Getting a few ducks, breed suggestions?

[coltgrizzz]

I’m gonna be getting a few ducks this coming April thought i’m not sure what breed to get? They’d be living with my chickens for the most part. I have a pretty big backyard too and my chickens get out everyday to forage. Only slight problem is i have one neighbor on my left that’s pretty close, close enough he can hear the chickens in the morning. Any breed suggestions on ducks that are on the quieter, friendly side? I know Scovies would be the ideal bird for my situation but the only guy in town who bred and sold them went off to college...

 

[Timothy Menezes]

Welshies are my favorite, and Metzers say they are about the calmest breed they have.

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

I would go with khaki cambells they are a smaller quieter and friendlier breed. The6 also lay eggs consistently

 

[Brad Nimbus]

I love them all, lol. At the moment I'm hatching Indian Runners, Cayugas and Welsh Harlequins. The Welshies earned a special place in my heart after rehabbing this lil guy back to good health.

This is just my opinion but a large part of your flocks behaviour depends on you and your personality. Enjoy your new ducks!

 

[Cayuga momma]

I love them all, lol. At the moment I'm hatching Indian Runners, Cayugas and Welsh Harlequins. The Welshies earned a special place in my heart after rehabbing this lil guy back to good health.

This is just my opinion but a large part of your flocks behaviour depends on you and your personality. Enjoy your new ducks! View attachment 1683607

Awe I'm getting some welshies in April. Your little guy is so adorable!

 

[WindingRoad]

I love them all, lol. At the moment I'm hatching Indian Runners, Cayugas and Welsh Harlequins. The Welshies earned a special place in my heart after rehabbing this lil guy back to good health.

This is just my opinion but a large part of your flocks behaviour depends on you and your personality. Enjoy your new ducks! View attachment 1683607

You might find my thread entitled Duck Lovers on the Duck thread interesting. Just a short you tube video.

 

[TheBeardie]

I am partial to muscovies. They are pretty, colorful, usually quiet and with a quick wing clip can be grounded. I'm also having trouble finding sexed muscovies and have found one hatchery that sells sexed white muscovies. 15 order minimum though.

I've been thinking about ordering some and selling the ones I don't have room for. I've emailed the hatchery and got some information, they only have pure white ducks, the sexing is about 95% accurate and they can live a healthy pet life. I can't get them to the post office close to me (I live in the middle-of-nowhere) but I can ship them to the next town over.

https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/details.asp?List=1&Product=5

Here's my muscovies. I have two drakes and four ducks, I want to order all females to even out the numbers.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

All ducks are in general quieter than chickens. We have five Fawn & White Indian runners who are very active foragers (sometimes too active, they ate the whole tomato plants last year, roots inclusive!) and are really comical to watch with their upright posture and their very special way to run like a bowling pin with legs.
For this spring we got fourteen new ducklings: Four White Layers, my wife wanted to have some white ducks, the White Layers look like a smaller Version of the Pekin ducks and are as equally laid back. Five Buff Orpingtons, i love their »Nesquick« color and they are very friendly and good layers and finally five Magpies, a rarer breed but easy to have, every duck has an individual black and white pattern.
I have a lot of videos of the ducks and the ducklings on YouTube, please have a look.

 

[PaulX]

This is just my opinion but a large part of your flocks behaviour depends on you and your personality.

I've just had runners for 5 days but I can already say that they're more flighty and less friendly than pekins. They are very easily spooked by the presence of a hand nearby, and squirm much more when picked up. They don't try to jump the brooder to be with me like my pekin babies did when they were young, they're most content huddling together. They also don't seem to care when I leave them alone in the brooder, my pekins would have called for me. I hatched them both myself, the pekins and runners.

Four White Layers, my wife wanted to have some white ducks, the White Layers look like a smaller Version of the Pekin ducks and are as equally laid back. Five Buff Orpingtons, i love their »Nesquick« color and they are very friendly and good layers and finally five Magpies, a rarer breed but easy to have, every duck has an individual black and white pattern.

If white layers were available here they would have been my first duck choice. I hatched pekins because I wanted white ducks, but they're meat breed not egg breed, I want eggs too.

I also think 'cow ducks' (Magpies) are cool, again they're not available here, so my second batch of duck choice is unequivocally runners.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I've just had runners for 5 days but I can already say that they're more flighty and less friendly than pekins. They are very easily spooked by the presence of a hand nearby, and squirm much more when picked up. They don't try to jump the brooder to be with me like my pekin babies did when they were young, they're most content huddling together. They also don't seem to care when I leave them alone in the brooder, my pekins would have called for me. I hatched them both myself, the pekins and runners.

If white layers were available here they would have been my first duck choice. I hatched pekins because I wanted white ducks, but they're meat breed not egg breed, I want eggs too.

I also think 'cow ducks' (Magpies) are cool, again they're not available here, so my second batch of duck choice is unequivocally runners.

What about Buff Orpingtons? My »Buffies« have a posture that is almost runner like, just not so vertical, and they are somewhat friendly.