I'm a first time duck owner and I have 5 Swedish. They're all relatively young and not laying yet. I've noticed that lately when I head down to the chicken pens, wild ducks come flying out of the pond my ducks are in. My ducks seem fine but I just wonder if this isn't good? There were about 15 of them last night. They're not bothering me and we only feed my ducks once a day and only as much as they can consume within 30 minutes or so so they're not eating up all the food. I just wonder if this is safe? I'm guessing that my ducks will eventually be larger than these little wild ducks.
Wild ducks do carry parasites and diseases that may affect your ducks and your ducks also may have carry something that might affect the wild ducks. However, many people have "adopted" wild ducks into their domestic flocks without any problem. I am figuring that you may want to put your ducks on a regular worming and de-miting schedule in the very least. I'm not sure how the size difference is going to play out. But, most wild ducks can fly away from your domestics. My only concern is the domestic ducks breeding with the wild ducks and creating hybrids that can't fly or escape from predators.
If you have a pond it would be very hard to keep wild ducks from visiting it, Like DD said just keep you ducks on a regular parasite schedule. most likely they are just passing through. How wonderful to be able to see it.
