What’s your favorite duck breed? Why?

[Miss Lydia]

I have Muscovy,Runners and Buffs. My very first ducks were Muscovy(2004) so they will always hold first place in my heart. They are def chill compared to my Runners. Kinda lazy now that they are 10 and 11 yrs old. My Runners and Buffs hatched together so the 2 females Buffs are attached at the hip to the Runners. These are my busy ducks always swimming or foraging. And clowns. Love their personality.

 

[ruthhope]

@CoriM "I have always loved pekins the best, but I agree that they have too many issues and that makes them difficult, though they are delightful."

My son and I have six pekins [and three muscovy] and have never found the pekins to be difficult. No foot troubles, one of the 2 girls is a phenomenal egg layer and the other -- a crested pekin -- is a good layer. They are very friendly with our muscovy female and have just accepted a rescued juvenile pekin drake into the flock. They are really good about going into the coop for the night -- even very early in the evening if I am going out and cannot put them in at dusk. The three pekin drakes are with me and they are so soft and cuddly -- two of the three come up to me and consent to being cuddled every day. The third, Dewey, is a rescued pekin that had been abused before being dumped. He is very nervous around me and won't come for hand feeding -- he doens't even know he likes cherry tomatoes and peas! But he has learnt to follow the other pekins into the coop and he knows which is his dog crate in there, and quickly goes inside. I am getting him used to me in the morning, when I let the ducks out of the coop, and let the other pekins out first.
Then Dewey comes out of his dog crate into the coop with me and is gently cuddled while he rests his head on my shoulder. Early days, but I think he will settle in and be as soft as my other pekins. With one exception our pekins are a little air headed but who cares when they are sweet and cuddly? The exception is the crested female who has a huge personality and is as smart as the muscovies [and they are very wiley!!!]

 

[CoriM]

I'm so glad you've had such a good experience with your pekins @ruthhope! Did you get them from a hatchery or somewhere else? What do you feed them? I started with three, and still have two, who are just over three years old. The one I lost suddenly became lame last summer and just could never walk again without the help of her wings. Nothing seemingly wrong with her legs or bottom of the feet. One of the other ones had splay leg as a baby, but thanks to help on BYC, we were able to reverse that and get her back to normal. She's always been more of a sitter than my other ducks, and in the past couple of months has been sitting more than usual. This week she's taken a turn for the worse and barely gets up to walk. I've had them on Mazuri waterfowl and Purina Duck combined together, plus give them fermented scratch and peck with added vitamin B about 3 meals per week. They get fresh organic kale, peas, cucumber, zucchini, and meal worms for treats. I give Puddles, the pekin who has the weaker legs, a ml of liquid vitamin B complex every week or two for good measure, and the past 6 weeks I've also been adding nutritional yeast on top of their feed. This past 5 days I've been giving her the liquid vitamin B every day but she's just getting worse. I ordered a collagen supplement that is supposed to be good for joints and I read helped someone's pekin with walking, so I'll give that a try, and I'm also putting put her on daily calcium to see if that makes a differenc - though she's always had access to oyster shells. I don't know what else to do for her. She's not especially fat, though obviously larger than other ducks. I hope she will pull through whatever's going on

 

[ruthhope]

I'm so glad you've had such a good experience with your pekins @ruthhope! Did you get them from a hatchery or somewhere else? What do you feed them? I started with three, and still have two, who are just over three years old. The one I lost suddenly became lame last summer and just could never walk again without the help of her wings. Nothing seemingly wrong with her legs or bottom of the feet. One of the other ones had splay leg as a baby, but thanks to help on BYC, we were able to reverse that and get her back to normal. She's always been more of a sitter than my other ducks, and in the past couple of months has been sitting more than usual. This week she's taken a turn for the worse and barely gets up to walk. I've had them on Mazuri waterfowl and Purina Duck combined together, plus give them fermented scratch and peck with added vitamin B about 3 meals per week. They get fresh organic kale, peas, cucumber, zucchini, and meal worms for treats. I give Puddles, the pekin who has the weaker legs, a ml of liquid vitamin B complex every week or two for good measure, and the past 6 weeks I've also been adding nutritional yeast on top of their feed. This past 5 days I've been giving her the liquid vitamin B every day but she's just getting worse. I ordered a collagen supplement that is supposed to be good for joints and I read helped someone's pekin with walking, so I'll give that a try, and I'm also putting put her on daily calcium to see if that makes a differenc - though she's always had access to oyster shells. I don't know what else to do for her. She's not especially fat, though obviously larger than other ducks. I hope she will pull through whatever's going on

My son bought 3 ducklings from tractor supply on impulse. They grew into a pekin drake "Big Boy", a pekin female "Big Girl" and a pekin crested female "Mop Head".

