4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[bessandra]

Hiya

Tentatively making enquiries...I was looking at the eglus for ducks in the Omlet shop, which are cheaper than eglus for hens..how come?

And, please, genuine responses only..are ducks noisy? are they noisier in a couple, or two girls, or noisy full stop, or not at all?

And where might be the best place to find two to rehome? As in, if I'm offering a home, where would I look? I'd rather get some locally than spend days etc trapsing around.

 

In anticipation of replies!

[Richard T]

I think they're cheaper because they don't include the roosting bars.

 

We have a duck and a drake - Miniature Silver Appleyards - and we don't find them particularly noisy but I think some ducks can be noisier than others. And it's usually the ducks that are the loudest.

 

I can't help on finding any. Have you tried Practical Poultry magazine and forum?

[bessandra]

Hi Richard

Thank you for your reply.

Ducks dont roost then?! I'm really interested in your mini appleyards. How do you find them? are they lovely pets? and how about the egg laying? do you keep chickens as well? do they get along, if so?

I've been searching the net and found a couple of suppliers but am waiting to hear back.

I'll check the forum now..thank you

[Lesley]

Richard is right - you just put straw on the flat floor of the Eglu. We had the extension to the Eglu run but they are now in a long, walk-in, run area.

 

We have White Campbells - started with a pair, and the duck is louder than the drake but they're not too noisy either. Drakes make a lovely noise......but they don't lay eggs!

[Richard T]

Ducks don’t roost. They’ve got the wrong sort of feet for roosting.

 

Our mini appleyards are lovely. They are very amusing. And very cute. And completely daft. They’re not as friendly as we’d like them to be – they don’t let us pick them up or stroke them and they tend to keep their distance from us - but they’re getting better, and I suppose their friendliness with humans depends on how they are treated from early on.

 

Last year was Mildred’s first year of egg laying and she started off slowly, but was soon laying all over the garden and finding secret places to lay, or laying inside the run. This year she hasn’t really got going on laying yet. We’ve had three eggs in about as many weeks – all in the nesting box. Once she does get going we would expect about five eggs a week.

 

We have five chickens as well. They have a separate run but we let the chickens and ducks out into the garden together. Most of the time they don’t bother each other but George will put his head down and warn a chicken off if it gets too close. And if the chicken isn’t looking he will follow her for a short distance with his head down in warning mode. That doesn’t usually bother the chickens but sometimes George will go a bit too far and the chicken will turn on him, and chase him away, perhaps giving him a little peck while doing so.

 

When we open the runs to let them out we open the ducks’ run first and give them time to come out because the first thing that two of the chickens do when let out is go into the ducks’ run and eat from the ducks’ food trough, and if we didn’t let the ducks out first they wouldn’t be brave enough to try to get past the chickens. I don’t know what it is that makes the ducks’ food so tempting to the chickens. The ducks get exactly the same pellets as the chickens get.

 

I hope this gives you some idea about what it is like to have a couple of mini appleyards with chickens.