Ducks - are they worth it?

[BarredBuff]

I have Muscovies and consider them more SS oriented. Good egg and meat producers, thrifty, and produce their own young extremely well. They do fly well, but mine Ihave never offered to leave. They roost and go up by themselves, just like the chickens.........

 

[Bettacreek]

My ducks fly. They fly quite well, in fact, they're part wild mallard. However, I've never had any issues with them trying to get away, except if I'm trying to catch one. They rarely fly, except maybe when they're hungry and they follow me to the back yard from the front yard, then one or two might fly to beat me to the feed bin, but not much more than that.

Most animals, if trained properly, will come back to the coop on their own. My old birds would come to the coop for their night time feeding. I never left feed outside of the coop, and didn't leave it there during the day, only when they came back to the coop for bedtime. The current birds don't have a coop. They just do their own thing and I feed them when I feel like it, lol.
I've seen umteen gazillion free-range scovies around here growing up. They're my first choice when I can actually purchase some ducks for production (my current ones are an "oops" and I'm not really supposed to have them).

 

[pinkfox]

personally imin the muscovy for meat/dual, runners or khakis for eggs group.
im personally planning a small group of runners and a small group of muscovy.
I love runners, there soooo funny!

 

[mrbstephens]

I made a video today that shows ducks eating slugs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWTqHwnhn5k

Hey Paul Wheaton, which breed duck are those? I love them!

 

[Wannabefree]

Becca...my Muscovies fly over to the neighbors pond and back all the time. If they know where food is, they keep coming back. Mine forage the yard and the neighbors yard, but I'm on an acre and a half. 30 acres they likely wouldn't leave so long as you toss them a cup of feed every day or so to keep them acquainted with you. They are laying machines, and my hen hatched 18 eggs and didn't lose a single one. She was a great mother! They amaze me, and I swear they eat their body weight in flies daily! I only feed them to keep them coming back home They get plenty on their own!! I haven't eaten any yet, so can't comment on that. the eggs are wonderful for baking though, and I bake a LOT! Most times they lay better than the chickens.

ETA: Pinky I can get you some runners locally if you're interested. Unless you just want to order some.

 

[pinkfox]

mrbstephens, they are runners (fawn and white) aint they adorable. i love the way runners move

cindi, ill be taking you up on that offer for intouch for runner ducklings... itll be a little while yet but im hoping for spring time

 

[mrbstephens]

mrbstephens, they are runners (fawn and white) aint they adorable. i love the way runners move

cindi, ill be taking you up on that offer for intouch for runner ducklings... itll be a little while yet but im hoping for spring time

Thanks! What should their housing be like? They don't need nesting boxes? How many square feet do they need each? Should the house be off the ground like the hen house is with a ladder or lower to the ground? Windows and vents similar to the hen house? I'm in the woods with 10 chickens. I have plenty of space to set up an area for ducks too. Do I need to worry about the same type of predators? We have raccoons, opossum. hawks, owls, and foxes. Will a hawk take a duck? I have the hens in a large run with bird netting over it and the house is completely perdator proof. Our only problem would be a fox if one came over during the day and if one of the neighbor's dogs got out.

 

[BeccaJoVon]

Is it legal to raise Muscovy? I'm pretty sure I see some hatcheries selling them, but I'm reading that it became illegal to have them some time last year???

Thanks!

 

[Dawn419]

Becca, I thought you'd made a typo until I looked it up:

http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/aa/aa-06april2010.htm

 

[pinkfox]

kinda funny the UT ag extension ofice told me muscovies were fine and legal and that it was only illegal in some states LOL.

for housing runners ive been told 2.5 sqft per bird INDOORS is minimum, with more being preferable (4sqft per bird ideally and even more if your prone to realy long bouts of bad weather where theyd be locked inside.
i dont think it realy matters if the house is raised or not but rats will eat the eggs and mice are drawn to duck food so making it in such a way that rodents cant dig in is best bet.

runners are aparently one of the best free ranging ducks because of thier speed, tendency to stay fairly tight in a group and general skittishenss...but they are at risk from the same things chickens are, hawks, racoons ect and any larger predator.
some people offer thier runners nest boxes, some offer something more akin to a nesting platform, and others just put a realy thick layer of straw at one end of the duck house as one big communal nesting area...
runners dont perch (and there terrible flyers, but they can climb if the incentive is right) generally speaking though a 24" fence is tall enough to keep them where you want them and they dont need roosting poles ect so height of the house isnt as important either id say 24-36" tall would give sufficent head room if space was at a premium...
runners unlike other ducks dont NEED a pond (though they do enjoy one), but they are just as messy as any other duck so when planning housing easy clean out is a must.


my personal plan is to set up an area under my soon to be rabbit hutches (which will have a solid floor so no droppings on the ducks lol) the hutch base will be 4x8 so im planning for 6 runners to do a 4x4 enclosed space and a 4x4 roofed wire space and then theyll be able to free range around the garden once its fully fenced. untill then ill be setting up a low fence around their space (about 2ft tall) so i can open their "lock down" area and let them run around the back area close to the house. once the property is fully fenced theyll be allowed to fre range but right now my property isnt realy set up in such a way that it would be safe (the neighbor has a rather jumpy pitty who while is very frightend of people (runs away from people) is a little too interested in other animals, and occasionally they "let him off to run" (yup hes on a chain in the back yard 24/7) so fencing is going to be a must before i free range anything.