My ducks are all rescue and rehomes. I have a crested pekin drake, Ping, that was attacked by a raccoon as a duckling. Its clutch mate died, he survived with a deformed beak and was abandoned by his owner with a wildlife rehabber. I have my son's pekin drake "Big Boy" who would not accept a rescued female musovy and so came to me as the female muscovy could not live with my all male flock. And I have 2 recently rescued juvenile pekins -- Huey has gone to my son's and fitted straight in with his girls; and Dewey who has stayed with me and integrated slowly with my boys.

My two muscovy drakes are both rescues -- I got Daffy as a cold moribund 2 or 3 day old duckling and resucitated him. He bonded tightly with me and followed me around. When he was about 6 weeks old we got Ping and the second muscovy O Pato from a wld life rehabber to give Daffy ducky friends. These three are buddies -- Ping and O Pato very close. Daffy is the alpha male who prefers his Mom to drakes but he is frightened of missing soming if the other two go off in the garden, so he dashes after them to see what they are up to.

My son feeds the females on organic [chicken] layer feed with additional brewer's yeast and oyster sell on the side. Huey gets the same -- as does the feral rooster that moved in.

My boys get purina duck pellets. They don't seem to need brewer's yeast.

All our ducks get dried mealworms everyday, peas frequently, cherry tomoatoes when they are ripe, and chopped kale on occasion. They prefer eating my weeds and veggies [beans and brassicas] to kale.

The pekins are active -- running around -- and very noisy. Even Ping is incredibly noisy. He sometimes annoys my muscovies -- even his buddy O Pato -- by shouting in their faces, and then he gets pecked. But it makes no difference, he just carries on shouting. Non-stop. Loudly. Fortuantely my neighbors don't mind!! My son's Mop Head is also noisy -- a very noisy little girl. She keeps the others in her flock in order. She is prone to sitting in her nest box and shouting, loudly, in the night. My son has been woken up and dashed out thinking there must be a predator in the garden. But no, it is just Mop Head shouting -- not an alarm call. Just her normal "I'm here" shouting. I dont know if it is coincidence or it is becuase the two noisy ones are noisy because they are crested!!!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I'm up to 13 Call Ducks now and I LOVE them The many colors and the amount of noise that comes from such little things

This doesn't discount my love for my Aztec's, which have a lot of Call duck in their genetics. They oftentimes have quack offs with my Calls

My Australian Spotted ~identifies~ as a Call Ducks as well

My Buff Duck has an amazing quirky personality. She is the biggest character of all 24 ducks and is always up to something. She's hilarious and is my best friend anytime I'm digging up earthworms Any other time, she tolerates me and allows me to look but no touch

I feel the same way about my Pekin as Cori and Quatie. She's so special and I love her dearly but she needs a lot of extra care and I still continue to worry about her constantly.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I'm so glad you've had such a good experience with your pekins @ruthhope! Did you get them from a hatchery or somewhere else? What do you feed them? I started with three, and still have two, who are just over three years old. The one I lost suddenly became lame last summer and just could never walk again without the help of her wings. Nothing seemingly wrong with her legs or bottom of the feet. One of the other ones had splay leg as a baby, but thanks to help on BYC, we were able to reverse that and get her back to normal. She's always been more of a sitter than my other ducks, and in the past couple of months has been sitting more than usual. This week she's taken a turn for the worse and barely gets up to walk. I've had them on Mazuri waterfowl and Purina Duck combined together, plus give them fermented scratch and peck with added vitamin B about 3 meals per week. They get fresh organic kale, peas, cucumber, zucchini, and meal worms for treats. I give Puddles, the pekin who has the weaker legs, a ml of liquid vitamin B complex every week or two for good measure, and the past 6 weeks I've also been adding nutritional yeast on top of their feed. This past 5 days I've been giving her the liquid vitamin B every day but she's just getting worse. I ordered a collagen supplement that is supposed to be good for joints and I read helped someone's pekin with walking, so I'll give that a try, and I'm also putting put her on daily calcium to see if that makes a differenc - though she's always had access to oyster shells. I don't know what else to do for her. She's not especially fat, though obviously larger than other ducks. I hope she will pull through whatever's going on

Oh no. I'm so sorry to read this Cori Has she laid recently? I'm still having trouble with Honey Boo Boo too and she's sitting a lot more too

 

[HeatherKellyB]

My son bought 3 ducklings from tractor supply on impulse. They grew into a pekin drake "Big Boy", a pekin female "Big Girl" and a pekin crested female "Mop Head".

