New Ducks!

[bonniethomas06]

Check out my lovely new ducks, which we bought this weekend
They are Khaki Campbells, which I am told are good 'starter ducks'. They are so sweet, the two females follow the drake everywhere!
This is their enclosure...pond still needs to be made pretty, but they seem to like it:

IMG_2035.JPG (56.25 KiB) Viewed 4820 times

Still having problems persuading them to go to bed in their duckhouse at night though...they are slow learners.

IMG_2035.JPG (56.25 KiB) Viewed 4820 times

Just wanted to share!

Edited to say...not sure why we have 3 of the same photo, when I only uploaded one? Sorry about that!

[oldjerry]

Brill,Bonnie (how ya goona keep the pond clean?.....I've kept these too..) I think you've got the best breed for laying (look out though for some very rare WHITE Campbells).
The eggs are the best for cakemaking,and my kids always prefer them to hen eggs.
Re getting them in,they will get the idea in the end,they're not as savvy as hens (!)

Great photos,great set up, Best Wishes.

[Green Aura]

Oooh, lovely! I love ducks and duck eggs.

[okra]

Best of luck - looks like a great set up

[JulieSherris]

Ooo, I love Ducks Bonnie!

Our ducks still need to be herded every now & again - they're always the last in every night & we have 2 muscovy ducks that have flatly refused to go in for ages! And you try & get a muscovy down from a chimney pot at dusk - not easy!!

We still haven't made ours a pond though - poor little duckies But we have 2 clam shells & 3 other large containers that are tipped up once a week & refilled for them. I'm glad in one way that we didn't knee-jerk the pond building though, because the temporary ponds have shown us just how quick they get mucky!
Andy has researched pumps & filters though & has a list of things to get for when we DO start digging out for the permanent pond...... we really need to win that lottery soon I think

I got a mixture of different coloured ducks - with a Cayuga drake, so we get some lovely colours when the eggs hatch.
A neighbour called me last November - he has been looking for any duck that lays blue eggs - mine lay white, green or black, but he got a couple of eggs that he popped under a banty hen & got 2 runners (duck & drake) Anyway, he said they were too big for what he wanted & would I take them..... so now we have 2 black runners in the mix!

Enjoy your ducks, and the duck eggs - smashing!!

[Millymollymandy]

No grass for them they love grass and eat tons of it, also be careful of the rough ground and rocks cos their feet/legs are more fragile than chickens and their webbed bits get cut quite easily.

Hope you have loads of fun with them - maybe you can let them out to free range in the garden when they have got used to bedtime routine. And you will have loads of lovely poo every day from the duck shed to compost!

I don't think you can beat white aylesbury/whatever market crosses for eggs though - lay tons better than any hen - never stop laying in winter and I've been getting eggs galore from mine for 4 years and they're only just starting to come to the end of their laying days. Thank god!!!

[bonniethomas06]

Brill,Bonnie (how ya goona keep the pond clean?.....I've kept these too..)

Good question OJ, we have ordered a net from fleabay to scoop up the leaves and some pondweed (elodea) to oxygenate the water...otherwise I think it will be a case of using the water to dunk watering cans in for the veggie patch and re-filling it on a regular basis. Does that sound realistic?

[bonniethomas06]

Ooo, I love Ducks Bonnie!

And you try & get a muscovy down from a chimney pot at dusk - not easy!!

Hehe I can just picture it. The breeder we bought ours from had some Muscovy's. While the Campbells and Aylesburys were running about her shed as she was catching our lot, the Muscovy's all sat on a railing 2m off the ground and looked unimpressed. Clever things.

[bonniethomas06]

No grass for them they love grass and eat tons of it, also be careful of the rough ground and rocks cos their feet/legs are more fragile than chickens and their webbed bits get cut quite easily.

Don't worry MMM, when we get some more chicken wire they will have an extended run into a grassy area. I could let them free range but their pen is right next to the veggie patch, and there has been a fox sniffing around lately in the farm next to us. Will they pull up all of my veg?

Thanks for the pointer about their feet, too. I will have a check over their area (the next time I am home in the daylight ) and make sure there is nothing sharp lying around - there shouldn't be, as it used to be nice grass...until the chickens arrived.

[Millymollymandy]

My veg patch is fenced off but they tend to stick their beaks in/under everything (looking for grubs and slugs I guess) so as long as I keep young little things in my flowerbeds protected with bits of bent fence wire they don't do too much damage (they stomp on little things with their great big feet ). They love eating greens and just rip up grass etc then dunk it in their water to eat it. So perhaps actually on reflection it's a good thing you don't have grass around that pond!

So not sure about eating veg - they would be good for slug patrol around established plants but I expect they might rip things like lettuce to shreds. And they do eat green strawberries - found that out the hard way the little sh1ts!

[oldjerry]

Well we found in the end it was easier to make a shallow (9'') paddling pool out of glass fibre,and then just tip this out when the water needs changing.You could loofk at a cheap small electric pump and just pump it out once every 6 weeks or so.Look around for some plastic matting like you put outside the back door,if this surrounds the pond it will keep clean longer,(no they don't exactly wipe their feet ,but you know what I mean..)

[clanpowell]

Really jealous. We had some Kharki Campbells untill a fox got them
Made all the more anoying because we were away om holiday at the time and the neighbour who was supposed to be looking after them didn't put them away because she went out on the town instead. "I had my heels on by duck bedtime" (Direct quote!!!)

[Millymollymandy]

Oh that's rotten clanpowell.

[clanpowell]

Tell me about it. We're looking after her daughter next week whilst she's on holiday. Do foxes eat 12yr girls?

[Millymollymandy]

Dunno but you could just trying leaving her outside all night and see what happens! *evil grin*