Duks vs Chickens

[toowoombapekins]

I've never owned chickens myself (in fact my 2 pekins are the very first poultry I've ever had)
My sister has chickens though. I do find them interesting, but they just don't seem to have the same sort of character traits or novelty factor as ducks.
I first became interested in ducks when I saw them at a pet expo. I was captivated by their comical ways and they always remind me of donald duck lol. They always seem to be doing something stupid, they catch flies mid air, they watch you with a tilted head. When I talk to them, they walk towards me, stretch their necks up, tilt their head and look into my eyes like they are trying to understand what I am saying. Just watching them clumsily waddle along is enough to make me chuckle lol. That was the day I decided I wanted a couple of pet ducks. Chickens look cute when they are chics, but when they grow up they have bits dangling off their heads, kind of look a bit ugly to me (just my opinion of course!). Whereas ducks (Pekins anyway) still look very similar to a duckling - just bigger and make more noise!

Our pekins are now around 13 weeks old and their entertainment value hasn't dwindled. Karen & I still sit for hours on the weekend watching them play, they nibble our feet and legs, follow us around the yard and then we chase them around the yard when we try round them up back into their house lol. They run off with their bills open, making their funny noises like they are laughing at us lol! We want to get angry at them for running away, but they just make us laugh watching them being idiots They fall over everything, and they take off in random directions, zig-zagging all over the yard like they have no idea where they are going. When we finally herd them back into the house, they stand at the door of their house and sound like a couple of old ladies gossiping about us

And despite the fact that they sometimes behave like they are stupid I honestly believe they are fairly intelligent for a bird. Often they will just stand within a few feet of me when I working in the backyard, just watching me. They don't move much, just stand there with their heads tilted, carefully observing what I am doing. They definitely seem to have an awareness of what is going on around them.

Only downside of ducks is the MESS!!...... Karen & I often remind them while cleaning up their huge daily mess, that they are lucky to be cute, because we wouldn't put up with all that mess if they weren't!

 

[nayeli]

I have to say that I think ducks are intelligent. When we first put them outside with their coop there the first day they were easy to catch, but soon they learned where the "corner of death" was (where we could most easily catch them). They also quickly figured out where the safe corner was (where we had a hard time getting to them). I quickly decided I must find a way to train them to go to bed. The next day we took out there food when we let them out, when I came to sit with them they quacked at me waiting for food... then foraged and looked at me, I gave them a treat, that night I filled up their food bowl (dog bowl with two sides) so they had food and water and put it in their cage walked a few ft away sat and waited. A minute or two later the ducks were in there getting locked up.

The next few days when I would be out sitting with them the drake would walk in quack and look at me expecting food... when I brought some food out for a snack in he went (but i feed snacks out). Now every night they know and in they go!