Ducks for a 1 Acre Suburbia

[spikes2020]

I am building a new house on a 1 acre property in a neighborhood. Each lot is either 2/3 acre to 1 acre. Mine backs up to a 78 acre city passive park.

My main reason for getting ducks is for pest control. I took one lap around my house and in less than 10 min i had over 6 ticks. I will eat eggs but i'm not looking for one every day. I will eat duck, but i'd rather have them alive and eating bugs.

I am trying to decide on the type of duck an any concerns that you all might have. My other concern is that my neighbor has a pool and ducks really like water.

This is my property, heavily wooded and a steep hill, almost no flat ground. I will be building a 5-6' tall chain-link fence around the entire property to keep deer and foxes out of my yard and hopefully the ducks inside.

I am looking for what type of animal would be best to keep my woods bug free. With as little noise, smell and work.

All my research pointed to Muscovy ducks but i just wanted to see if any other ideas pop out


Thanks!

PS i also have a lot of vines and kudzu so i was also looking at 1 to 2 goats just to clean up the ground area.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

I am building a new house on a 1 acre property in a neighborhood. Each lot is either 2/3 acre to 1 acre. Mine backs up to a 78 acre city passive park.

My main reason for getting ducks is for pest control. I took one lap around my house and in less than 10 min i had over 6 ticks. I will eat eggs but i'm not looking for one every day. I will eat duck, but i'd rather have them alive and eating bugs.

I am trying to decide on the type of duck an any concerns that you all might have. My other concern is that my neighbor has a pool and ducks really like water.

This is my property, heavily wooded and a steep hill, almost no flat ground. I will be building a 5-6' tall chain-link fence around the entire property to keep deer and foxes out of my yard and hopefully the ducks inside.

I am looking for what type of animal would be best to keep my woods bug free. With as little noise, smell and work.

All my research pointed to Muscovy ducks but i just wanted to see if any other ideas pop out


Thanks!

PS i also have a lot of vines and kudzu so i was also looking at 1 to 2 goats just to clean up the ground area.

I personally would go for Pekin because they’re enormous and far too large for a raptor to carry off. A raptor would need to eat one on site because a Pekin is far larger than a red tail hawk or owl, and far too heavy for even the largest eagle to carry off. Physically a 2.5 lb red tail, or 6.5-14 lb eagle is not capable of carrying off an 8-11 lb duck, it’s just not possible to get very far or create enough lift to get over our 8 ft fence.

I have eagles, owl, and red tail that nest on my property. I wake to red tail screaming a good portion of the year. They circled when we first moved our birds outside, then gave up quite quickly thereafter knowing it just wasn’t possible. They stay away from my birds because the bird enclosure is so close to the house, and during the day there are too many people out and about and visible for them to chance coming close. At night the birds are in their shelter and out of view. They even leave the wild mallard in my wetland alone preferring the rabbit, and other small mammals instead.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Muscovy are quiet but they do fly unless they get a wing clipped every fall after molt. But they do love bugs. Mine eat lots of bugs.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

did not know people use ducks for tick control? heard of guinea fowl for ticks and ducks/geese for weeds and slugs etc..

if so i may need to add more ducks to my flock for tick control lol.

 

[CayugaJana]

I would agree. Muscovys is probably the way to go.

 

[spikes2020]

l my research pointed to Muscovy ducks but i just wanted to see if any other ideas pop out

Muscovy are quiet but they do fly unless they get a wing clipped every fall after molt. But they do love bugs. Mine eat lots of bugs.

Muscovy look great and the only 2 things are, they fly and lay a lot of eggs.
Pros, They don't need a lot of water, they eat a lot of bugs, they are large and harty birds.

Flying, i can prevent by either clipping their wings or if i fatten them up enough the males wont get far or high. I'm just afraid that they'd all end up in my neighbor's pool.

Eggs, i don't know, i'd hate to have so many that i cant find them all and then i get other animals coming for the eggs, or they start to stink up the place.


Edit;

I really liked guinea fowl, until i read how much noise they make. With my neighbor only 100ft away, not sure if he'd like that so much... Maybe i could rip out their vocal cords.... JKing....

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

It almost sounds like a pair of geese would be most ideal (quieter than most ducks, not prolific layers, not an easy snack) but they aren’t big bug eaters.

They’d mow your lawn well though!

 

[spikes2020]

It almost sounds like a pair of geese would be most ideal (quieter than most ducks, not prolific layers, not an easy snack) but they aren’t big bug eaters.

They’d mow your lawn well though!

Hey i am open to any ideas, but my main reason for them is for bug eating.

Well i don't have much of a lawn, my entire plot is covered in trees and bush. I don't like the idea of mowing so i'm not looking for any grass... I have about 2-3 inches of dead leaves then about 1-2 feet of top soil all on top of Tennessee stony clay.

The entire lot is at about 20-30 degree slope up and raises over 100' from the front of my property to the back.

 

[TSOWOATNKC]

Chickens love ticks. You could put an ad on Craigslist asking for spent hens. Few to no eggs, tick control too.

 

[spikes2020]

Chickens love ticks. You could put an ad on Craigslist for spent hens. Few to no eggs, tick control too.

Now that's an idea!

Is there any type of chickens that do best or eat more bugs than the others?

I really didn't look at chickens because i'd thought they would tear up my yard, but i guess without grass it wont matter too much. Or that chickens would get easily eaten by something, and that ducks were bigger and could put up a little more of a fight.