I got ducks

[Arlene]

I guess somebody better start posting info about duck here soon. I got me about 8 of them now hahah.

research is underway!!

come on Jessica start putting some info here. I know you know!!

pictures will be soon!

[silkifyre]

Ooops! Sorry, just saw this today! Ok, ok, let's see... ducky info...

First, I'd like to suggest FeatherSite at www.feathersite.com for lots of pics, and info. They have a section on waterfowl. What you want is probably domestic ducks, but they also have info on the wild/exotic breeds.

I also have a duck page at my home site, but it hasn't been linked lately... not since I lost my Mandarins. So I'll post that. I have info and links there. So please visit:
www.angelfire.com/nj/foursbar/ducks.html

A lot of the info that is contained in the links I listed on my page will also work for domestic ducks. But here is what I'm currently doing for my own ducks, which are Call drakes.

The Call duck is a bantam breed, originally bred for hunters to use to "call" in wild fowl. The Calls were bred to be especially small, so hunters could fit them into their vest pockets and easily transport them. The females are the noisy ones and were used to call (hence their name) the wild ducks to the pond or other body of water for the hunters.

Since I still live within city limits, I can't keep the noisy females, so I get my duck fix by my 3 drakes. The drakes have a whispery type of quack and aren't too noisy. They are of 2 color varieties (but there are several), one is a Blue, and the other two are Snowies, which is a pied mallard type of color. In the summer, the snowies are nearly white, but in the fall their plumage becomes darker, more of the mallard color but still with white on them. The Blue is a dark slate blue color with a white "bib." My blue has a muddy appearance to his blue plumage, so he was sold by his breeder to me as a pet. (My snowies came from another breeder and are actually too big for the Call breed standard).

I keep my Calls in a pen measuring roughly 6ft by 12ft (and 4ft high). I haven't actually measured it, but it's formed by an ex-pen that I had for my one dog when I showed him. The ex-pen is great because it's made of heavy gauge wire. It contains the ducks, and keeps them safe from any predators (which are few here in town, thank goodness!). I opened it against an existing chain link fence that edges our property, that's why the pen is the size it is. If it had to stand alone, the pen would be about 6ft x 6ft. We covered the whole thing with garden netting, anchoring it with zip ties.

Inside the pen is an old doghouse that Bob brought me and is used for their shelter, although, I've never seen the ducks go in it. Bob put some straw inside it, and I know the ducks have been in and out of it, because they tracked some straw out!

For their water/swimming I bought a low-sided livestock water trough at the feed store. It's made by Rubbermaid ® and has a drain plug, which is great, cuz it makes for easy emptying and cleaning. The tub is oval in shape, about 3 ft long maybe (again, I haven't actually measured it), and all 3 of my ducks can fit in it and swim. The tub is about 1½ ft deep, if that. I fill it to overflowing and the water lasts them about 2 -3 days before it needs changing. By then it gets pretty mucky. If I could change it daily, I would, but I don't want to flood out the neighbor who owns the chain link fence! Oh yeah, the tub runs about $65.00 brand new.

To clean the tub, I let it empty out, then I rinse it with the hose, then I fill it up to the drain hole. I take an old bottle brush, (but could really use a better brush), to scrub the inside of the tub. Then I dump the water, rinse well, put the drain plug back in, and refill to overflowing. While the tub is refilling, the ducks just can't wait! They LOVE to get in there, splash around, do somersaults, dive, swim, and preen in the tub.

Since I don't have an access ramp for them to get into the tub, I have some cinder blocks as steps for them to use. They don't really "need" the step, but it's a bit easier for them. Otherwise, they could just give a flap and a jump and they'd be in. But I found that they struggled a little too much without the step. They get out by hopping up onto the lip of the tub, then hopping to the ground or to the step, then the ground. Regular sized ducks shouldn't have a problem getting in or out of a tub like that either. However, because ducks aren't really designed as land creatures, the steps really help them to get in and out. It also decreases their chance of developing bumblefoot from a hard landing on getting out of the tub.

For feeding I provide a commercial poultry food, plus I give treats on occasion. The food is a gamebird/turkey grower crumble, which I mix 2-1 with scratch feed. The scratch is half wheat and half cracked corn. So they get 2 parts grower and 1 part scratch. I've tried a few different treats like bread, which they'll eat, wild strawberries (nope), grass clippings and dandelion leaves (sometimes), and I think I tried some other things, which I can't recall at the moment.

I would like to mention, also, that if you have a mix of males and females, the males can be rough on the females. If a male shows an interest in a duck, he'll start chasing her, and other males start chasing her, too. There have been instances of hens being accidentally killed by the males. If the hen has no place to escape to, and she is constantly pestered, then she may perish. She becomes trampled or drowned, usually because the male to female ratio is too high. I would recommend having just 1 or 2 drakes in a flock of females.

I hope that helps to get y'all started. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!

[Arlene]

one is a mallard I think .. male
one is a huge guy named elvis

I will take the pics and you tell me what they are . she told me but I forget.. I will ask her and this time write it down. lord am i getting old?? forgetting things

[Arlene]

oh the big one might be muscovy...

[silkifyre]

If you have a 'scovy, then it'll have red caruncles on it's face. The females don't usually have as much, but the males usually get a whole bunch, making their faces look all bright red and lumpy. I don't think it's the most attractive thing, . It's not a fav. breed of mine, although, they are very nice ducks. There are a bunch of ones like that on a small river near here that people have set loose. And people come all the time to visit the ducks and feed them. Scovies are flyers and like to perch on branches I think... if I remember right. I CRS, too... (Can't Remember Sh*t)... but you can double check that on FeatherSite. I hate it when I can't remember something! Now I gotta run and see if I have work today!

[Arlene]

yes it has the face . they don't fly at all. maybe she clipped the wings? she just had them in a 4 foot fenced off area so I guess when I get the pool set up they will stay home? I got the fence up and I must say I did a good jpb. now to get the places the dogs can climb under patched and I won;t be so scared t let them out when I am home.
also am going to maybe get something over the top too.. just so the hawks can't see them..

[bw]

I keep preaching--invest in an electric fence.

[Arlene]

yeah man I know I know you pay the bill and I will
actually does it run up the bill? I am looking for a used box now and the wire is not much problem to get so actually it is in the progress stage. hahah
I guess if I put two lines.. one down low and one up high that should take care of it right? I am seriously gonna do it . I will I will

[bw]

Get a solor one--no electric bill.Put a hot wire 5 to 6 inches from the bottom ann one 5 inches above that.Then put obes a couple of inches from the top--use 3 inch insulators.Hook the hot wire to the top wire and run a wire from the top wire down to the top bottom wire and then another wire to the lower wire.Put the ground wire to the chicken wire for the ground.---Don`t forget to groung the groung wire to a 4 ft. copper rod driven 3 foot 10 inches into the ground

[Arlene]

solar.. now that is a great idea.. where do you find those?? prob not find one used huh?

I use the metal bars for the chicken wire. guess I need some wooden posts too huh? plenty of trees around here .

thanks for the info!

[bw]

Southern states has them and so does Tru Value hardware.Check out the trading post for a used one or the classifed in the paper

[Arlene]

yes! I sure will that sounds great. I love solar. maybe solar for all the other things too. I saw on another board a solar thing like a heater for a room. small and cheap sounds good to me.