Duck questions... quack quack!

[Pakanohida]

This is a multi-part set of questions because I would like to keep ducks for free ranging in my zone 1.

First, what are breeds people had success with in a climate like the Pacific Northwest (Lots of Rain and wind)?

Is it true they need 1m square each, or would a simple doghouse like enclosure in the pen be good enough?

What is a good flock mixture of guys to girls?

Does anyone grow all the food the flock needs on their property? If so, what is it?

Any other info would be enjoyed.



This post inspired by ducks in the PRI DVD: Soils. Corny, but true.

[annette]

Hi Pak

not sure about the wind and rain, but I believe muscovy ducks are a pretty good alrounder. Good meat good eggs. That was my experience.

I drake per 3 ducks is a rule of thumb.

At first I had 1 drake, 3 ducks and 12 ducklings and they free ranged everywhere. They make a hell of a mess with poop etc so i would suggest not letting them near the house if you can. They were housed at night in a chook house approximately 3 x 4 yards.

I had a small pool of water (one of those kiddie shell pools) and the ducks would dirty it all the time. I cleaned it morning noon and night. Muscovies don't need to swim just duck their head in the water. However they will swim if they want.

there is a thread started by sunburn and me with a lot more information.

good luck

[Pakanohida]

Hi Pak

not sure about the wind and rain, but I believe muscovy ducks are a pretty good alrounder. Good meat good eggs. That was my experience.

I drake per 3 ducks is a rule of thumb.

At first I had 1 drake, 3 ducks and 12 ducklings and they free ranged everywhere. They make a hell of a mess with poop etc so i would suggest not letting them near the house if you can. They were housed at night in a chook house approximately 3 x 4 yards.

I had a small pool of water (one of those kiddie shell pools) and the ducks would dirty it all the time. I cleaned it morning noon and night. Muscovies don't need to swim just duck their head in the water. However they will swim if they want.

there is a thread started by sunburn and me with a lot more information.

good luck

Did you house them with the chooks?

After reading around the internet more, we are leaning towards Muscovy as well since we are more interested meat then eggs with regards to ducks.

[annette]

No didn't have chooks at the time that I had the ducks. I found when i ate the ducks they were quite lean, not much fat. very tasty but.

I found the ducks took a lot of looking after. cleaning, cleaning cleaning...........

[S.O.P]

Ecofilms has a piece about filtering duck water not too long ago.

May give you some ideas as to reducing a whole lot of duck maintenance, Pak.

[pippimac]

Muscovies get on well with chooks, but the make the drinking water filthy, so unless you have a nifty duck-proof chook-waterer, I'd keep them separate.
They're also really greedy and push the chicks around while stealing the chook food. Considering muscovies are supposed to thrive without extra feed, that doesn't seem ideal.
They are also really friendly, crap fliers and their biggest noise is a sort of strangulated hissing. And the drakes wag their tales constantly, which looks both ridiculous and pretty cute.

[Pakanohida]

OK, read lots of comments, thoughts, etc. My idea is as follows:

Give them a home, a pen, wattle up some wind protection too.
Give them a kiddie pool, connect a drain to it, drain goes to a faucet downhill for use as "compost tea," and then simply refill the kiddie pool as needed.
This goes inside of a pen that I can open and close to let them free range in a given area. Meanwhile, the chooks keep on doing the Mandala / Woodrow system inside their tractor.

Thank you everyone!