Mallard

Last year in 2023 I found a baby mallard, all alone in a Kroger parking lot, surrounded by cars and no mom or nest, let alone a pond or water source to be found. Brought her home and named her Daisy. Had 2 broody hens with 10 chicks at the time, tried to put Daisy with them, but broody hens rejected her. Daisy imprinted on me very fast, following me all around. She tended to chase the chickens around. I felt bad because whenever we went inside she would wait at the door, waiting for sometimes a few hours until we could come outside. She was very friendly and cute and loved to cuddle as a baby. Went missing several times, and she eventually turned up every time except that last time. One night I went in my house to have dinner, came back 15 minutes later, and she was gone. Nowhere to be found, I looked everywhere. I didn't hear any squacking, quaking, and didn't find any feathers or blood anywhere. It still remains a mystery..... Otherwise, I would recommend taking a mallard in if you find a missing duckling, because usually in the Spring time rehab centers are overrun with animals and can't take any more in. I would call just in case, though.

Every duck is different, but in my experience mallards are very friendly, smart birds - they quickly learn their name and any other words related to food and will promptly run to you when you call them. Not too vocal. Don't shy away from being picked up if they trust you.

Mallard drakes love to boss around other birds, which can be pretty funny, considering they're often the smallest ones in the flock. They're also kind of territorial: it's their yard, their human, their pool, etc. As you can tell they don't make friends easily with new birds, but if you raise them together as ducklings, they're chill. Out of all the duck breeds I've met, they are most like dogs.

We got our first mallard 4 years ago. Found him while fishing the day after a terrible storm at about 2 days old. There were no ducks or nests anywhere. Ended up taking him home and raising him with our goslings. When he grew up and tried mating with one of the geese we decided it was time to get him some friends. Got 2 mallard ducks, 2 magpies, 2 Saxony, 2 crested, and a Campbell. They are our "Duck Dynasty" and Quack Miller, the first mallard, rules over them all. Even the Saxon ducks and geese! We keep them in the duck pen till mid morning to ensure everyone lays their eggs in there making it easier on us to retrieve them. We've never had health issues or had any of them fly off. Coyotes have been our only problem as with any other of our birds. They are no more "messy" than any other water bird and as long as coop maintenance is kept up they stay clean and happy.

I got 4 mallard ducklings from TSC. The first week or so they were pretty tame and fun to have around. I found an old Kiddie Pool in my garage and set it up for them. They'd swim around and dive under water. Once they hit about 2 weeks old they just hated us. We'd set them in their kiddie pool and sit in lawn chairs probably 6 feet away from them and they would choose to run and hide in the bushes rather then have fun and take the rare opportunity to swim. Their brooder was always messy. I'd replace the shavings and 3 hours later the ground would be a concrete layer of poop mud and shavings. If you're planning on raising them in a cardboard box, think again. The bottom with rot out of that thing in no time flat. I got tired of taking care of something that hated me unconditionally, so once they were old enough I let them go at a pond full of other mallards. My father raised a mallard from an abandoned nest he found when he was a kid. It imprinted on him and never left his side, even as an adult. He'd throw it into the air and it would fly for hundreds of feet and then land down next to him. I would give them a five star if that was my experience. I think in order to have a tame mallard, you need to hatch them from eggs. I will try Mallards again, once I find somewhere to buy hatching eggs.

I have kept mallards for a few years now, they are very nice ducks to have around the farm. If you want to keep them as pets you should clip there wings. If you are keeping them as Show birds you should keep them in a secure area and handle them regularly.
Mallards come in multiple varieties such as natural, white and bibbed. Natural are the easiest to keep clean, and white are the hardest to keep clean. This is my review for mallard ducks.


