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Just wanted to ask a few questions about keeping ducks. I am planning on getting some chickens very soon but my daughter would really like a duck. Does anyone know if I am allowed to keep ducks in my garden? Its a council property. Will they be ok living with chickens? and they need to have a pond?

Thank you :)

You can, in theory, keep ducks without swimming water, but it doesn't seem fair really.

They also do big liquid, squodgy poos, so probably wouldn't be very good in a small space.

And just one would get lonely...

I wouldn't keep just one, like you said, she'd be lonely

Do ducks lay as many eggs as chickens and what would be teh sort of size water space that we'd need?

Or links to good websites would be appreciated

2-steps

We used to have a duck (Donna) and she cohabited with the chooks pretty well, always gave them heaps!

What we found was that when something was not to her liking, like it was past 6:00am and she hadn't had any bread, she would QUACK! She always made more noise than the chooks and in a built up area it can make you unpopular. Also the duck manure gets to you after a a while, you gotta be on the watch for land mines!

On the up side, she must have given us at least 350 eggs the first year, was fun to play with, and provided a love interest for the dog. She did also continuously muddy up the chooks water, though.

Nev

Nev

We kept 4 ducks happily with a child's paddling pool for their pond. We sunk it into the ground, and bucketed the nutrient-rich water out around our fruit trees.
We got one egg.faithfully every day from the girls, but they didn't lay them in a neat nest like chooks, we would find them everywhere in the paddock. Just like they had been laid on the run! The eggs are great for baking.

Old bath tubs make great pools for ducks, too - and a brilliant idea for recycling!

One of my neighbours used to keep one hen, one duck and one goose together in a little poultry house. Free range during the day, but, come to think of it, no swimming pool. They were a happy family, the goose thinking that the hen was her mum... So, if they grow up together, they obviously accept non-swimmers as close family.

Ina

I agree with most of the above posts.

I have two white campbell ducks who live with our chooks. When we bought them we were told they only needed a washing up bowl of water, however, it quickly became apparent that they ADORE water, want to be IN it. When we put the hose on they're there under it and we therefore provided them with a large kids plastic cast sandpit as a pool. To see them swimming round in circles together (tight circles obviously) and trying to bob down and demonstrate happy duckie behaviour in water bought it home to us that they should have water, and enough of it to get into. The thing about saying they don't 'need' water is that they can't complain anyway but to just see them in it really drives home what a wonderful life a duck with access to swimming/dabbling water has compared to one without. Ideally I'd like ours to have a full pond but regrettable we don't have the space. Please nobody take offence at what I've said, it's merely my experience with my ducks. I'd recommend Kate Thear's book on starting with ducks, she tells you the best breeds for individual circumstances.

The noise is certainly a factor, ours QUAAACK three to four times really loudly when they see us or a neighbour approach. Luckily we have a large garden and good neighbours so *touch wood* no problems so far. I understand that call ducks are incredibly noisy so it may be as well to check with your breeder as to noise levels.

Ours are too young to lay eggs yet so can't comment on production but looking forward to it.

Hope that helps a bit

Lynda

I am not particularly fond of ducks. Females I find are less aggressive to my hens. She unfortunately became food for a fox and my two males are now not as friendly since her passing. They are contantly chasing and pecking at the hens. They are Pekings, the big white ones. Ducks in my opinion should have a little pool but know that they are extremely messy and require contant cleaning up after. They dirty up water daily and it will need to be changed. If you want a duck, try a smaller breed of duck, not a peking.

Call ducks are small, so easier to manage, but very noisy, like all ducks. All ducks must have access to clean water for drinking, and deep enough for them to submerge their ehads in to keep their heads and eyes clean. They need quite a bit of room, and will turn any ground into a wet muddy patch very soon, which will take a long time to recover.
I keep chickens and ducks together, but they have a lot of room to wander about in.
Can recommend the egss, especially for baking. I have Runners, Calls, Khaki Campbells and a big fat old Rouen drake.

We had ducks - definitely not fair to have just one... three is a good number. More, probably if you intend to breed... as the drake is rather randy for want of a better word.

Very wise advice about the massive amounts of smelly and watery duck poo which is somewhat explosively produced!! Likewise the advice on the noise... they ARE noisy, especially when they are having fun.

Water - a large paddling pool will suffice for some types of ducks but others need deeper water to support their body weight. Make sure that they can get in and out easily too and remember that young ducks can drown if they are unable to get out. As Luath said - they need water so that they can keep their eyes and beaks clean... ours used to dabble in the mud so much that they were very often covered in mud and then they'd go and swim and splash to clean up - what fun they have, and what a constant source of amusement and happiness. I defy anyone to watch a duck dabbling around and splashing in water to remain in a bad mood. Our ducks got on very well with our chooks... We also had embden geese but had to put them in a different part of the paddock because the geese would attack the chooks and ducks, particularly so in the breeding season. We had aylesbury, saxony and buff orpington ducks - we hatched some in the incubator too.

Ahhh those were the days - hopefully we'll get more ducks later in the year but we need to landscape the garden and build a pond first.

So much to do - gotta get out there!!!

we have two ducks on our pond... didnt think about it getting really mucky though!!
ducks do need water.
we have a breeding pair of geese too, they are happy just to be able to put their heads in a bucket... but need water for their eggs to hatch...
ours are in the chicken pen (a whole fenced off terrace).

our ducks had 10 babies last year, think they are looking to do the same soon again... hopefully we'll have a freezer full of ducks and geese in not too distant future :)

We had chooks first when I was growing up then the ducks - large white Aylesburys. Firstly, they were INCREDIBLY messy and secondly they were INCREDIBLY noisy.... If those things aren't a problem for you - then go ahead... As Shirlz said, they are fantastic to watch (apart from when the males want their wicked way, at which point they have no decorum or manners and their seduction techniques (pecking and drowning) are beyond the pale). I don't like duck eggs and only enjoy the crispier kind of duck to eat, so I won't have any, but enjoy feeding the ones that visit the garden from the river which is next to it.

oh yeh, our ducks are mallards... and all our local friends said they would fly away...
that the market that sold em to us had caught em wild... but they stay around our pond, fed grain every day etc..
i guess they know when they got it good!!!

We were given a pair of mallard that had adopted some friends of ours... once they had a baby and wanted the lawn to stay fresh and free from duck poo they wanted a new home for them....

Absolutely no way they would run away - although the bloke duck got eaten by the fox. The bird duck got serviced by the aylesbury drake (in a rude and totally unfashionable way!) and had one little duckling - which very soon overtook her in terms of size! White too.