Anyone ever raise ducks?

[Anonymous]

We raised chickens over the past year, but regrettably had a very tragic incident this weekend in which a fox (?) was able to breach the chicken wire. I'm guessing it was a fox because we've seen several roaming the neighborhood this winter.

We talked about getting some new chicks, and reinforcing our coop area next year, but my kids now have fixated on ducks. We've done a little research, and apparently they do not need a pond.

Any tips/experience to share?

[Anonymous]

They may not need a pond, but they do need water to splash around in, & they are even dirtier than chickens. But they are adorable.

[Anonymous]

You will need to have a baby bath tub with water in it and you will need to change it DAILY. You will need a separate small water pool or large bowl for them to eat. They will take their duck food and put it in the bowl of water to eat the way they do. Its very cute.

They poop a lot. The poop WILL attract rats, eventually. We lined the cage with a layer of thick pine mulch nuggets which we could hose down and the poop would kind of break down undeneath the mulch. Its not really smelly poop, unlike chicken poop. But its definitely not nothing when it piles up.

You will need probably two small baby pools. Emptying them is harder than it looks the bigger they are.

Ducks are flock animals and very much aggressive with each other. You will have to get only females if you dont want a full blown breeding situation. Female ducks are LOUD, males make a much softer sound. If you get only males you still deal with the aggression and dominance issues with each other.

They are way more work than they seem at first.

Whereever you read that they do not need a pond is technically correct, but then you dont need a house either. You could live in a shack or a trailer. Or a cave.

If you care about the quality of life of these animals, which bond with each other and form long lasting relationships, you need to have clean water always available and you are signing up for daily work.

[Anonymous]

BTW I raised ducks for seven years, so, trust me, I know what it takes. ITs a lot of work.

[Anonymous]

We have chickens and love it. I’m so sorry to hear you lost yours! I have heard that dogs are a LOT more work and a lot messier. I would definitely suggest doing a lot more research before you decide to go that route instead. It doesn’t seem like an easy switch from chickens even though they are birds.

[Anonymous]

Electric netting or several strands of electric wire fence to reinforce the coop will do a pretty good job keeping out small backyard predator types
(Fox, Opossum, Racoon, Neighbor Dog, etc). You should probably install some before obtaining more poultry as whatever killed your others will remember and return.

[Anonymous]

I raise and sell Khaki Campbell ducks and eggs (and heritage turkeys, meat and layer chickens), NPIP/USDA poultry producer. If you have a fox problem you need to fix that before getting any more birds, they will keep coming back until you kill them. Fox first, birds next.

The ducks are my favorite (next to Phil, my pet turkey), they are very social, fun to watch, and their eggs are fabulous for baking due to the high fat content in the yolks. I have a real market with my duck egg sales with local bakeries. They free range on our farm and they are amazing at taking care of ticks and other bad bugs. I tolerate the chickens because the eggs are the most popular with clients, but the ducks have my heart.

My tips:

Coop/predator control: I recommend hardware cloth instead of chicken wire; predators cannot chew through it, you need to make that coop into a poultry Ft. Knox. We trap and kill, focusing on population management at our farm, I lose a few birds a year, but it is manageable. Head over to Backyard Chickens.com for helpful predator proofing tips, they have a separate forum for raising ducks.

Select a non-meat breed like Khakis or Cayugas. The meat breeds (Pekins) will get too heavy and their legs will break and you will have to put them in your freezer (learned this the hard way). The females quack, the males grunt, and the females are LOUD, which is not a problem if you have a farm and no neighbors, but if you're in the city or burbs, your neighbors may not like to hear constant quacking. The ducklings will need a different type of starter feed, they need a higher protein content of at least 26% to start otherwise their muscles don't develop enough to support the leg bones and weight of the bird. I buy game bird feed at the feed store and start my ducklings and turkey poults on that every spring.

Water - no, not necessary. Right now mine do not have a tank, tub, or kiddie pool to wade in. They need enough water to clear their nostrils in the morning, so a water pan is sufficient. I keep my ducks with a flock of laying hens and my turkeys, everyone gets along fine, no one is more work than the other. Ducks can be dirty, but don't keep water in their coop and that helps a lot.

You may have to clip wings to prevent flying.

The hatcheries are having problems shipping right now with the USPS (the hatchery I use every year just sent out an email saying no shipments until the end of March), your best bet for ducklings is local off the farm exchange facebook groups or through the feed stores who are just starting "chick season."

[Anonymous]

Ducks are nasty and much dirtier than chickens.
If you used regular chicken wire, that’s your problem, it’s to keep chickens in, not predators out. You need wire cloth.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I had khaki cambell ducks that we got from tractor supply. We got two as pets when we were living in upstate NY and they were the absolute cutest things and so much fun. They get attached to you and I’d take them outside and they’d run around after me. They are VERY food motivated and our female would do anything for chick peas or corn! Even Honey Nut Cheerios! They definitely don’t need a pond but they do need water. We got two of those plastic blue kiddie pools and kept them filled all the time and they’d spend half the day swimming and splashing around.

We had them for 2 years until unfortunately our male got killed by a raccoon. Our female was ok but was completely distraught to lose her “mate” and she died 2 weeks later from what we seriously think was a “broken heart”. We just found her dead one morning out of no where. I was so sad as they were my babies.

[Anonymous]

You need a better coop. Hardware cloth, including digging down with a HC floor.

We lost many chickens to a fox, and I do NOT think that is your likely predator. A fox will typically steal one at a time. If you had a single event where all your animals were killed, I would guess raccoon. They are the only ones who seem to kill the whole flock for fun. ESP if the heads were ripped off, not to be too graphic for you urban folks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need a better coop. Hardware cloth, including digging down with a HC floor.

We lost many chickens to a fox, and I do NOT think that is your likely predator. A fox will typically steal one at a time. If you had a single event where all your animals were killed, I would guess raccoon. They are the only ones who seem to kill the whole flock for fun. ESP if the heads were ripped off, not to be too graphic for you urban folks!

OP here. I really appreciate all the comments and advice, particularly regarding making a safer living environment for future birds (based on all this advice, I'm thinking we should stick with chickens). We had five chickens - four were dragged away (never found them), one was left dead in the coop. It was awful. Only good thing is that I found them before my children did. We will definitely make all the necessary security upgrades before we get any new birds. I doubt I can kill the foxes, which seem to roam all over the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Appleyard ducks are great. Lots of mess, though, and definitely need water. Have fun with your chickens!

[Anonymous]

I had a Call Duck (google image search them. OMG so cute!) It's a tiny duck breed.

If you get a duck, consider getting one to hatch so they will imprint on you.

The other thing I didn't know about ducks is that it's the females that quack; the males just murmur.

Since we only had one, we had it brought in in the evening to sleep in a plastic tub with appropriate bedding. If you cover the tub with a towel they will sleep in (ours ended up being a female and she was quite a mini alarm clock until we figured this out)