a lot of weeds from my garden and vegetable scraps to help cut back on feed costs. For example I grow broccoli, I eat the broccoli, the ducks eat the leaves. Yesterday I pulled up all the bean plants that were done producing and tossed them into the duck pen. An hour later I came out and the plants were just stems, all the leaves were eaten and the ducks were sleeping. I picked up the stems and tossed them into the compost bin. The ducks didn't finish their dinner last night since they were full of bean leaves.

You have gotten a ton of good info and found a great place for support. The people on this forum are AMAZING!

I put my answsers in all caps to be easier to read.

1. what vaccinations they need. - NONE
2.can two males be together - YEP
3. can two females be together - EASY PEASY
4.do females go broody all the time or just often - NONE OF MINE HAVE GONE BROODY BUT THEY ARE ONLY 18 MONTHS OLD.
5. what do they eat (is there anything they have to have in there diets. I FEED A LOCALLY GROWN/MILLED ORGANIC DUCK MAINTENANCE FEED WITH FREE CHOICE GRIT AND CALCIUM
6.are they calm and friendly - YES IF YOU HANDLE THEM AS DUCKLINGS
7.are they quite or really loud - MOSTLY QUIET UNTIL THEY WANT SOMETHING
8. we have a rooster who sadly has to go because he is very aggressive and loud are welsh harlequin drakes the same - DRAKES CANNOT QUACK. THEY SOUND LIKE THEY HAVE LARYNGITIS

thank you very much

that is very useful info and i will put it in my folder for when i get a duck.Your WH sound awesome and funny that they know where you are.

i hope if i get some they will turn out like yours.

 

[duck-horselover]

I just adopted 3 WH females that are about a year old. I don't have much to add to what others have said, except for to agree that they are very calm and friendly (more so than my mallards and buff...about the same as my runner) and they are quieter than my runner girl most of the time.

i was thinking of getting a mallard but WH seem to suit me better. thanks for the information. i was wondering what they where like compered to other ducks.

.