Thinking of getting some ducks, any tips?

[StinkyAcres]

I was gonna ask the same question

And just like that

 

[BarryBarr]

Hi! sorry, some silly goose decided to come in and be mean to me, it got a little heated

What a silly duffer

 

[KathiQuacks]

I would say that a duck’s version of friendliness is different from other animals. Friendly ducks may come when called, follow you, hang out with you, eat from your hand, chew on you.. but they will not like when you approach them or try to pick them up. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you, it’s just how they are! Respect their feelings, and they will trust you more.

Some people love on their ducks too much, and the ducks become “too friendly,” meaning, they see you as a mate. Not good for many reasons.

 

[cheezenkwackers]

Hello everybody! Recently I've been considering getting some ducks, I own large farmland and I know all about how to care for them, I'm just wondering if there's anything I should know, thank you friends!

1. Do your research, ducks have very different needs than chickens.
2. Do NOT buy them from Tractor Supply unless you are ok with too many drakes. Unlike chickens, ducks are sold only as straight run at feed stores. But, the many of the hatcheries, including the one that sells to Tractor Supply, sell sexed ducklings. So, since you only want one drake to 4-5 hens, people end up buying the hens from the hatchery and the drakes end up at the store. I hope that makes sense.
Personally, I have had better success hatching eggs or buying from local breeders.

 

[3bird]

I'll share some of our experience with ducks that differs from some of the above. This isn't to say that one person is wrong and the other is right. Instead, it illustrates that there are many factors that go into keeping any animal, and various husbandry approaches may yield different results.


We work with silver Appleyard ducks, which is a large breed and an threatened heritage breed. Our set-up is designed for up to eight birds. We keep our ratio of hens to drakes at 5:2 or 4:1.

For starters, we don't find ducks particularly messy, and I would argue that our duckhouse/run doesn't smell nearly as much as many chicken coops. Please note that I said DUCKS, not DUCKLINGS! Ducklings are incredibly messy and smelly!

We live in Maine, so we don't generally deal with excessive heat (and from Nov-March-ish, it's frozen out there) that can lead to a smelly mess. So that helps. Having said that, we chose to have a *covered* run attached to our duckhouse. A covered run cuts way down on mud in the run or duckhouse. We keep the food and water separated in the run, and we use pavers under the water buckets, so they can't create mud puddles around the buckets.

Our duckhouse is 4x8' and elevated with a ramp for access. It has four large windows and some venting around the top. We also incorporated a large "pick-up truck gate" door on the back, which makes clean-out a breeze when you drive the tractor up to the door. We use a combination of straw and wood (pine) shavings in the duckhouse, and we practice the deep litter method, with two major clean-outs/year.

We NEVER put water in the duckhouse. We do have a Sweeter Heater, which is infrared radiant heat, in the duckhouse and one in a protected spot in the run. This is not necessary, and I won't stumble into the heat or not-to-heat debate here, but it's been a good choice for our flock.

Our run is attached to the duckhouse and is 16x8'. As already mentioned, it's covered, and it is predator proof, meaning that we rarely lock the ducks into the house at night. They have a large 5-gallon bucket and a smaller 2.5 gallon bucket in the run, which is sufficient for drinking, dunking and clearing nares.

There is no swimming/bathing opportunity in the run. Our ducks have free choice feed (we feed Mazuri Waterfowl feeds at all life stages) in a large, shallow tub that is situated away from the water. They also have access to oyster shells, and we feed their egg shells back to them. Our run also has a covered "annex" that is ~8x3'. The annex has its own door and is a separated from the run with just hardware cloth. This is a space to keep an overly excited drake at night, a recovering bird, or mom with babies. We've found that ducks do best when you can safely keep them together even when they need to be separated.

Outside the run are two fenced fields, where the ducks may be turned out for the day. We use the two fields to keep the flock split up during mating season if necessary. We make sure to mix up the composition of each sub-flock each day to insure that we don't develop "cliques." The fields are fenced to keep the ducks in and deter predators, but they are not 100% predator proof. We rely on a loyal murder of crows to run off aerial threats, and the ducks have cover in both areas. During the non-freezing months, the ducks have access to several tubs in each field in which they can "swim" and bath.

Every morning and evening (biosecurity measures permitting), we allow the ducks to free range the property, and we follow them (with coffee in the morning and cocktails in the evening (except for the winter when it's dark at 3:30--that's too early to cocktail!)). There are a series of very small ponds we call "the Waterpark," where the duck like to go.

We also have a very small creek that runs into a marshy area where they also like to play, so they do have a chance to do some "proper swimming." We find this time invaluable, as it gives us a chance to observe everybody, experience our property in all seasons and weather conditions, and generally slow down life a bit. During the hour of free-ranging, one of us will break off to do chores. They get fresh water in the run 2x/day, and we spot clean the duckhouse and the run, collect eggs and refill grain and oyster shells. We're talking 15 minutes 2x/day to keep our duckhouse and run in great (non smelly) shape. At the conclusion of free range time, we bring them back to the duckhouse with "Soup of Ducks" (NOT ducksoup!). Soup for ducks is peas and greens with a Grubblies crumble on top. We call and they come running!

In terms of eggs, we don't have the issue with messy eggs. Our girls generally lay early morning in nests they build either in the duckhouse or in the run. They generally keep their nests pretty clean.

We absolutely adore ducks and can't recommend them highly enough. Silver appleyards in particular are great layers, fantastic foragers (we used to have a huge slug problem in our gardens), and quite gregarious and attractive.

All of our ducks tolerate being handles and several of them actually enjoy it. They all eat from our hands and are excited to see us. If you have any specific questions, we'd be happy to take a crack at answering them. We hope you get ducks and love them!