Ducks in the garden

[HomesteadDucks]

Hello,
Next year I plan to fence off a section of my garden to keep ducks in. Hopefully they will keep the insect population controlled. I want to know which plants my ducks will devour and which ones they will leave alone. This will help me determine how to lay out my garden so that I can put them with plants they won't eat. Here is a list of plants I will be growing.

Popping Corn
Mustard
Oats
Spring Wheat
Barley
Rye
Sunflower (for seed)
Buckwheat (cover crop)
Potato
Sweet Potato
Onion/Shallot
Garlic
Soybeans
Dry Beans
Snap Peas
Cucumber
Eggplant
Ground Cherry
Watermelon
Other Melon variety
Pepper
Celery
Broccoli
Tomato
Pumpkin
Zucchini
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Bread Seed Poppy
Echinacea

If you can, please list off which plants they will NOT eat if I were to fence them in with it.
Thank You,
Homestead Ducks

 

[nive]

In my experience they'll eat everything, the only thing that's survived in my garden is a couple of pine trees and a butterfly bush (and that was fenced off) and mature pumpkin plants (they ate the young pumpkin plants)

 

[needlessjunk]

Some of those plants like peas and tomoato and such they should not be allowed to eat. My experience is that they will eat everything especially when they are small plants.

 

[HomesteadDucks]

I won't let them into the garden until the plants are mature. Also, my garden is very large (2000 square ft or more). I'm hoping that they will go after the bugs and leave the plants. I plan on putting them in with the corn, potatoes, sunflowers, and any other plants that they would leave alone. Will they really eat everything off of that list, even in a large garden?

 

[Amiga]

From what I have seen, timing makes the difference.

I walk the ducks through garden areas and monitor them. They do go after critters first. But they can be clumsy and step on plants. I aim to let them spend more time in gardens preplanting and post-harvest. But there are golden times when the ducks do more good than harm.

Mine have their own garden areas - with kiwi, grape vine, etc. And then they can visit tender gardens less often.

 

[HomesteadDucks]

Do they dig? I have a huge cutworm problem in early spring. I think the cutworms eat more than my ducks do. Will the ducks eat cutworms underground? I could put them out there before planting if they do.

 

[Amiga]

My runners fluff the soil an inch or two down, eating things they find at that level, including slug eggs, I reckon.

 

[lilmiz]

I have 2 Jumbo Pekins and 3 Rouen ducks, I just got them in March I free range them and my chickens during the day. I can see my whole garden and when my ducks are in there Ive only seen them dig under the dirt and eat bugs, They have stepped on a plant here or there and this is the first year my potatoes aren't covered in potatoes bugs.

 

[quackingdom]

In my experience, which plants ducks eat depends mainly on their personal likes and dislikes. Some picky ducks may only eat a few of those plants. Others will gobble up everything. I haven't tested most of your plants with my ducks, but mine will eat some of those. Pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, watermelons, and any other melon are some of their favorites – they go wild for leaves, stems, fruit, seeds, almost any part of the plant. They don't eat tomato leaves, but sometimes they'll eat the fruit. They will eat peppers. They won't touch onions, garlic, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. My ducks have never seen buckwheat, but I've read that other people's ducks and chickens love it. They will eat the actual oats and wheat, but I don't know about the plant and leaves.

Your ducks may have a completely different list of likes/dislikes. It's something you'll probably have to experiment with.

As far as digging, if my ducks (which are Muscovies) sense a worm underground, they'll dig to get it. I assume they will probably dig for cutworms, too.

 

[HomesteadDucks]

I've heard that onion and garlic plants are toxic to ducks. Will the ducks try to eat one if they have a chance or will they steer clear no matter what? Basically, do the ducks know that it's bad for them to eat onions or garlic?