Ducks

[PinkvSantaboots]

I inherited some guinea pigs years ago from friends that moved to Hong Kong, they were indoor kept and although they are not really pets I would choose to have they were no bother and I really did love them, but ducks you couldn't pay me enough to keep them no way never.

 

[twiggy2]

I think we have established that HorseyTee is alone in ever wanting to have ducks in the garden due ti mess and duck invasion.
Good luck HT, we need photos as ducks are super cute.

 

[PurBee]

When i was a kid we had around 9 ducks, 4 large geese and 20+ chickens roam on quarter of an acre garden, by the side of a river. It was a lucky set-up as the geese and chickens had their own straw bedded large huts to be settled-into at night, but the ducks took to the river overnight and came back in the morning to be fed with the rest.

So i never dealt with the duck mess that others are speaking about - maybe due to the size of the garden, their collective poops fertilised the grass and wasnt an issue with poop being everywhere. Deep straw beds cleaned weekly, i found chickens and geese to be fairly clean. These were large sebastopol geese. They went on the river too with the ducks. So no pools to clean out regularly. It was the easiest/luckiest set-up for various fowl.

We had baby ducks hatch one year and moved the run they were contained in around the garden to fresh patches regularly. I loved the baby ducks!

See how you get on HT, you dont know until you try! Housing them in a more confined area means selecting correct number of birds so the mess isnt too much of a burden, and more cleaning out. The warnings of mess are warranted, if someone thought they were clean like chickens. I loved ducks, they were fairly friendly and comical, not too noisy. I never petted any of my birds, but ended up having a wild pair of swans decide to stay who were partial to a chat and stroke! ?

 

[Somewhat Off The Way]

@HorseyTee we have ducks, we love them ? amazing personalities and a total time-waster, can sit watching them for hours.
We have a basic set up, hut with straw and sawdust. Make sure hut has ventilation though. They have the run of the lawn and a couple of paddling pools that are refreshed once a day. Cup of pellets and handful of treats (peas, lettuce, cucumber), they forage for insects for the rest of their diet.
You'll love them! ?

 

[HorseyTee]

Thank you.

My garden is not a nice one, it's an animal one, so I'm out there cleaning up a lot.
I appreciate the advice but it doesn't need to be repeated a multiple of times...I get that they will be messy and I'm OK with that.
If it really did turn out to be more than I could cope with at home, I'd move them to my 12 acre field...I remain committed and responsible for them whatever as I always have with my animals.

I will be sure to add some photos once they're settled.
It's most likely I'll get a trio of call duck drakes...tiny, bachelors so no naughty behaviour toward ladies, and a small enough number for the space they'll have whilst still being able to be social together.

 

[SO1]

My sister has an Indian runner duck as a pet. He is fab no more messier than the chickens and very friendly and affectionate. She has a little pond for him and at night he goes in the chicken shed with the chickens. Chickens and duck have the whole garden during the day and in at night. They have not destroyed the garden which has vegetables and flowers.

Duck comes in the house sometimes and she has taken him in the car to a river for swimming and taken him to her work.

The only problems are if you are in an area where there is avain flu and then they are in "flockdown" or if they need the vet as they are not covered under most small animal practices and it can be hard to find a farm vet for them.

 

[Dexter]

Thank you.

My garden is not a nice one, it's an animal one, so I'm out there cleaning up a lot.
I appreciate the advice but it doesn't need to be repeated a multiple of times...I get that they will be messy and I'm OK with that.
If it really did turn out to be more than I could cope with at home, I'd move them to my 12 acre field...I remain committed and responsible for them whatever as I always have with my animals.

I will be sure to add some photos once they're settled.
It's most likely I'll get a trio of call duck drakes...tiny, bachelors so no naughty behaviour toward ladies, and a small enough number for the space they'll have whilst still being able to be social together.

The problem is ducks aren't really suitable to be a garden pet. Call ducks are very loud. Have you spoken to your neighbours to see if they are ok with ducks, esp loud ducks? I absolutely would not be and I think most people would feel the same.

You didnt answer if you had checked your deeds or not?

Most will prohibit keeping ducks and chickens in a residential garden, for good reason.

 

[Somewhat Off The Way]

She has said her garden is an animal one and you are assuming that a residential garden is a quiet place to be. Our various neighbours have cockerels, geese, barking dogs, kids that play out and are frequently mowing their lawns and DIYing. No way was I gonna ask them their thoughts on us having ducks or not!

Flipping heck, leave her alone to enjoy her ducks! She's an adult, I'm sure she can decide whether ducks will fit into the neighbourhood or not!!! ?

