Indian Runner

Since my last post in April bout just starting with runners I have added more now I have total of 16 runners black,blue,chocolate, and fawn and white

Hilarious and cute, as well as excellent pest control and foraging ducks

There are so many great things about runner ducks the cute fun smart but not cuddly. The love to follow you around the yard especially when picking weeds as if the weed taste better when you pick it for them. My Drake is a challenge every spring as soon as the first egg gets laid till I finally give my Duck a pile of fake egg's which gets here to quite laying. He is also the first one to round up my duck and bring here in when a hawk or eagle is around. They have been a part of the family for 3 years now and I am hatching there eggs this year. I also ordered some hatching eggs that are black runner's. Hoping that more girls will tame Drakzilla next spring and black birds will help to keep the hawks at bay

good write up, am in Nigeria, can I get the eggs imported to me?

I love my runners they are a fun duck breed

I have 14 of them.. Black, grey, light grey ,dark grey, black with green and purple tint in them. And what I call a vanilla duck because she looks like vanilla and some light brown and dark chocholate color ones

YESSS

I don't have Runner Ducks, but whenever I see them they sure do quack me up!

Nikosbirds said:

Just curious what your male/ female ratio is? Sometimes if there aren't enough females, that can upset the balance.

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0/12 LOL

I LOVE these precious babies!! the sweetest duckies ever

I am planning on hatching runners in the spring, but have a few questions, if I build them a house,will they lay and sleep in the house, do they need a large pond, Or is just a kitty pool that is buried to ground level fine? and do they need heat lamps in the winter?

Chicken butler said:

I am planning on hatching runners in the spring, but have a few questions, if I build them a house,will they lay and sleep in the house, do they need a large pond, Or is just a kitty pool that is buried to ground level fine? and do they need heat lamps in the winter?

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They will lay wherever they want, they just walk and drop their eggs in the middle of nowhere. They need a plastic tub with water if they are going to mate, because otherwhise the male may break the back of the females. Heat lamps only the ducklings and only if they do not get out.

My runners sleep in a modified chicken tractor that is wrapped in hardware cloth and elevated with 4-by-4 posts so it sets about a foot off the ground. The bottom is lined with an artificial grass rug that protects their feet from the HC and allows some (certainly not ALL) of their spilled water and muck to drain out the bottom.

Mine are happy to mate in either a kiddie pool (mine just sets on the ground and has concrete block "steps" so they can easily walk in and out) or in a very small stock tank. They like steps but hate ramps, so I did away with the cool ramps I'd built.

The runners do fine in the winter without supplemental heat here in Iowa where winters are often frigid and snowy. It's not unusual to open their house and have them bound out to lie in the snow! About half of the shelter is just covered in hardware cloth; the other half has removable poly panels that I attach in winter for some relief from biting winds and blowing snow.

IF I wait long enough in the morning to open their house, I can collect eggs there. But, as the previous poster stated, runners will lay eggs anywhere and everywhere -- and often, very quickly. One minute, there's nothing and seconds late, an egg is lying in the yard. Or, under the shelter. Or, behind prickly rose bushes. Sometimes, it really sounds as if the girls are laughing at me as I try to retrieve their eggs. They may be devious, but they are adorable!

Best wishes with your spring hatch!