What about ducks?

[Waffler]

I know this is supposed to be chicken based, but I was wondering whether anyone out there has ducks and could tell me what it's like to be a duck owner. We moved in to our house exactly a year ago today and we have half an acre of garden, a large (20ish foot across) pond and a chicken run with chicken house and NO chickens. I've loved ducks since I was a child & really fancy the idea of having a few. BUT, there are considerations: a)I'm completely soft & wouldn't be too pleased if a fox/badger took them; b) we have cats (not sure if it's an issue or not); c) I still want to have a nice looking garden.
I like the idea for aesthetic reasons - how cool would it be to have ducks waddling around?! and also because presumably you can get eggs from them in much the same way as you would chickens.
I must also add that I have never kept ducks or chickens, so am completely novice in this area.
What does everyone thinK?

[Palustris]

Ducks need water and they are really filthy birds. They make a real mess of the water and their feet flatten thngs. They tend only to lay eggs in Spring for a month to 6 weeks. We had 5 and they got foxed , down to just the one call duck now and even she is slowly ruining the pond!

[yoanbob]

WAFFLER, brilliant, get some now! they are brill! we allways wanted chucks but inherited our allotment with 1 duck, they had previously had 3 ducks and 5 chucks, but they were getting on a bit and couldnt keep up so a fox got in and killed all but 1, Elsie. she had been left inside for weeks with brief forays outside while they cleaned her out and fed her, the rest of the time she had been shut up. poor girl. we fixed the fence and got another duck for company (they are very social creatures so you cant just have 1) and two chucks, we have a tenth of an acre and about a third is veg garden, 8 months on we now have 3 chucks and 6 ducks (four babies plum duck hatched recently, she went broody so we gave her some fertilised eggs.)
we lost 1 chuck, who had made a nest outside, to mr fox. (she had been getting out of an immpossibly small hole 4 ft high in the fence) was very sad but its still worth it. put up a good fence tho. town cats will only be a problem if you have small ducks, country cats are a diffrent matter, it would be wise to have fox proof fencing, the other option if your pond is big enough is to buy a floating duck house, this way they can get away from the fox when he comes knocking. This is the same kind of principal as 6 ft high chuck houses. the only problem with both these methods is egg collecting, chucks lay at different times every day, ducks (dependant on breed and time of year ) lay at roughly same time every day, early in the morning, ours lay before 8 am but its getting a bit later now. we have got between 7 and 10 eggs per duck a week since the day before easter (lots more than the chucks) and they are only now slowing up. (dont forget we live in the north so less sun light) its not ideal to leave eggs in with them cos they can go broody, again depending on breed, our aylsbury is 3 and has never gone broody, i think its the bigger the breed the less likley to go broody. the aylsbury has given about 200 eggs this year so far, for a three yr old chuk read 150). keeping chucks and ducks in the same house is o.k. but not ideal, the chucks want to dig up the ducks nests so your ducks if they are heavy breeds wont get enough support when they sleep.
ducks are far more amusing than chucks, great to watch after a hard day at work, and with perseverence they can be as tame as chucks, elsie hears the outer gate opening and comes running for a stroke.
as to the chuck versus duck debate, it depends on how much time you have got, chucks scratch the land and make bare patches, not just where they want to dust bath but everywhere, ducks poo is bigger and smellier but better for your veggies, they make everything muddy so its best to have paving of some sort around your pond. ducks will also clear your pond of midgies etc. working together our ducks and chucks make a good pest irradication team, they go through the land as a team, chucks scratch ducks dig, no more slugs or snails.
ducks if given enough room inside will poo only in 1 area, chuck poo isnt as smelly or big or squashy.
as for your pond, is it a natural pond? or man made? does it have fresh water from a spring? if its man made you will have to put in a pretty hefty waterfall pump to keep the water airated and clean, a small stream then drop effect is best cos then if gets sunlight to kill off some bacteria and air from the drop, a garden centre pump is unlikley to cut it. if its natural you will have to dig the bottom out every few years as it gets filled up with silt, you can put this on your veggies or sell it at a premium, very high in nitrogen.
duck eggs have a bigger proportion of yolk, hey are nearly all yolk, as such if your watching your colesterol, not so good, if your not keen on white, ideal.
they make fantastic boiled, fried, or poached, and great custard, not good as scrambled or in quiche. my OH gets indigestion if he has duck eggs scrambled.diffrent texture to hen eggs but much nicer in some respects. i would suggest you try some first, see how you feel.
with a little investment in time and money think you would be happy with ducks, any questons just pm me.

[Waffler]

Yoanbob,
Your post was really entertaining - thanks for that!
Def. like the idea of big yolk eggs (whites are for Californians who eat egg white souffles and not a lot else). I'll have to give some a try - there's a place nearby that sells them.
Think I'll need to work on OH and see how we get on.
Thanks for your help!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hi W - couldnt resist just saying that maybe I should get some ducks here in Preston - we've had enough rain over the past couple of weeks! Maybe I should have dug a pond out in the front garden, it would be full of water by now! dexterdog
PS I do feed a pair of mallards each spring who have now been visiting my garden for the last four years - nearest I'll get to keeping wildlife!

[Waffler]

I keep hoping some friendly ducks might adopt me and visit our garden, but no such luck yet - just a 'friendly' heron!

[yoanbob]

well a heron is better than nothing, havnt tried their eggs yet and i doubt you could convince it to stay.
the pic at the top is the babys at two weeks old, very cute.
I would suggest you wait till early spring now and just get your duck area prepared over winter, the more work you put in now the better, you would be surprised how small a hole a duck can get through, it takes them a few days to settle in to their new territory but after that they show no concern about straying.
good luck and let me know how it goes.

[Tensing]

They tend only to lay eggs in Spring for a month to 6 weeks.

Ours lay most days, maybe this is because we have Khaki Campbells and Runner ducks, both known to lay about 300 eggs a year.

We have 3 khaki Campbells, and 2 indian runners. They all live with the 5 white silkie bantams in the same run, but have a seperate house.

They are kept on gravel and so are very clean no mud, they do mess up their pond, so the water has ro be changed twice a week, but the water is fully of duck poo, so is great for the garden.

[yoanbob]

caroline, what do you use for a pond? how do you empty it? i've been looking for somthing i could use as a portable emptiable pond for a while and cant seem to find anything.

[nick the grief]

The Domestic Fowl Trust used to sell a sort of portable pool for Ducks, don't know if they still do.

[yoanbob]

cheers nick will have a serch

[Tensing]

My son dug a pond and lined it for me, ( a good job for a 14 year old), we have to empty it with buckets, takes about 10 - 15 minutes.

What I have seen recently that I thought would be a good pond is the big bath type things used by builders on building sites for mixing stuff (technical term that).

Either that or look out for a cheap solid paddling pool as they should be in the sales now, since summer is over.

[yoanbob]

we already have one of those, i read in gyo that you can get specially made ones, just thought you might have one as havnt found one any where.
wanted somthing a bit cleaner to empty.

[Elmo]

I've managed to get hold of two 2000 gallon preformed ponds that I was going to try to link together and put a platform in the middle with a little house. As they will be on my allotment there is no power source, how often do you think I will have to clean them out as it'll be a mammoth task? Maybe I will have to rethink and go for something a bit smaller

[Tensing]

I clean mine out once a week now, but in the summer it was 2 or 3 times a week.