What kind of duck would suit me best?

[duckman]

The hawks dont mess with ducks unless they are smaller ducks like call ducks.
They dont mess with my heaver domesticated ducks, and i see them flying over all the time.

I have many cayugas and they are pretty good layers.
Also they can forage pretty well. And they dont get to be dinner for the hawk.

If you have them free range they may lay their eggs anywere so if you see some ducks
missing then dont be to worried because they can be gone then 30 days later come back
with 10 new babbies it has happend to me pleanty of times.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I had thought about the pekins too, I am not a big fan of the big white birds(don't own any white chickens either). I have a White Holland turkey but I don't like him being all white either, for some reason it just screams "eat me" as he is walking over the green grass in the backyard. LOL

I guess I will have to try a large breed assortment. A mixture of the breeds suggested. I know the pond is "ideal" that is why it bugs me that no wild ducks have come to call it home. We had five wild mallards come live here this spring, but they dissapeared one-by-one starting with the males, until I had one lone female who tried to hide among the Canada geese. I haven't seen her in a few month either.

We have turtles pretty bad, I plan to set some live traps and try to lower the population. Would turtles be causing the predation(none or the majority are not snappers). We have fox, but the geese and ducks sleep on our floating dock in the middle of the pond(no way to get to it without swimming).

I thought it was the hawk because I've seen her run-down those mourning doves around and over the pond. That is quite a sight to see because those doves are fast and get away at leat 30% of the time. It's a good chase. I noticed though that when the hawk is trying to "flush" birds from the trees she'll swoop so low to the geese they could reach out and bite her. This is how I came to the conclusion of hawk predation, what do you think? I haven't found any remains and I don't think ducks would fly away one at a time about one a week.

-Kim

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Mallard, Pekin, Rouen, or Australian Spotted

 

[DuckyBoys]

Turtles would definatley be a problem snapping up ducklings from the pond. One thought - why not geese a goose duck combo? I have 4 geese and 5 runners who were brought up together and they don't leave each other's side. The geese protect the runners and the runners get to free range with them. So maybe if you got a goose duck hatchling combo your's would do the same?

Edit to say : you'd have to raise them up together for like 6 weeks before letting them be turned out for good.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
That's a really good idea. I did notice the female mallard that lasted the longest stayed with the Canada geese. She was the last mallard poor thing, I guess she was a bit scared and lonely so she stayed right in the middle of the 5 Canada geese.

It would also give me the excuse for the DH to have domestic geese. LOL. I wanted geese and he said "No, besides you already have 5 geese on the pond"(5 geese in reference to the Wild Canada geese)..

Any suggestions on geese? I wouldn't mind having some to chase away the unwanted fishers. We have people who will actually duck under our horse electric fence and fish from our side of the pond. It freaks me out because it is a lawsuit waiting to happen if they do something stupid and get hurt by the horses. Will geese recognise you as family and still act semi-aggressive toward other people? Do they have that much recognition skills?

-Kim

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

When we had the harlequins we let them free range with nothing bad happening. We had been letting the runners, cayugas, and campbells free range this spring until the neighbors dogs came and got all but 4. Duckyboys has a great idea about the duck and goose combo. Chinese are the most noisy, more agressive, and more pretty than some of the others. You can get brown chinese so they wont stand out as much. When we had roman geese they were nice to the family but honked and stretched their necks to anyone else, the only time they were mean to us was when the hen was setting. Right now we have a pair of brown chinese from Metzers and they already have the long pencil thin neck and make lots of noise. A friend got some brown chinese from Ideal or MM and they look just like africans to me, they have short fat necks, they are HUGE already and they are only a few weeks older than ours. If you get the goose and duck thing pick out any ducks that tickle your fancy since the geese will protect them.

 

[greyhorsewoman]

We just got our first two geese this spring (freebees), two girls, a Toulouse & Brown Chinese. They are both pretty friendly and love to hang out with the horses. The Chinese seems noisier and I like the 'mother goose' look of the Toulouse.

SO .... I have three little goslings in a brooder right now with 3 rouen & 3 pekin ducklings. Also thinking that might help with predator control.

Snapping turtles WILL get ducklings. Sometimes they will even try to take a bite out of an adult duck, but it's rare. We have one on the pond and I'd love to relocate it, but can't figure out how to 'trap' it. Any ideas?

 

[DuckyBoys]

Well I have American Buffs, which do alright with what we have around here for predators (my dogs!) but not really one of the more aggressive breeds. They don't want my giant toulouse to have anything to do with their little family though - they chase the poor things away whenever they get close.

Chinese were my first thought for you also.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I forgot to say about the turtles that even the painted turtles and red ear slider types will snap at ducklings. A friend has a pond and they watched a duckling get pulled under and saw that it was a common pond turtle that had been eating them.

 

[DuckLady]

Snapping turtles do horrible damage to geese and ducks. It is not really rare. I have a friend in OK whose duck had half his face taken off by a snapper and lived. And I could go on.

However, IMO, since you have such a high predator loss, I recommend not to have the domestics that are not able to fly from danger. Get some domestic mallards who will be able to fly and have some chance at survival or make sure you have a predator proof place for them. Otherwise, it doesn't sound like you have an ideal place to have domestic waterfowl.

Ducks do not learn from other ducks. Ducks are prime targets for predation. They depend on their keepers to protect them. For myself, if I was having so many heavy losses, I would not keep that particular animal because it is just not worth their lives to keep repopulating whenever there is a loss. Predators are smart. They know that there will be food for them there.