Chicken bald back

[firabbitduck]

I would really love to keep a couple of ducks in my garden but am unsure on which breed. i like the look of the call duck but am worried about the noise - although i only want two so how bad could they be!!!!!!!!!!! I also like the indian runner ducks but is it right that they are especially messy and also would they live happily in a ducklu as they are a little bigger?? Kahki cambells also look nice does anyone have these?

If i am only getting two am i best to have two males , two females or one of each??????

[gooner.girl]

Hi,

 

I have only just started keeping ducks this year so don't know a massive amount but am happy to share my experiences.

 

Firstly, ducks are great - very cute and dead easy to look after, other then the fact that you must make sure their pond is cleaned reguarly (its gets dirty sooo quick)

 

I started with 2 call drakes (the call drakes are quieter then the call ducks (girls) I wouldn't advise getting call girls if you have neighbours who will complain about the noise.) The call drakes are lovely and getting friendlier by the day. I now also have 2 khaki campbell girls who are still ducklings (though already bigger then the boys!) Khaki campbell girls are suposed to be great egg layers if you want eggs from your ducks. They are lovely but the boys are nicer to look at.

 

I don't know much about indian runners but they are quite big so might get a bit squashed in an eglu.

 

As for whether getting girls or boys. I am not sure which is best. Some say its mean for the boys to have no females around but drakes can be very amourous so it is definitely best to get more females then males, or a pair. 2 females on their own will be quite happy together also.

 

Hope this helps....

Helen

[Caroline]

ducks are GREAT!

 

We started out with one duck and one drake Indian Runner. I'd say if you're going for a mix, go for more girls than boys.

 

the duck is WAY noisier than the drake but while we had both, she didn't say much at all. The drake got taken by a fox and since then the duck ispretty noisy. We're pretty lucky in that we live ina tiny village so people seem to like the quacking - all part of country life and all that.

 

I think an eglu would be fine for runners, they squash their necks down a lot when they're indoors anyway. maybe only about two in there tho. You'd have to take the slats out for ducks obviously.

 

The good thing I have noticed since the drake was taken is that the girls don't poop in their houses! I hardly ever have to clean all the straw out these days - just top it up now and then. brilliant!!

It was a VERY messy job before the drake went.

 

I don't really notice that the ducks are messier - we have a pretty big garden and they're free range so it's spread out! hehe

 

Also for runners, everyone seems to say that they don't need a pond. Now while I'm sure they don't NEED it.... ours LOVE swimming and seem to feel a lot more secure when they are on the water so I would say pond pond pond!

 

While I'm in no way a duck expert, I'm happy to answer any questions if I can so feel free to ask

[firabbitduck]

Thanks for getting back to me its great to hear from people who actually keep ducks. What do you think to this - I have a large garden 60ft by 36ft. If i fence off a section at one end so the ducks have 18ft by 36ft to run round in and a ducklu and run extension inside this so they are safe when im out, a tray in the run to swim in and a kiddies paddling pool out of the run for when im at home and they can be let out. Its just i have two young children and would like to try and keep the rest of the grass clean. Will the ducks turn their grass into a swamp?????!!! Do you think two call drakes would be ok with this setup? Also do you clip your ducks wings? Sorry that i go on a bit but im new to this, at the mo i only have a rabbit who is very happy with his new rablu!!!!!!!

[gooner.girl]

Thanks for getting back to me its great to hear from people who actually keep ducks. What do you think to this - I have a large garden 60ft by 36ft. If i fence off a section at one end so the ducks have 18ft by 36ft to run round in and a ducklu and run extension inside this so they are safe when im out, a tray in the run to swim in and a kiddies paddling pool out of the run for when im at home and they can be let out. Its just i have two young children and would like to try and keep the rest of the grass clean. Will the ducks turn their grass into a swamp?????!!! Do you think two call drakes would be ok with this setup? Also do you clip your ducks wings? Sorry that i go on a bit but im new to this, at the mo i only have a rabbit who is very happy with his new rablu!!!!!!!

 

That sounds a perfect set up! I use the ducklu and run for when i go out and shutting them in at night. It has a mini tubtrug in there full of water along with their food and water. Most of the time they wander round my garden - (which is way smaller then yours - your fenced off area will be fine) and they have a pond they splash about in a lot. Call drakes are lovely and will be perfectly happy with that set up - but yes i have not had ducks in winter, but i suspect it will go swamp like!

 

Clipping wings is an interesting one. I've not done it yet though i have seen my call ducks fly as high as the fence so i probably ought to but i think once they know somewhere is home they generally stay there... Thats what the girl i got mine from said anyway...

[Caroline]

teh fencing off idea sound like a good one to me. They will trash your garden and poop everywhere so probably a bit nicer for kids if they're not trampling through that!

 

the tray and the paddling pool sound good as long as it's one of those solid paddling pools as they'll pop a blow up one with their claws.

Call ducks are excellent at flying and so either clipping their wings or having a roof to their pen would be an idea if you have all males. We don't clip the wings of the ducks as ours are Indian Runners and rubbish at flying!

 

As for keeping all males, I don't really know - is it just them that iwll be in there or do you have chickens as well? they will rape the poor chooks if there's not a girl about!! Other than that, if you're not bothered about eggs then I guess it's not a problem. Maybe someone else can help with that

[Caroline]

one other thought - as far as I can gather, ducks are much more likely to stick about if they have a mate in the same place.

 

Not sure if that's true or not but I read it somewhere.

 

might be worth considering.

 

oh yes and our garden was a bog last winter!!

[Lesley]

We have White Campbells in an Eglu - a duck and a drake. They are in a run a similar size to your proposed run and they are fine in it. The grass grows - which was a bit of a shock as the same size run with hens in ends up bare!

 

The pond area (Domestic Fowl Trust tray) gets a bit boggy because we haven't yet made a gravelled area underneath it to empty it onto, as someone else on here suggested. The ducks don't mind though.

Edited August 14, 2007 by Guest

[Lovelylisa]

Hi,

Just a bit of information i picked up while researching ducks (i got my 1st today-2 calls).....you should have 6 females to every male to keep him satisfied, or he`ll give them 'a really hard time'! There`s some good websites if you google call ducks.

Lisa.

[Caroline]

I think that's pretty much the same information for any duck.... or rather drake. They're REALLY erm... active lets say.

 

six sounds a lot though - I would certainly say more females than males though