Some of my newest mallards:

I literally have nothing nice to say about this breed. Our 3 originals (a drake and 2 hens) nearly ruined the entire duck experience for me. Then they went on to hatch a brood of 4, which only meant carbon copies of their disgraceful parents. One hen in particular brutalized our poor, innocent flock of chickens to the point where they got fed up and nearly killed her out of self-defense. While the other hen wasn't as confrontational overall, once a mother, she transformed into a MONSTER. If I even bent down to refill her waterer, she would rush and attack my legs - by FAR more painful and harder to fend off than any of the 27 roosters I've had. She left me bruised and bleeding on several occasions. That was without attempting to touch her babies. Sadly, a speeding car killed 4 out of our 5 drakes (all 4 ducklings turned out to be boys) as they crossed our road, leaving us with just the hens and one of the sons. The remaining 3 have since then been rehomed.

~Alex

Some of our mallards.

I have had my mallard for 4 months now and I really enjoy him, he is very smart and is also very skittish to me, likes to play in water!

I've had mallards for a while now but my most extravagant one is my little dusk rose. She is a pure black mallard but with age she's getting a little bit of white on her chest . She's a nice duck to have, looks beautiful on the pond and always seems to run the flock. Since she is a free ranging duck she hides her nests from predators well at night just a pain to have to go find the eggs when she wont lay in the coop. She hatches some babies ever year but they never make it despite all my efforts to take the babies from her its kinda hard since she worked so hard to hatch them . I've hatched one egg from her but it didn't live very long died within the same day of hatch , for reason is rather not say .
my little Dusk Rose ( dusky )
Her baby

The same year after an unsuccessful hatch from her I went to collect some more eggs from one of our mallards nest . I collected 6 , 4 where fertile but these 4 just so happened to be from her. Both offspring were the normal grey pattern which I was kind of sad about at first but I still love them and I was happy that I did get some successful hatches from dusky. They are very good birds and just a pleasure to have around. If you get this duck breed you will not be disappointed.


delta and dawn all grown up

Update: last summer I collected eggs from dusk's nest again and I had 2 babies hatch one is black just like her. Her name is nixie and she is just an extravagant duck full of personality. The second offspring to hatch was a normal grey mallard patterned female, I named spunky, and she is also very lovely she was born with walking problems and her leg never developed properly so she is crippled now but I have done my best to make life as easy for her as possible.


My other mallards also produced one offspring last year his name is Ricky and he gets along great with his cousins nixie and spunky.

My brother wanted ducks so he purchased a week old mallard pair from the feed store. Being a week old they were skittish and frightened at first. We didn't handle them often and put them in the coop with the pullets after they got too big for the brooder. They grew really fast.
Though the pullets where larger than the ducks they were afraid of them as they had never seen ducks before. After a while they became indifferent to the ducks existence. The ducks would pull on the tails of the pullets if the pullets came too close to their water bath and bowl and food. It wasn't anything serious and the pullets were more annoyed than frightened or in pain. They grew really fast and didn't run from us. The mallards would walk a couple of paces away but they were not afraid and wouldn't run. Mallards are known for being skittish and untame but I was pleased that my ducks were semi-tame with minimal handling. They did not enjoy being held but would come to our hands for treats. They loved to eat baby feeder goldfish as a treat. we would sit beside them and stroke them as they chased after the fish and eat them. They would even eat the fish out of our hands and would go towards our hands if they couldn't catch the fish, They were trying to tell us to catch them for them. The ducks were much smarter than my hens. When the guineas would sound the alarm when they saw a hawk the ducks would fly for cover, whereas the hens would just freeze and stare into the sky. They never flew away. They would fly lapse around my yard but never flew away. They are not noisy compared to other ducks I have kept. Their loudest noise was a cackle the female would occasional do and was nothing compared to the chickens egg song.
The female layed beautiful pale green eggs. She layed about 5 times a week. They were larger than the chicken eggs but small for a duck. I will mention again, Mallards are bantam ducks. The female immediately went broody after laying enough eggs. If the hens layed eggs in her nest she would roll them out. She was a dedicated setter and mother.

