What Breed Should I Get?

[Aunt Angus]

Hi!

I have ALWAYS wanted ducks. I LOVE ducks. I plan to get a few this spring now that I have a lot more room. I have a small flock of chickens (getting more of those, too, come spring). These ducks will be pets more than anything, but I do like duck eggs!

Now that I am finally getting them, I am like a kid in a candy store! I don't know what kind to get! I adore Runners, but Cayuga are gorgeous. And Pekin are adorable. And my hubby likes Swedish. And Appleyards seem fantastic. Ahhhhhh!


I would prefer ducks who don't fly. They will be in a fenced area (about 1/4 acre in area) shared with my chickens, but they'll have their own wing of the chicken house (pardon the pun).

Advice? I'm leaning towards Runners for cuteness, but I've heard they can be really standoffish. I don't need them to be my best friends, but I need to be able to handle them to care for them.

TIA!

(I'm so excited!!!!)

 

[Aunt Angus]

 

[LT71689]

You have a better chance of friendliness if you hatch them yourself or get day-olds that can potentially imprint on you, but thats not a sure deal - they can imprint on each other instead, or their individual personalities just override. The other draw back of that is that they're very hard to sex and you might not get a proper gender ratio and wind up having to cull/rehome/get a whole lot more a few months down the road. (If you really want to have the experience of raising cute little baby ducklings, I'd personally go with only starting with 2 or 3, have fun with them growing up, and once they're old enough to be sexed go about acquiring more sexed adults that will make the gender ratio appropriate)

Calls, Muscovies, and Mallards can fly, most other domestics cant/wont.

Metzer has a comparison table for some of the traits you're interested in (but again, dont take it as a sure thing, there's always outliers and ducks can have a whole lot of individual personality) https://www.metzerfarms.com/DuckBreedComparisonNew.cfm?affiliate=undef&CustID=27724359

Pekins are super popular pet ducks for their great personalities, but they're very prone to health issues due to being bred as meat ducks that grow heavily and quickly and arent actually supposed to live very long. Its possible to find better-bred pekins and if you know what you're up against, you can do things to mitigate their health risks, but they're trickier than lighter breeds and if losing a pet is especially hard on you, you might not wanna go with them just in case. If you're willing to put in the work and give it your all, they're amazing (I had two, they were like a pair of feathered puppies)

 

[3bird]

This won't surprise people who knows us, but I'm going to make a strong plug for silver Appleyards. They are fantastic--ours are friendly, great foragers, fantastic layers, have good maternal instincts, and are simply beautiful birds. Plus they are an endangered heritage breed. You can check out our guys here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlPSFpsJ1cQS_CvkFOhMAA

 

[Derputy Dawg]

After doing some research myself I decided to go with ducks that wouldn't be terrified of me, but were also a heritage/endangered breed of duck with decent egg production. I narrowed it down to Welsh Harlequin or Ancona.

I hatched 5 (out of 8) Ancona eggs I got from an eBay seller back in June.

 

[Callender Girl]

My only adult experience with ducks (we had Mallards when I was a kid) is with runners, and I adore them! They are, as you said, incredibly cute, especially when they take off across the yard with that distinctive gait. And, I love the sound of their voices, even though I think the girls sound like they are laughing at me!

A 2-foot wire garden fence keeps mine confined. I had one -- once -- who could remain airborne for 4 or 5 seconds, but Claire was the only runner who ever showed any inclination toward flight. A fairly busy paved road goes past my property, and I don't have a problem with ducks trying to become road kill.

Initially, the breeder where I got them didn't sex the day-old ducklings, and I chose four -- of which three turned out to be drakes! Breeder is now pretty darned good at sexing babies, and all four of my most recent girls really turned out to be girls.

How friendly do you want your ducks to be? Mine recognize me as the giver of food and will crawl on top of me when I'm trying to fill a food dish. They will follow me across the yard when I yell, "duck, duck, house, house," a signal that dinner is about to be served. They will run up to me when I'm outdoors just in case food could be involved.

Quinn, the original female, will crawl into my lap to get to food (are you sensing a theme here?) and will gladly and awkwardly climb the steps to the back door checking for -- you guessed it -- food.

None of mine have ever liked to be picked up or held. But, if I sit still on the ground, they will climb on me, and nine of the current 10 will gladly eat from my hand.

Good luck on whatever breed you choose; I'm sure other breeds are just as wonderful, but I dare not find out because then I would want even more birds!

 

[Aunt Angus]

And just FYI, everybody:

FIVE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Did u get the ducks yet?

Nope. They ship Monday! I hope they don't sit in San Jose over night....

Wish they'd just let me pick them up on Monday....

No sleep for Auntie Sunday!

 

[Aunt Angus]

I've been so busy, and I'm still getting the routine down, but here's a pile of cute:

 

[Aunt Angus]

Duckie update:

All is going well so far! They are energetic for a bit, then they take a nap, then they all wake up and repeat the process.

Clementine (black Swedish) is the most active and climbs on everything. She is already zooming in the tub, too. Figgy (runner) is noisy. Marmalade (Welsh) is the smallest and cuddliest. Peanut (Saxony) is really calm and quiet. It'll be fun to see how they grow. Looking forward to it!

The trough brooder thing is working great for now - very easy to clean. The pan with the cooling rack is also working great, but I'll need to get a bigger one soon. I put the trough on a furniture mover (the square wooden thing with wheels). SO glad I did! I just bring them with me all over the house so I can keep an eye on them. I clean out the trough when they are swimming - I just bring the whole thing into the bathroom. Takes just a few minutes (because they are still so tiny). When they get older and the mess gets bigger, I'll probably have to put them in a cage while I clean. But for now, the system works well!

I am using the lid for a plastic container for food right now (unmedicated chock starter with nutritional yeast added) and a cream cheese tub with holes in the lid for water. I also gave them an old guinea pig cave. Under that is a heating pad that has no auto off set to high (93°). Sometimes they sleep in the cave, sometimes not. I am just assuming they'd go into the heating pad if they get cold. I had a mama heating pad made into a cave for them, but they slept next to it and never under, so I think it was maybe too warm. Regardless, they seem to be thriving.