What should a chicken keeper know about ducks?

[MaeM]

Hi! I've always been a chicken keeper, but I've had a very bad experience with my last flock in terms of health, and I'm just not sure if I want to keep having chickens in the near future.

By the end of the year, I will be moving with my boyfriend, and he wants to have ducks in our new home. I know the basics about ducks, I know that they're messy, that they don't roost, that they need water to swim (my bf is willing to build a pond for them), etc. And I like that they're apparently more resistant to disease than chickens.

But I have a few questions:

- How prone are female ducks to reproductive issues?
- If they do get sick, are they harder, easier, or same to treat as chickens? e.g., I can give oral or intramuscular medication to a chicken pretty easily, could I do that with a duck, too? Is their anatomy more difficult or something?
- Could we only have drakes? We would like to start with a smaller flock (3 ducks), but I know that 2:1 is not an excellent ratio. So what if they were all male? Could it work?
- Could they be as affectionate as chickens usually are when you raise them as pets?
- Are they noisier than chickens? I don't mind the noise, but perhaps my new neighbors will.
- Any breed you'd recommend? I like Pekins but my bf may prefer Rouens, could we have both?
- What general advice would you give to a person who's always had chickens and wants to try ducks?

Thank you in advance!

 

[HonkABC]

I can't answer all the questions, but, as having had ducks before, I can say that some can be more affectionate than chickens. How noisy they are depends on the duck. Females have a loud quack, but they don't really quack a lot. Male ducks and Muscovy ducks don't quack, and they are quiet. I would consider ducks to be much quieter than chickens. You can have a mixed flock of duck breeds. An all male flock would probably work. Hope this helps!

 

[deer trail duck farms]

- How prone are female ducks to reproductive issues?
not very prone ducks are very very hardy
- If they do get sick, are they harder, easier, or same to treat as chickens? e.g., I can give oral or intramuscular medication to a chicken pretty easily, could I do that with a duck, too? Is their anatomy more difficult or something?
yes you can treat like a chicken for the most part

- Could we only have drakes? We would like to start with a smaller flock (3 ducks), but I know that 2:1 is not an excellent ratio. So what if they were all male? Could it work?
two hens to on drake would be okay most likely. might have to watch for over breeding but ive done this with success.

- Could they be as affectionate as chickens usually are when you raise them as pets?
this is controversial. and depends on how you look at it. i have raised 95% of my ducks straight from hatching. do they want to be picked up and pet. no. will they be mean if you do. no. now just like ppl every duck has there own personality. given enough time and effort. you might get lucky to have a duck that will like the affection.
- Are they noisier than chickens? I don't mind the noise, but perhaps my new neighbors will.
hens are loud and can be very loud. having only 2 or 3 wouldnt be a deal breaker in town but like me who has 25 at one point i had 50 there is no way if i had neighbors close that i could do that. drakes are quiet though
- Any breed you'd recommend? I like Pekins but my bf may prefer Rouens, could we have both?
both are good choices. really comes down to what you want from them. are you going to eat them? or is it for eggs. or just pets. personally my favorite duck is a ancona. very mild temperment they are relatively quiet compared to other breeds and excellent egg layers.

- What general advice would you give to a person who's always had chickens and wants to try ducks?

be ready to have water at all times. the mud sucks the way they give you the side eye might make you go crazy...

 

[KathiQuacks]

I would say not prone to reproductive issues. I’ve not had issue or heard too much of others having issue.

I’d imagine you could treat similarly to chickens? Definitely can give medication orally. But you’re right in what you’ve read, that they are very resistant to disease (and parasites).

All-male can work, but you should have a separation plan just in case. 1:2 would require a very calm drake to work, else it’d also need a separation plan. I personally recommend a 1:4 or 1:5. All-female is great, if you are able.

I do not recommend striving for “affectionate” ducks. Most ducks do not like being touched or approached. If you give them too much attention, they will “like it” because they see you as a mate. This can make them sexually aggressive with you & stress them out when you leave.
You can get them genuinely affectionate, it’s just not the same as other animals. My ducks love me - they follow me everywhere, call out to me, hand-feed, etc., but they still do not enjoy being touched or approached too closely.

Hens can get up there in noise level. They have a belly-laugh quack they do occasionally. Drakes, however, are very quiet. They only have a low, raspy quack.

You could certainly do both Pekins and Rouens. I agree it depends on what you want from these ducks. There’s a lot of breeds with different colorations, purposes, and temperaments.

There are 2 common waterfowl-specific health-issues I think everyone should know about.
One is angel wing, which can occur in ducklings. It’s where 1 or both wings stick out as they grow in. It’s easy to treat young, but becomes permanent in adults.
The other is a niacin deficiency. Niacin is a very important vitamin to ducks. A deficiency of this will most notably give them weak & bowed legs. It can also affect them neurologically & growth-wise. Most duck, waterfowl, and all-flock feeds have enough niacin, but some ducks will need additional niacin if they’re a large breed, or if there’s a pre-existing issue.

