Duck owners in England (uk)

Little witch said:

Hello all.

I am new to this forum and have 2 white Cambells who are 2 years old today. I got them as 6 day old balls of fluff and have loved them ever since I first held them. We started off with 3 ducklings, the 2 white girls and a khaki boy. Sadly we lost the boy to a fox when they were about 6 months old.

I haven't really came across anyone who keeps ducks in a back garden in the uk and was wondering if there were many form England here.

At them moment I am re doing their housing (which they stay in most of the time at the moment as after the weather battering we have had has made my garden unsecured and we have a big dog next door)

I will post pictures of my set up once I'm done.

Thank you
LW



Little ducklings (Cranky, Belle and jemimer) and 2 year old Belle and Jemimer

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Little witch said:

Thank you Miss Lydia .

Yes I'm torn between letting them roam as they please and making sure they are not going to get hurt so for now it's making more space for them

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Sarah and Joey said:

Hi Little Witch

We're fellow duck keepers in the UK. We're in Lancashire & have a every expanding family of 12 Aylesbury ducks, 10 Silkie chicks, 2 Barnacle geese & fresh out of the incubator this week another 22 Aylesbury ducklings.
You'll love this site, there's always somebody on hand to offer help & advice. Do a search on any problem as theres usually somebody who's previously had the same experience and you can read what advice they were given without having to wait for a reply!!
Quite a newbie to duck keeping myself so always on here searching for hints & tips, which I was doing when I came across your post

Miss Lydia is very helpful, with excellent advice & reassuring words

BTW, huuuge thanks to Miss Lydia and everybody else who helped last year when one of darling ducks had suspected lead poisoning, it was a bit touch & go at one point, but after 2 weeks of sleepless nights & a lot of TLC I'm pleased to report that she's made a full recovery & is back to her old self once more!!

Anyway, try to make their housing as secure as possible. When we started with 6 ducks we put them in what we thought was a secure pen at night but a fox managed to dig its way in one night and I'm afraid we lost 2. So dig down with your fencing at least a foot!! We've also heard of stoats going in pens on a night & killing ducks so we've now put a extra row of chicken wire (small 1cm square) around the bottom half of the pens. Seems like a lot of hassle and expense at the time, but as you'll know it terrible when anything happens to any of them.

We're lucky enough to have a pond on our yard so we can let ours roam free during the day as they soon dive onto the water if they feel scared. You might want to try letting them roam freely when you're about to spend time in the garden with them (I know it's freezing here at the mo.) and then put them back in their pen if you need to go inside or away from them. This is what I do with any new ones for a couple of weeks until they're a bit more aware of dangers and where to go - but be warned once they've had a taste of freedom they can sometimes be a nightmare to get back in their pen, ha ha xx

Best of luck with your new housing and I hope your babies will feel safe in their new home.

xxx

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Miss Lydia said:

So good to see you and to hear the happy news. thank you for excellent advise also on making secure housing.

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