 

[druid]

Oh I forgot we have a Runner Duck, Slug, she lives in the garden proper to control slugs along with the lawn chickens (Booted bantams and Pekins). She makes no mess at all really but also has no pond just a bucket.

 

[tatty_v]

We had ducks for a bit - got to say, I really liked them (far more than the predecessor chickens we had who were miserable sods at the best of times!) They we’re very chatty when I was on the yard The mucking out of their house wasn’t too bad (we used straw and just scraped it all out regularly and started again) but the constant cleaning of their paddling pool was a bit of a pain, especially in the winter. That might be because we have three horses though who have their hay soaked so I just got thoroughly fed up of carting water about!

 

[the shadster]

Don’t do it! Only joking but seriously they are messy. I have 11 khaki campbells on a smallholding so plenty of space, but my god winter is awful especially with the avian flu lockdowns that seem to be occurring most years now. They will turn grass into a mud bath in days during inclement weather…

 

[julesjoy]

My smallest nursery have ducks. The kids feed and clean them out, they never seem particularly messy.

 

[HorseyTee]

I'll be collecting them in the morning.

Their bed is done ready.
I've got a little plastic pool that is easy to tip out and refill. Their main area with the pool is on slabs, then I've got a fenced off bit of grass they can forage on.

The boys will be very excited and no doubt will be wanting to feed them every day.
I'll be doing the cleaning but I'm sure they'll enjoy helping fill the pool with the hose or sweeping.

Looking forward to bonding with them and hopefully they'll enjoy some cuddles.

 

[HorseyTee]

Ducks are here.
3 beautiful drakes, this year's ducklings so about 4 months old.
The breeder has clipped their wings but they haven't even attempted to fly away, they've had a mooch around and had some mealworms and now in their little pool.

The boys are napping so haven't met them yet.

They're really tame so I'm sure it won't be long until we can have cuddles if they want, and they are very quiet too, just some little humming sounds, but I'm sure they'll have some quacks once they're settled.

 

[HorseyTee]

Oh and I need names...I was going to do the obvious of Donald, Daffy....but have no third name?
Also need to learn their personality so I can tell the 2 whites apart.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

They are very pretty, I like the white ones. As they are drakes in theory you shouldn’t get the same amount of noise as with girls. Our girls are terrible, one starts and the rest join in but the boys rarely make much noise. Hope your boys love them.

 

[HorseyTee]

Ye the breeder had separated a group of girls and some groups of boys...the girls were quacking away, the boys were just sort of doing little hums lol.
The other group of drakes weren't as tame, but these 3 are lovely, and the breeder is supportive if I have any questions.

They met the dogs briefly as the dogs need to go out for toileting, but I only kept it very brief while they settle and learn the dogs are friends.

 

[scats]

Scrooge as in Scrooge McDuck.

 

[Aperchristmas]

Oh they are very sweet. How about calling the third duck, duck? As in Donald, Daffy & Duck. (I'm a bit silly with names sometimes...)

 

[cauda equina]

Lucky
As in Ducky Lucky

 

[NR88]

Huey, Dewey & Louie. Those are the names of Scrooge McDuck's three great nephews and Donald Duck's nephews.

 

[Esmae]

Ducks are here.
3 beautiful drakes, this year's ducklings so about 4 months old.
The breeder has clipped their wings but they haven't even attempted to fly away, they've had a mooch around and had some mealworms and now in their little pool.

The boys are napping so haven't met them yet.

They're really tame so I'm sure it won't be long until we can have cuddles if they want, and they are very quiet too, just some little humming sounds, but I'm sure they'll have some quacks once they're settled.

Drakes don't quack

 

[druid]

Drakes do quack it's just much more muted than ducks.

You can stick coloured leg rings on the white ones for identification purposes

 

[HorseyTee]

I was looking into the rings, not only to tell them apart but also to have my number on in case they ever did get away (I'll maybe clip their wings on their next moult but not sure).
Where can I get the rings fitter? All I can find is rings to buy.

 

[druid]

Just buy the snap closed ones. You don't need any tools to fit them, Eton brand off Amazon are fine.

 

[HorseyTee]

Oh ok thank you.
Can I just write my number on those?

 

[druid]

Yes with a sharpie. You can get printed up ones from Australia but I didn't find them any better. I use those Eton ones on about 100 pheasants a year that get released into the wild and they survive that no problem

 

[HorseyTee]

Great thank you, I'll do that then ?

 

[Esmae]

Drakes do quack it's just much more muted than ducks.

You can stick coloured leg rings on the white ones for identification purposes

https://www.google.com/search?q=do+...+quack&aqs=chrome.2.0i512j0i22i30l2j0i390.118 For information

 

[druid]

It's literally the same noise but much quieter.