Why do you have ducks?

[pekinduck<3er]

I have cayugas!! there beautiful and used for egg production meat and ornamental purposes!!!!!! look up! and a great pet!!!!!!!!!

 

[koakritters]

I got my ducky 6 years ago day as a class project in ecology.

A Black Swedish, got him when he was 2 days old and here we are 6 years later! LOL. He loves me, but anyone else who walks through the yard is only there for him to bite at their ankles. And he harasses my mini Australian Shepherd too. He's king around her.

 

[Pro_Gymnast32]

We got our first duck because we saw ducklings at the feed store, and thouht we really needed one! We didn't have any other poultry or waterfowl, just basic animals like a dog, cats, bunny, fish guinea pigs, hermit crabs... ya know regular pets. So we got out first duck, Daisy, she was so personable, sadly we learned the hardway about the predators. She was in the garage her second night being out there, and we didn't close the door. The raccoons got her, and the garage turned into a murder seen. I haven't seen anything so awful. Two weeks later because my dad was very upset we got him two more Indian runner ducklings, Didi and Dottey. They each had such personalities! Didi was the sassiest little thing and she was stunted in growth so she was smaller, but she ruled the yard! Dottey was loveable, and was suppose to be mine. She obeyed Didi

, and eventually became my dads duck. The following summer we got a black indian runner..... because of course we needed a black one! We got them in 2004 and they both passed this past fall of unknown reasons. (Both died of different causes) Dolly now wanders the yard quacking for her sisters, it is the saddest thing you have ever seen!

The ducks led us into chickens, and truthfully ducks or more personable, but are so much messier and stinkier than chickens. We now have 5 chickens, who are great egg layers..... except when you can't find their nests.

Pros of ducks: personable
loveable
companionable

Cons of ducks: messy
stinky
loud
take a lot of water (pool, and cleaning is hard)
Taste of duck eggs is little different than chicken eggs

Though I love and loved my ducks, I personally prefer chickens. Ducks were a great expierence and though I have considered getting Dolly another companion, the pain of losing one after being attached for so long is really hard. Ducks make a mess! All the water, they like "dig" with their beaks and make holes, their pools are hard to clean, they are loud, and they eat all your plants and flowers! They do make great pest control and yard guards though! I wish Didi, and Dottey were still here with me and with Dolly, but they aren't and it is hard to see a sad little duck wandering the yard.

Here is a picture of Didi and Dottey, so it's not the best, I'm not on my computer.

and here is a picture of Didi and Dolly after Dottey passed

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Quote:

desertskynm it doesn't have to be that bad when you live in an arid climate like New Mexico or Colorado. The ducks just don't get the opportunity to dig things up like that because the soil is so dry. My ducks spend a lot of time in their large grassy pen when they're not free ranging and it's still green after three years. I have to do some extra supervision of the grass in the spring or whenever it's raining a lot.
I got ducks for the garden help and eggs, and then I fell in love with their funny personalities and how pretty they are.

 

[TLWR]

We had 2 pekins when I was 5 or so. That was 29 years ago.
I flew from Alaska to Alabama to buy our house while DH was deployed. A month later, we both flew down and we checked out the local feed stores to see what dog foods they had. We found chicks and ducklings and stuff (was in March).
While sitting in our hotel one evening, I started researching them and decided I wanted some. I told DH since we were moving to 6 acres in the 'country', I wanted some ducks. I gave him some info and he said if he could get some eggs from them, ok. So I did some breed research and decided on pekins and runners. We decided on runners because we liked their looks, they were smaller, they looked cool, they were good egg layers, they come in neat colors, they looked neat, and well, that's what we decided on.


So we moved me down a month later with the dogs, did some work on the house and DH flew back to AK and on to Attu. I ordered our 3 runners while he was stationed out at Attu and he came home when they were 4 weeks old.

And now that we have them, DH would prefer we didn't.
I love having them. They keep me entertained and I like that more than I dislike their mess and little miss loud mouth (Ally still has a set of lungs that she's not afraid to use, often)

I'd like get 2 more this summer - a black male and a blue female (that is actually blue this time, but I'll take another white one LOL)

 

[TLWR]

Our back 4 acres are fenced for the dogs and this is where the ducks hang out, but they stick to the closer area by the house (and duck out under the fence like the dog taught them and hang out in the front too....)
I see signs that they've been foraging, but we have only 2 small holes (so far LOL). One at the edge of the deck where water goes when I hose their section of the deck and the other where I stole a paver from the ground to keep their duck house door open, so when that gets wet, they dig there too.
But they are all over, so they don't seem to make giant holes... yet.

And rain, when it dumps buckets here, they are in heaven! Water runs in front of the 'duck yard' and they run out there and play in it and even sit in it and float with the current a bit lol


They really are gobs of fun to watch.

 

[duckking]

We had all agreed to get chickens and my then 13yo son wrote an essay on why we should get a couple of ducks as well. How can you say no after that???? Now we have 5 ducks and only 4 chickens - one didn't make it through fuzzybutthood. Now of course we have to even it out so we have to get another chicken, but you can't just buy 1 chicken, you have to get 2 at least. NOW I understand chicken and duck math. We love them all, but the ducks are just the funniest.....

 

[treldib]

Refer to our Sticky about this subject:

101 reasons we love ducks

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

I have 15 ducks, Rouens, Pekins, Muscovies and mixed breeds. I LOVE them, they have a pen seperate for the chickens so messyness isn't an issue. I think the pros of keeping ducks outweigh the cons!

 

[ARose4Heaven]

I have ducks because they were cute in the feed store when I was buying chickens. I thought they would be good to eat.

They are nice to look at...but in my kitchen, they are not edible. I must have done something very wrong in the cooking, but duck meat is tough! The pair of Rouens I have left will probably just end up living out their lives down to the pond until some other critter decides to eat them.