My ducks are all rescue and rehomes. I have a crested pekin drake, Ping, that was attacked by a raccoon as a duckling. Its clutch mate died, he survived with a deformed beak and was abandoned by his owner with a wildlife rehabber. I have my son's pekin drake "Big Boy" who would not accept a rescued female musovy and so came to me as the female muscovy could not live with my all male flock. And I have 2 recently rescued juvenile pekins -- Huey has gone to my son's and fitted straight in with his girls; and Dewey who has stayed with me and integrated slowly with my boys.

My two muscovy drakes are both rescues -- I got Daffy as a cold moribund 2 or 3 day old duckling and resucitated him. He bonded tightly with me and followed me around. When he was about 6 weeks old we got Ping and the second muscovy O Pato from a wld life rehabber to give Daffy ducky friends. These three are buddies -- Ping and O Pato very close. Daffy is the alpha male who prefers his Mom to drakes but he is frightened of missing soming if the other two go off in the garden, so he dashes after them to see what they are up to.

My son feeds the females on organic [chicken] layer feed with additional brewer's yeast and oyster sell on the side. Huey gets the same -- as does the feral rooster that moved in.

My boys get purina duck pellets. They don't seem to need brewer's yeast.

All our ducks get dried mealworms everyday, peas frequently, cherry tomoatoes when they are ripe, and chopped kale on occasion. They prefer eating my weeds and veggies [beans and brassicas] to kale.

The pekins are active -- running around -- and very noisy. Even Ping is incredibly noisy. He sometimes annoys my muscovies -- even his buddy O Pato -- by shouting in their faces, and then he gets pecked. But it makes no difference, he just carries on shouting. Non-stop. Loudly. Fortuantely my neighbors don't mind!! My son's Mop Head is also noisy -- a very noisy little girl. She keeps the others in her flock in order. She is prone to sitting in her nest box and shouting, loudly, in the night. My son has been woken up and dashed out thinking there must be a predator in the garden. But no, it is just Mop Head shouting -- not an alarm call. Just her normal "I'm here" shouting. I dont know if it is coincidence or it is becuase the two noisy ones are noisy because they are crested!!!

I couldn't decide between a laughing reaction or love. That's hilarious about Mop Head. I LOVE crested ducks but I worry about those vaulted shulls. Sounds like she's a happy and healthy girl.

 

[ruthhope]

I couldn't decide between a laughing reaction or love. That's hilarious about Mop Head. I LOVE crested ducks but I worry about those vaulted shulls. Sounds like she's a happy and healthy girl.

We didn't know Mop Head was a crested when my son got her -- we actually thought that her face down hadn't come in fully and that the top of her head was normal down. It was a week before we realized there was something different about the top of her head and looked it up. She did a couple of times lose her crest feathers during mating with Big Boy and I was very worried about her. But she wasn't bothered and carried on inveigling Big Boy into mounting her. She is currently trying that on with Huey, but Huey is to juvenile to know what to do!! I have seen another drake with Ping's crest feathers in his bill on one occasion. I was out in the back yard with them in a shot and the offending drake was told off in no uncertain terms. Both my muscovy drakes quickly learned that I don't like them fighting with the pekins and I don't think Ping's crest is at risk any more. When he really annoys the muscovies, he gets a wing pecked but there is no fighting.

Mop Head is a delight. She is the alpha duck in my son's flock

 

[HeatherKellyB]

We didn't know Mop Head was a crested when my son got her -- we actually thought that her face down hadn't come in fully and that the top of her head was normal down. It was a week before we realized there was something different about the top of her head and looked it up. She did a couple of times lose her crest feathers during mating with Big Boy and I was very worried about her. But she wasn't bothered and carried on inveigling Big Boy into mounting her. She is currently trying that on with Huey, but Huey is to juvenile to know what to do!! I have seen another drake with Ping's crest feathers in his bill on one occasion. I was out in the back yard with them in a shot and the offending drake was told off in no unvertain terms. Both my muscovy drkae quickly learned that I don't like them fighting with the pekins and I don't think Ping's crest is at risk any more. When he really annoys the muscovies, he gets a wing pecked but there is no fighting.

Mop Head is a delight. She is the alpha duck in my son's flock

Oh my goodness gracious alive! She's absolutely gorgeous I love her!

 

[ruthhope]

Oh my goodness gracious alive! She's absolutely gorgeous I love her!

But not at 5am when she came on a sleepover!!