Now for their cons:

The ducks would see the garden hose left on, on my lawn and waddle over. They loved the clear, crisp, fresh water and would drink it up. They would also tear up and an uproot the grass that was wet. They created muddy pot holes. My lawn looked terrible.
They are Semi-Tame. The reason my brother brought home mallards was because they were small and also because a family friend had raised a single male mallard who was so so tame. My brother expected that he would handle them enough to have them be equally tame but we did not so they werent. These are not the type of ducks you would want as a friendly pet. That would be a pekin or muscovy.


Aside from that these are wonderful little ducks to add to any pond. Easy to care for, good layers and setters, and smart.
I would love to have the privilege of having them again.

If you want a duck that is not for a family, not to hold and cuddle. This duck is great! Our mallard is a good duck, but very scared of humans. He is fun to watch, and eats all of the slugs. We do not have a lady duck so I can not tell how many eggs they lay. Our drake will eat out of our hand, but it takes a lot of training to teach him to do it.

We are Muscovy people. Before getting Muscovies we started with some domestic mallards, which were to be free range in the garden. I don't know how many insects they ate, but they ripped up plants like you wouldn't believe, destroyed all the pepper plants, ruined the cauliflower and broccoli, left beak marks and grooves on the zucchini... we sent them back to the farm where they came from. Beautiful to look at, but I wouldn't ever have them again.

Mallard ducks are cute and quiet. They also come up to you like a doggy. The bad thing about them is that they could fly away if they wanted to. They are also dabbling ducks, so they dig holes in your yards. They also lay the smallest and least amount of eggs compared to many other duck breeds. Overall, they bring joy to the backyard!

I can't say I have a ton of experience, but I do have a nine day old Mallard duckling named Pyrrhos(getting her some companions on Friday or Saturday). She is very talkative, but I don't mind the talking very much. In fact, it's pretty refreshing, as my dog is a very quiet animal. I quite enjoy noise, lol. I've heard from a lot of people that Mallards aren't cuddly, but Pyrrhos has been very clingy and cuddly. That may change once she's out and free ranging, though. She doesn't follow me around like a lot of people talk about, but she does hate to be alone, and will definitely pitch a fit if I leave the room(even if my partner is with her). She is MESSY! But I think that's to be expected with all ducks. I probably wash her bed stuff once a day, and whenever she has companions, that will probably turn into two or three times a day(not that I mind, though). One thing I'm really not looking forward to, is her learning how to fly. I would definitely count flying as a con, lol.

Overall, I'm really quite happy with Pyrrhos. Her mates will be Magpies, which I'm hoping will prove just as rewarding.

Malards are sweet.My gran had some pure.I have some cross breeds.Wild ones are on our river.They are cute and soo sweet.But can be flighty or tame

Love mallards, they are lots of fun. The only breed I've ever owned but I've loved all of them I've had

I love love love her!!! She's sooo sweet!!

We originally picked up a pair of Mallards for my daughter to use for 4-H. We got them from Tractor Supply during chick days. They are very loud as babies but as they grow they get quiter. Now the oldest pair is 5 weeks old and I rarely hear them quack. They get along great with our Pekin and chickens, and like to lay in the sun. My husband enjoyed watching my daughters pair so much he went out and picked up 5 more. His little flock is now almost 3 weeks old. They are just adorable. The follow the other ducks in a line and love love love the water. I personally prefer the larger breed ducks like the Pekin and Rouen but if you ask my daughter and husband they would have no other duck than the Mallard. They are not very social, so they are hard to catch, but that is to be expected from a duck with wild instincts.

My favorite duck. I have had these guys, depending on the time spent with them, either being very bonded with me, or not so much. I have one that is really a great funny friend and follows me around like puppy. They are lightweight if you need to tend or pick them up, but if you plan to eat them, they have a more wild taste and not as much meat. I have heard they aren't great layers, but I found with two hens we had eggs just about everyday all summer. They don't seem to lay much in the darker months. They are very chatty ducks. I have different breeds, and these guys are always the loudest (and they are my smallest ones).