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Biker Chick

Advice and thoughts needed please

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I have kept chickens for over a year now, we have 7 girls that live very happily in a cube and a WIR that measures 9ft x 9ft. I am now considering keeping a few ducks and would like to know how realistic this could be. We live in a semi with a 180ft garden thats fenced all the way round. We have surrounding neighbours but they've never complained about the hens (well not to us anyway :lol: ). The only problem that I can see is that we have 3 British Bulldogs but they dont show much intrest in the hens, but I should imagine that ducks would keep out of the dogs way. I was thinking along the lines of having 3 ducks and obviously a duck house to lock them up at night. I would probably go for a wooden duck house, and plenty of trugs, or paddling pools of water for them, as these would be easier to keep clean for them. I understand that ducks can be messy,but this doesnt bother me as our garden isnt a show garden, although I have grown a few veg this year. We gave up on plants years ago when the dogs kept bringing me in the plants from outside :( . We do have however, plenty of shrubs and small trees in the garden. My MIL thinks we are totally mad and says we should live on a farm, and believe me, me would if we could afford it :wink:

 

Anyway, I'm just after any advice really and do you think its a feasable idea, or are we totally mad!!!!!

 

Thanks.

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I have a couple of khaki campbells and have discovered that they can be a wee bit noisy at this time of year! And regarding the dogs - mine take up stealth mode and charge if they see a dog :lol: - they are not shy and would give any dog a run for its money. How would your dogs respond to that?

On the whole great fun, great eggs and great company (but with mess!)

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Ducks are a lot of fun and the differnce in the eggs a delight - but they are noisy and messy. You seem to have thought about the pond issue - is your garden reasonably free draining for when you empty the trugs?

 

Go for it - if my MIL said it was a bad idea, I'd get double :twisted:

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on..

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Hi,

 

We had the hens for nearly a year when we opted to add ducks this time last year. We also have dogs, sheep & pigs and I can say that the ducks cope no problem with all of the other animals, wandering happily in and out of fields, hen runs etc. They are very funny to watch, it can't be denied.

 

On the negative side, ducks are VERY messy in comparison to hens: any supply of water they have access to will become black as soon as they look at it; they will need 'guided' to bed each night; their home needs cleaned daily, as they poo indiscriminately (no roosting bars!) and they do shovel holes in your lawn with their bills and sleep on top of herbacious plants, squashing them down ... khaki campbells aren't that noisy though and they certainly aren't fussy eaters and don't seem to suffer from feather/ parasite problems to the extent of hens.

 

I'm very fond of our ducks and wouldn't part with them now but I do think you have to be aware that they are double the amount of work that hens are (in my opinion).

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