What Breed Should I Get?

[FernbergFarms]

This is the bow tie!!

 

[Aunt Angus]

So chickens and ducks are made different. If a male duck breeds with a chicken it probably will kill the hen. I’m not 100% on roosters with ducks hens. I’m assuming it is not good. Some chickens will think ducks have shiny eyes and try pecking them. If your rooster breeds your ducks and you want to hatch the ducks eggs you won’t be able to then. So I’m not a hundred percent on the roosters with the ducks but I do know chickens will sometimes peck at the ducks. But a lot of people do keep them together

My girls are very chill (well, Bryony is neurotic, but not aggressive). Anx I ordered female ducks. I'll try it out after a proper introduction and see how it goes. It won't be a huge issue separating them, but I'd rather let them all have free run of the chicken pasture. There's plenty of room, so they should be able to avoid each other. We'll se........

 

[Aunt Angus]

We've had ducks off and on for years along with all the other animals on the farm. We've had mallards (my least favorite) pekins, which were one of my favorites as they were so tame, indian runners which were my favorites in regards to appearance. I'd like to get indian runners again someday and muscovies.

Right now, no, we don't have any. I'll spoiler this as it may be sad to read so click at your own risk.

Spoiler: sad duck story

So basically earlier this year my mom picked up some khaki campbells, we have a pond and all was great for months. Then when they got older.. they became little terrorizers. They just wouldn't go in the pond at all anymore. No idea why. Maybe they had an encounter with a turtle or something that scared them off, who knows honestly. We never had issues like this before, ever. Maybe they were just too curious.

So, they would wander down to the coop and barn, and every single day they would play in the chicken's water and dirty it, and did the same with my livestock's water. Not to mention even though they had their own food, they would make a complete mess of the chicken's feed, wasting a bunch all over the ground. So picture this, I'm going down and making the trip to the water spicket multiple times a day to not only refill two things of water but clean them. I did not enjoy it at all, trust me, but they had to go.

Here's some photos of them though

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Beautiful ducks, and beautiful property! Goodness! Like a postcard or a calendar!

I *may* read your story. Not til tomorrow, though. I hate going to bed sad. Gives me nightmares.

 

[Aunt Angus]

View attachment 2480551This is the bow tie!!

Website won't let me give more hearts!!!!!!

 

[docteurshepherd]

Beautiful ducks, and beautiful property! Goodness! Like a postcard or a calendar!

I *may* read your story. Not til tomorrow, though. I hate going to bed sad. Gives me nightmares.

Wow thanks so much!! I don't blame you honestly, no worries.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Have you heard of silkie ducks yet?

 

[FernbergFarms]

Yeah that was a sad story
Hey, I have a question for you. How have you introduced your birds before? I’ve never had to do it because my chickens were old by the time we got new ones. But now I have to introduce my ducks and little ducks and I’m not sure how this will work.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Well, talking to @WannaBeHillBilly , I found out Meyer's gets their ducks from Metzer's, which is about 2 hrs from my house! I decided I'd cancel my order for Meyer's and pick them up at the farm. Ideal situation!

I canceled my order and called Mezter's, and I find out they aren't allowing pick ups (COVID strikes again). So it's going to take 2-3 days to go what would take 2 hrs by car.

Since they now have to go through San Francisco, I figured they needed to be really warm.

So I ordered a Pekin, too!


I'll tell DH she was a "packing peanut." Ha!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Yeah that was a sad story
Hey, I have a question for you. How have you introduced your birds before? I’ve never had to do it because my chickens were old by the time we got new ones. But now I have to introduce my ducks and little ducks and I’m not sure how this will work.

Don't know why I didn't get a notification for this... Sorry....

I have introduced chickens multiple times. I started with 4, added 3 chicks a year later, and added 2 rescues a year after that. I have NO idea how ot will be with ducks, but I'm going to approach it the same way: let them see each other for, like, at least 3 weeks and let them free range together. I partition off a section of the run for the newbies. I haven't had any problems with that method.

 

[Quatie]

Well, talking to @WannaBeHillBilly , I found out Meyer's gets their ducks from Metzer's, which is about 2 hrs from my house! I decided I'd cancel my order for Meyer's and pick them up at the farm. Ideal situation!

I canceled my order and called Mezter's, and I find out they aren't allowing pick ups (COVID strikes again). So it's going to take 2-3 days to go what would take 2 hrs by car.

Since they now have to go through San Francisco, I figured they needed to be really warm.

So I ordered a Pekin, too!


I'll tell DH she was a "packing peanut." Ha!

I ordered from Metzer and live about 3-4 hours from them, and we got them a day earlier than expecting. It sucks you can't pick them up though, but I can understand why.