Love them too.. but don't have any now due to the messiness. They defnitely poop! No, more like squirt around!
Water definitely got dirty quick however I found a way to handle it- make a SMALL pond, enough for my ducks and just deep enough for them to be able to float and had 2" drain pipe installed at the lowest point (pond was a very simple cone shape) to make draining(big pipes is best for the feathers- do NOT use pipe smaller than 2". Trust me.). The reason for making pond smaller rather than bigger was to make the frequent water changes more handleable. It also had the added bonus of the ducks bathing more frequently(fresh water triggers a huge bathing frenzy) so in the end the ducks actually were very clean and smooth feathered, even the muscovies.
But.. the flies....... it was truly unbelievable how the fly numbers skyrocketed while the ducks were here. Get this, they were completely free range on an acre so it was not a case of overcrowding(at most had 10 ducks and 6 geese, usually it was half this), filth etc When a bobcat jumped the fence and killed all of them in a single night.. the fly population disappeared within a week.
Another more serious reason not to keep ducks- is if you have other animals, especially pigs. Many flu strainsare a result of various flu(waterfowl, pig, and human) infecting a pig and recombining genes that then have the potential to infect people.
Ducks can make very wet areas, which may not be good for other poultry or gamebirds, especially if cocci, black head etc are present..
Water definitely got dirty quick however I found a way to handle it- make a SMALL pond, enough for my ducks and just deep enough for them to be able to float and had 2" drain pipe installed at the lowest point (pond was a very simple cone shape) to make draining(big pipes is best for the feathers- do NOT use pipe smaller than 2". Trust me.). The reason for making pond smaller rather than bigger was to make the frequent water changes more handleable. It also had the added bonus of the ducks bathing more frequently(fresh water triggers a huge bathing frenzy) so in the end the ducks actually were very clean and smooth feathered, even the muscovies.
But.. the flies....... it was truly unbelievable how the fly numbers skyrocketed while the ducks were here. Get this, they were completely free range on an acre so it was not a case of overcrowding(at most had 10 ducks and 6 geese, usually it was half this), filth etc When a bobcat jumped the fence and killed all of them in a single night.. the fly population disappeared within a week.
Another more serious reason not to keep ducks- is if you have other animals, especially pigs. Many flu strainsare a result of various flu(waterfowl, pig, and human) infecting a pig and recombining genes that then have the potential to infect people.
Ducks can make very wet areas, which may not be good for other poultry or gamebirds, especially if cocci, black head etc are present..