 

[CoriM]

I have an all female flock of ducks and I adore them. They are completely calm around me and approach me whenever I go out to see them - well, they love to get treats and also see me as their way to get out of their run. If you're only getting three I would get all male or all female. I hand-raised mine in my kitchen and I think they are the most awesome pets. They trust me completely because I spend so much time taking care of them. About half of them don't mind petting and the other half don't like it and I respect that, but they approach me easily for treats and feel comfortable. I respect their various personalities. They are loud, as they are female, and they need lots of time in the yard, getting exercise, lots of water fun and swimming, so you need to provide that. They dirty their water immediately, so needs changing multiple times a day. You need to be committed to a yard that is not fertilized or have weed-killer added, so that it's safe for them to graze. I love my ducks so much, but they are a lot of work, so just make sure you're willing to commit.

 

[MaeM]

I have an all female flock of ducks and I adore them. They are completely calm around me and approach me whenever I go out to see them - well, they love to get treats and also see me as their way to get out of their run. If you're only getting three I would get all male or all female. I hand-raised mine in my kitchen and I think they are the most awesome pets. They trust me completely because I spend so much time taking care of them. About half of them don't mind petting and the other half don't like it and I respect that, but they approach me easily for treats and feel comfortable. I respect their various personalities. They are loud, as they are female, and they need lots of time in the yard, getting exercise, lots of water fun and swimming, so you need to provide that. They dirty their water immediately, so needs changing multiple times a day. You need to be committed to a yard that is not fertilized or have weed-killer added, so that it's safe for them to graze. I love my ducks so much, but they are a lot of work, so just make sure you're willing to commit.

Isn't really any way to keep their drinking water clean? With chickens, I've used hanging waterers, isn't there something similar for ducks?

However, if I want to build a pond for them - wouldn't they just drink the water in the pond? My bf wants to put a pump in it to keep water flowing and "clean", but it won't be crystal-clean. Would ducks prefer the dirty water of the pond instead of the clean water in the waterer?

 

[CoriM]

Ducks drink water they swim in and poop in, you just need to clean it often. My ducks also have several buckets filled with water - you can't really use the hanging ones because they need to be able to fully dunk their heads in the water. I'm just saying, you'll need to change out the buckets a few times a day likely, and they will also splash it around and make things messy. It's just how they are - you can't keep them tidy, that's not their nature!

 

[atomic]

I had ducks when I lived in the Carolina mountains and had a fresh running creek in my yard. Without that, I would never have ducks. They are VERY messy, you think chickens poop a lot? Hah. They are very hands off even ones I hatched would freak out if you ever had to pick them up for any reason, but they will typically hang out with you in the yard. They are the best pest control, I never saw any kind of nasty bug snake or even frogs. The eggs are delicious. The females are much louder than the males but even then I wouldn’t say it’s obnoxiously so, definitely not on a rooster level. I would definitely wait til you get your pond going before acquiring any ducks, as a water source is so important for them.

I had a couple pekins and they were nice, my rouens weren’t my favorite. If I could do it again I’d have all magpies, my two girls were the sweetest ever.

 

[CoopBoots]

As a chicken keeper, here's some surprising stuff I've learned about ducks here that are important to whether or not I'd get any in future. They may not all be relevant or important to your situation, though, so take my input with a grain of salt!

1. Drakes have, um, totally different private equipment than roosters. And so may need specialized medical attention if somethings goes wrong with said equipment. Unlikely but still a totally unique issue I wouldn't currently be prepared for.

2. Because of item one, you have to be careful if they are kept around other poulty as their equipment can do harm or kill birds not adapted for it. Yes they sometimes might try to mate outside of their kind depending on the bird or what is available to them. (Chickens do this too but it isn't physically dangerous outside of the usual physical roughness involved)

3. They seem more difficult to sex and accordingly to keep in ideal sex ratios if you get them as ducklings, but I could be wrong here. Hatcheries might be really good at sexing them and I just only see people buying out of bins and getting unlucky...

4. Sexual aggression/attention towards humans seems common and might result in biting or harassment during mating season if they are fully human imprinted, or lacking in enough flockmates to satisfy them. I don't experience this hardly at all with my chickens.

5. Drakes like to mate in water, and accidental drownings can occur. I'm not an expert on water depth/types for ducks and this probably isn't a common thing, but it surprised me to learn and is something I would research if I were planning on getting some.

6. I know chickens injure their beaks on occasion, but duck bills seem more susceptible to catching on wire / getting stuck in holes. I'd be checking for these and probably have to update a little fencing (even though it works OK for my chickens).