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I can only tell you about the white kind (see avatar) but no time now as family are leaving this morning. I'll come back to this later - though telling you you can buy them from any French market that sells chooks won't be much use to you.

We have both Khaki Campbells and Indian Runner Ducks, who are all very good layers (1 egg a day, every day from the ladies) and very amusing to watch. They live with our chickens.

Ducks WILL ruin the ground you put them on - they alternately stomp it down and churn it up, plus get it very muddy!
Mine don't have a pond as such, we've got several children's sandpits with water in that is changed every day.

As far as I'm aware, they'll need the facility to clean out/filter the pond, as ducks do mess water up pretty quickly. Generally, within an hour of refilling my ducks' water, it is filthy with a layer of mud/scum/poo on the bottom of the sandpit.

My ducks are rather timid and nervous; they are still terrified of humans, despite being handled from 6 weeks old and around people every day. If they are approached (i.e. I am within about 10 feet of them) they will run away, quacking from sheer terror! Even the promise of tasty treats can't get them any closer than about 6ft. However, they are lovely to watch and I love watching them in the water, or sunbathing later in the day.

In terms of supply, I would steer clear of auctions and try and find a local supplier who they can visit. The Practical Poultry magazine is useful and they have a pretty good forum too (just google it).

Hope that helps!

Mine are the white farmyard duck variety which is generally a cross between Aylesbury, Pekin and White Campbell or a mix of two of them. They lay very well but are heavy birds who can't fly, so they need to be safe at night. I shut mine in a shed.

They are still timid even after I've had them for 2 years - I can stroke one or two of them whilst feeding them some wheat which they'll take from my hand but the 3rd one will barely come near the food bowl if I'm squatting there feeding the other two.

They go through some wierd behaviour changes from friendly and following me around the garden to extremely timid and running away if I go near them - to what they are at the moment which is completely mental and quacking loudly and raucously whilst running around all fluffed up, quite beserk and I'm a bit perplexed by this behaviour quite honesty!

They destroy pond banks (natural ponds) by constantly nibbling at the edges, at first they had a penchant for nibbling flower buds off forsythia and ox eye daisies but seem to have forgotten this, (thankfully!) so a lot of young plants had to have barriers around them. Keep them out of the veg patch! and put some barriers up around young plants or bulbs or they'll stomp everything flat with their big feet! On the plus side most of the snuffling they are doing in amongst your plants is for slugs and the like.

They are good fun but we have decided not to replace them when they die as they are hard work with the mucking out of the duck shed everyday and the destruction they cause, and we can't get through all the eggs (they are all female) that they lay and nobody to sell them to. Mind you I'll have less compost without them as I get a bucket of straw and muck every day. Hmmm.

Hi

We keep Aylesbury ducks and although they are quite a large duck they are exceptionally friendly. We hatch our own and the children handle them from day olds and now they are very friendly and eat out of our hands. The good thing with Aylesburys is they can't fly, we are very lucky to have the River Dee running past the farm so ours ducks waddle daily to the river and back in the evening. I will agree with the other comments - they do make a hell of a mess but that is the duck! whether it be a small breed or large breed. Where abouts in mid wales are you? We are in Corwen in North Wales - we have a smallholding and breed and hatch all our own eggs, you would be more than welcome to get in touch if you are within travelling distance and we would be more than happy to sort you out with some ducklings - if you want them to be friendly I would really recommend getting them from a really early age - we keep them indoors for the first couple of weeeks and handle them daily which makes them really friendly and are hatching hens and ducks regulary. I know you say that you are not keen on duck eggs - I hated them until we got our own but now I eat and use them all the time, they are brilliant for cakes and make fantastic omlettes.

Hope that helps, Kerri x

For comic value I go for Indian Runners every time. I spend hours watching mine 'poddle' up and down. (poddle) is the only word that sounds right for what they do.

Anyone else got a word they use