What are we?

[d73]

I get home from work yesterday to find I'm the new owner of a pair of ducks. My wife takes in every unwanted animal around....even after teller her no more animals.
I find the ducks to be intresting but I don't know anything about them.
Right now they are eating wild game & chicken feed.

The big duck quacks and the smaller one honks. I believe the big one is male and the small one female just by the way they act. Not sure though. All I was told was that they are about 5 months old.

Anyone know the sex and breed of these?

 

[Goat_Walker]

Magpie crosses looks like. Or even Mags.... Here are mine :

Magpie cross female

Mag cross male and female :

My magpie duck and my Mystery Drake. At first I thought he was a domestic bibbed mallard but now i think he is a mag or swede cross. More likely mag because the mask is smaller.

If you need my pictures just ask

Can we see more pictures of yours? full body? They look so pretty!!

 

[Goat_Walker]

BTW - the one with the green head is DEF male. Look at those curly tail feathers!! and im guessing the other is female as you said since she honks

And I just saw the second picture since it didnt load on my page the first time and i deffinantly think The drake is a magpie and the female might be magpie cross.. but could be black swede cross. Im putting my vote on mag cross though

 

[d73]

What do you feed ducks? Can they just eat chicken feed or do I need something just for them?

 

[Goat_Walker]

Are you planning on letting them free range? I let mine free range at least three times a week and then in the mornings and afternoons of the other four days.i feed mine whole corn and chicken layer feed. ( the boys like it too ) and all my ducks are plump and healthy.

So id say just chicken layer feed and whole corn really. Grass clipping when you can, fresh hay for housing, fresh water at all times ( it doesnt have to be clean , lol )

You can ever buy feeder fish from the bait shop and put them in their pools or water buckets.


They like scraps too - tomatoes, beets, peas, lettuce.

 

[d73]

Thanks.
My chickens free range all weekend and after work on weekdays (2-3 hrs a day) The ducks have been doing this also. Seems to be working so far. I don't think they like the roosters though. The chickens roost in the coop and the ducks sleep on the ground in the pen. I'm going to build them a pond when I can find one/money.

 

[geosheets]

Quote:
thought I'd also throw in to make sure they always have access to water when they eat... they need the water to help swallow.

 

[d73]

I have a 30 gal water trough in the yard and my chicken waterer in the pen.

 

[Goat_Walker]

Any water the ducks can reach WILL become muddy with in the first hour or two. Your set up sounds fine. You dont need anything really big since you only have two ducks, a small $10 kiddie pool from walmart will do. They will prolly get into your trough if they can find a way as well.

And geosheets is right - they MUST have acess to water 24/7.

You might also have a problem with the roo's molesting the girl duck and your drake molesting your hens... so i hope you have enough hens to keep your roo occupied.

Do you have any idea how old they are?? Because when your girl gets around 4 -5 months old she will start laying. You'll know around when because im assuming the drake will start to mount her when they both reac maturity.

but then you get eggs! I love duck eggs - better than chicken eggs

 

[d73]

They are about 5 months from what I'm told.

The wife and I are really thinking about putting all 4 roos in the freezer.
They are getting mean and attacking the kids. Besides we don't really need to keep feeding 4 roos since we will never hatch eggs from our chickens.
I got 2 kinds of pure breed chickens coming so I need to build another coop to keep them seperate. So I was going to incorperate a pool in the new coop for the ducks.
A $10 kids pool is a good idea though for a temp duck pool.
It also might be a good perment one to.

My idea though was to build a small deck around it so it's easier for them to get in and it might help with the mud. But still have it where I can pull it out to clean it.