Wife wants ducks. I want to do this right.

[addctd2plnts]

Hey all I’m sure the information is somewhere on this vast forum but I figured I’d ask. We’ve had 12-20 chickens for years so we’re not completely green, but we’ve never had ducks. My wife almost brought 2 home from TSC yesterday and I told her we need to research more first. Any helpful tidbits into integrating the ducks would be great.

I know they need a pool/water source.
Can they be confined to the coop/run/natural area that the 20 chickens are? How do I train them to go into the coop at night? I have an automatic door that opens and closes with the sunrise/set when I add chicks every year I just put them in the coop in the morning show them the food and water and let them find their own space. They’ve always come back to the coop with the rest of the birds by nightfall.

Do ducks fly a lot? Can you clip wings like a chicken or is it largely un necessary?

I’ve heard male ducks can breed/kill chickens. Anyway to get just female ducks like buying pullets?


How do you feed them can they eat 16% chick layer food or is it mandatory to switch to an all flock?


Anyway if anyone started with chickens and added ducks I’ll take any helpful tidbits. Thanks in advance

I know people do it but I would strongly advise to keep ducks and chickens separate in confined quarters.

The biggest tip I have for you is that ducks can be easy IF you use a portable walk in run and move it every day. They make a horrific mess if left in a confined area and because it's wet it stinks and draws a lot of flies. If you use the movable pen, you avoid all these problems. You simply dump the kiddie pool at the end of the day, and move the pen the next morning. The pens come as a kit and you need to discard the chicken wire and cheap zip ties and use stainless steel zip ties and 1/2" hardware cloth on all sides and top. If you put the tarp over the top you need to remove it when there might be a storm because they go airborn easier than you think.

I think the reason many people who have chickens dislike ducks is because they require a different infrastructure and when they try to treat a duck like a chicken it is a horrific mess. If you approach it thinking it's a different animal, with distinct needs, it's not an issue. I also think that duck coops should be much larger than most people initially use because then they stay much cleaner and aren't so labor intensive. I have to clean horse stalls daily anyway so it doesn't bother me as much. Mine have 12x12 pens in the barn. If mine stay inside in the winter, I put horse bedding pellets under the 5 gallon water bucket in that 4x4' area and remove that every day or every other day. It's easy. With 24 ducks I can go all winter just topping off the shavings. In Feb I start pulling the shavings forward under the water bucket and there's very little left by the time we do a total pen change in April.

This is a good resource for first time duck owners and an easy read with lots of photos: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501043803/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Knobby]

If you get one of those plastic pond/ liners, please really think about how you can completely drain it.
If you are on a slope and can add a majorly large drain pump that won’t die from the sludge, go that route. If you can afford an also large transfer pump that can handle the sludge, that can also work.
I stick w the kiddie / dog pools, 3’ max, so I can dump them, hose the sludge out, and refill every other day.
Ducks are wonderful. We love them. And they make SUCH a mess esp of their pool!

Thank you for the recommendation. I purchased a large kiddie pool and filled it up with fresh water, only to find it full of sludge the next day. Ducks are indeed much more messier than my chickens, but they are adorable.

 

[addctd2plnts]

Thank you for the recommendation. I purchased a large kiddie pool and filled it up with fresh water, only to find it full of sludge the next day. Ducks are indeed much more messier than my chickens, but they are adorable.

In the heat Botulism bacteria grows rapidly. Although the kiddie pool gets dirty, it's easy to empty and refill. Any time the it is hotter than about 93 degrees here, we empty the pools mid day and refill to prevent Botulism. Ducks are real work, there's no doubt, but they bring so much joy that I believe it's worth the work. See: https://duckdvm.com/condition/botulism

 

[HeritageFan]

Unsupervised pool time for the babies is a no-go. This little Welsh Harlequin hatched for us last August, she was the only egg that hatched in our first try at incubation, so had to put up w being raised w the turkey poults that were the same age until I could find other WH ducks that were similar in age. As a break from the peckers (aka turkeys lol) she got daily supervised (shallow) pool time after about a week...
Her feet were a bit turned in, and the swimming corrected the issue quickly and without further intervention. She is now a healthy and happy member of the rest of our duck flock. I was happy it was such a warm time of the year and could do this for her she started preening herself early and never got “waterlogged” or wet below the surface of her baby down.
But seriously. Look at that face!! Who knew ducks can smile?

 

[HeritageFan]

Thank you for the recommendation. I purchased a large kiddie pool and filled it up with fresh water, only to find it full of sludge the next day. Ducks are indeed much more messier than my chickens, but they are adorable.

I’m not sure where you live, but summer is coming everywhere for most of us!
I second the other post about mid day dump and refill on hot days, both to help curb bacterial growth, and also because the water in smaller pools get HOT in the sunshine!
Some people like to add a shade screen to help give the pool a bit of shade in the hotter parts of the day. Our ducks have a covered “patio” attached to their hutch and they like to nap in the shade during the summer....and in the rainy winter months.
And, as I mentioned before, we always offer two water sources- the pool plus a bucket that is really easy to clean twice a day- so they have an option if we are out for a day that is warm and can’t do a mid day pool water swap...

 

[Luv Ducks]

Unsupervised pool time for the babies is a no-go. This little Welsh Harlequin hatched for us last August, she was the only egg that hatched in our first try at incubation, so had to put up w being raised w the turkey poults that were the same age until I could find other WH ducks that were similar in age. As a break from the peckers (aka turkeys lol) she got daily supervised (shallow) pool time after about a week...
Her feet were a bit turned in, and the swimming corrected the issue quickly and without further intervention. She is now a healthy and happy member of the rest of our duck flock. I was happy it was such a warm time of the year and could do this for her she started preening herself early and never got “waterlogged” or wet below the surface of her baby down.
But seriously. Look at that face!! Who knew ducks can smile?

Such an absolute cutie pie!!!

 

[Moments]

I’m not sure where you live, but summer is coming everywhere for most of us!
I second the other post about mid day dump and refill on hot days, both to help curb bacterial growth, and also because the water in smaller pools get HOT in the sunshine!
Some people like to add a shade screen to help give the pool a bit of shade in the hotter parts of the day. Our ducks have a covered “patio” attached to their hutch and they like to nap in the shade during the summer....and in the rainy winter months.
And, as I mentioned before, we always offer two water sources- the pool plus a bucket that is really easy to clean twice a day- so they have an option if we are out for a day that is warm and can’t do a mid day pool water swap...

Mine often will choose to drink from the poop pool instead of their clean water sources, doesn't matter how nasty it is. I often have multiple pools filled so they don't get as bad but often they gravitate to a certain pool (pool of the day) so gets gross anyway. I often wonder about them drinking the water but not much I can do. The smaller pools I can dump during the day when I have a moment, the larger ones are harder. I try to do the larger pool daily but sometimes are every other day