Ducks

Does anyone keep ducks in their garden?

We have been looking at keeping chickens in our garden but having read a little about keeping ducks I think we would prefer ducks

What breeds do you have and what sort of set up do you have for them?

I worked in the petshop bit of a garden centre and we had ducks for a while. They were very cute (trained them to line up and follow us to the pond near to the aviary they lived in) but I remember them being VERY messy. We had to hose down the aviary at least daily with them in, total opposite to the chickens who only needed sweeping out daily and a hose-down once or twice a week. The pond ended up filthy (not good as it was a nice posh pond in the middle of the garden centre, whoops!) and the paddling pool they had in the aviary would smell gross by the end of the day.

We have 8 ducks - a pair of Indian Runner ducks, and 6 Khaki Campbells (1 drake and 5 ducks).

They are lovely and funny and real characters, but not as friendly as hens. All but 2 of ours have been hand reared, and they still don't like humans. This is perfectly normal. If we wanted to catch them, we'd need to go at night and net them.

They are about as noisy as hens (without a cockerel), and lots of breeds lay just as well, if not better, than hens.

The downside of ducks: they need water, and they are incredibly messy.

In terms of water, you'll need a large enough tub/pond for them to be able to get in and wash. They need fresh, clean water every day to wash in. It doesn't need to be a 'real' pond - we use an old plastic 'turtle' sandpit; which can be easily emptied, cleaned and refilled.

In terms of the mess - water + ducks = mud. Wherever their water is sited, will be messy. Their flat feet squish and squash all the grass, mud and their poo into a big mess. They poo everywhere, and as they don't roost (like chickens) they poo in their bed, so they need cleaning out a lot. It's even worse in winter, when it's constantly raining.
They often don't lay in a particular nest, and will lay every day wherever they feel like it.

You can't keep them in a small run like hens - they do need substantial space.

However, I love duck eggs, and love how funny my ducks are - they just need lots of space and someone who doesn't mind mud/poo/mess.

My parents have Indian runner ducks, oh my goodnes they are brilliant!!!! they never stand still, i could watch them pattering around the place at speed for hours! They're quite noisy, but it's a nice noise, the lovely eggs outweigh the noise and mess by a mile

I'd love to own some ducks someday- but they are messy, as has been said!

You should post a pic of their run Iso!
It's like a mud pit half the time isnt it!
They also lobe laying their eggs ANYWHERE! Especially patches of nettles

I have a pair of Chocolate pied Muscovy. They are very large ducks, lol. I dont have any recent pics but here is what I have...these are like a month or so old and they have done ALOT of growing since.



the drake


the hen


I also have 1 Rhode Island Red pullet and 4 Golden Comet Pullets

Right now because everyone is still young and not yet old enough to free range we just have an outdoor dog kennel with a "hutch" built on one end...light this...


Its make shift for now as we are moving soon so we didnt want to get to extravagant

We have got 3 indian runner ducks, which go in with a neighbours khaki campbells. One of our runners is sitting on a nest which is due to hatch on Thursday - yay!

Ours are totally free range but the bit they are kept in overnight can get really filthy overnight, especially in winter. Anywhere I have been to buy ducks and are kept in pens, are also really muddy.

There is a breed of duck that is supposed to be suited for gardens but can't remember what it is. I would have thought call ducks but I think they can be quite noisy.

Oh, totally agree with them chucking eggs anywhere! We have to really look for the eggs in their overnight enclosure and if we don't keep them in long enough, they will just lay out in the fields!

Fantastic things to watch though and ducklings are sooo cute!

Helen

Pic of my ducks...

The Runners are Frances (Drake, white) and Mary (Duck, trout) and the rest are the Khaki Campbells.... the Khakis are just finishing their moult and are looking a bit worse for wear....
(ignore the Welsummers in the huge dust bath!!)

Hi,ducks are the funniest little things to watch,i used to have 2 aylesburys,they slept in a large aviary and they had a fenced area of about 30ft by 15ft,this was more then enough,sometimes i used to let them have free rain of the garden they are great for finding slugs and snails...I agree with everyone else though they are really messy,you absolutely heed water for them to get in,i dug a large pond for mine,but it used to get so dirty and was really hard to keep clean that i ended up using a sandpit for kids,which was enough for 2 ducks and easily kept clean and the water changed...we did have chickens to but duicks are the best,they provided me with ours of entertainment,oh yeah,make sure that you have more females then males as the drakes tend to really go for it on the females and can be fairly hard.....ohh exciting new ducks..