New! not much experienced yet but interested and ready to commit!
Re: New! not much experienced yet but interested and ready to commit!
Hi @TyroneOfSix good luck with your waterfowl project. The breeder we buy our chicks from (near Oshawa) said Indian Runners are good layers. Our neighbour down the street said she had to catch her ducks at night and put them in the coop. She had a small pond. I'm not sure how hard it is to catch a duck but I have had an exhausting difficult time trying to catching a chicken.
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windwalkingwolf
- Poultry Guru - pullet level
- Posts: 3567
- Joined: Sat Dec 12, 2015 1:31 pm
- Location: Frankville, Ontario
- x 4900
Re: New! not much experienced yet but interested and ready to commit!
Welcome to PTO!
If you're looking for friendly, easy to manage and care for birds, muscovies are your best bet.
No special feed requirements...they eat like pigs but thrive on whatever you give them.
They're quiet! Apart from some quiet interduck chatting, almost silent.
Good table bird and very good at making replacements. If you take the babies as they hatch, mama duck will quickly go back to laying eggs and then sitting on them.
Geese are noisy. Some people like them as a intruder warning system, but they raise an ear-splitting fuss over everything. Even leaves blowing by or a couple doing what couples do. Geese can be nasty territorial, especially in breeding season.
Female ducks are noisy, and mallard-derived ducks (pretty much everything domestic except muscovies) are constantly terrified of everything, and are absolute predator magnets.
I don't tractor my waterfowl, but would be interested to see how such a thing would work...I imagine it would have to be moved several times a day, as ducks and geese will eat everything green very quickly, make mud with their water and then also dig and eat the roots.
They are all very good at eating bugs, but their
is very good at attracting flies, so there's a trade off.
Oh, the. I call duck s*it "splot" because that's the sound it makes as it's hitting the ground. Or the wall. Or your leg. There's a lot of it, it's high-speed ejection ensures wide and high coverage, and it will be a lovely watery pudding consistency. The splot of a broody waterfowl can turn even the strongest stomach.
Goose turd is somewhat firmer, so you shouldn't have to power wash the ceiling
If you want them in at night (they won't coop in at dusk like chickens.) you must only feed them in the coop, or else herd them in. Waterfowl see great in the dark, unlike chickens, and also prefer open sky to a roof.
If you're looking for friendly, easy to manage and care for birds, muscovies are your best bet.
No special feed requirements...they eat like pigs but thrive on whatever you give them.
They're quiet! Apart from some quiet interduck chatting, almost silent.
Good table bird and very good at making replacements. If you take the babies as they hatch, mama duck will quickly go back to laying eggs and then sitting on them.
Geese are noisy. Some people like them as a intruder warning system, but they raise an ear-splitting fuss over everything. Even leaves blowing by or a couple doing what couples do. Geese can be nasty territorial, especially in breeding season.
Female ducks are noisy, and mallard-derived ducks (pretty much everything domestic except muscovies) are constantly terrified of everything, and are absolute predator magnets.
I don't tractor my waterfowl, but would be interested to see how such a thing would work...I imagine it would have to be moved several times a day, as ducks and geese will eat everything green very quickly, make mud with their water and then also dig and eat the roots.
They are all very good at eating bugs, but their
is very good at attracting flies, so there's a trade off.Oh, the
. I call duck s*it "splot" because that's the sound it makes as it's hitting the ground. Or the wall. Or your leg. There's a lot of it, it's high-speed ejection ensures wide and high coverage, and it will be a lovely watery pudding consistency. The splot of a broody waterfowl can turn even the strongest stomach.Goose turd is somewhat firmer, so you shouldn't have to power wash the ceiling
If you want them in at night (they won't coop in at dusk like chickens.) you must only feed them in the coop, or else herd them in. Waterfowl see great in the dark, unlike chickens, and also prefer open sky to a roof.
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