Ducks in your pond

[jcummins]

Not sure why I haven't gotten some ducks. Been here 5 years, and have excellent place for them, I think. So...couple months ago I started looking for baby mallard ducks. Reading pros/cons they can fly away, guess it's a 50/50 chance. But the ducks that are more goose like I'm just not interested in.

Well....hard to find them, at least close enough to get. Now the Rouen ducks that are similar to, larger, are. I ruled them out initially, but starting to give them another thought.

Mallard v/s Rouen, for those that have had them...pros/cons?

 

[EddieWalker]

Wild ducks want shallow water with plants growing in it to eat. If you don't have the right habitat, they will pass you by for what they are looking for. Other ducks in the pond are always good to attract wild ducks, but they usually don't stick around very long with people there, or nothing for them to eat.

I started out with Rouen's and liked how they looked like mallards, but found them to be very aggressive to each other, and anything else that landed in the pond. I know have mostly Khaki Campbell's and really like them. Not as colorful, but they are great egg layers and they all get along with each other. I have a few other breeds too. On top of the ducks, we have 7 swan geese. They are loud, but really nice to watch in the water, and out grazing in the pasture.

My pond is 3/4 of an acres and in the middle of my horse pasture. The ducks and geese all sleep in one of the horse stalls at night. I have three strands of electric fencing going around the pasture to keep out predators. Before the wire, I was being tore up by coyotes and racoons. We've only lost two guineas to owls this year, and nothing to coyotes or racoons. One of the best unexpected bonuses to having the ducks is that they love to eat up and tear apart the horse poo. Last year the flies where horrible and we could't spray enough chemicals to make a dent in them. This year, there are hardly no flies and we haven't sprayed any chemicals. We joke that we are now in balance with enough ducks to horses.

 

[PILOON]

LOL, my friend does not have a pond but daily gets up to 5 families of ducks that come to his bird feeder. (well they eat the droppings)
They walk across the road, fly in and plain drop in.
OK, there is a small marshy lake nearby (with some 6-10 houses between that small lake and him).
Seems that his visitors are offspring of previous years broods.
His 'duckies' are just like chickens and come right up to him when he tosses out grain.
His visitors are mallards, blacks and occasional wood ducks.
Quite a showing.

His neighbors have even posted duck crossing signs as often the chicks are paraded over by the mother.
From time to time fights break out as hens are either jealous or very protective.

All in all quite a daily showing.

 

[jcummins]

Eddie, I was going to ask to, and forgot. Do ducks need a shelter of sorts. We do not have any outside animals. 36 acres smack dab in the middle of 460+ acres, some pasture, mostly woods.

I am going to build a coop and get some guineas, have a tick problem here, and hope they will help. Without a doubt, I'll lose guineas to coyotes, but hopefully not many. I do need to train them to come home to the coop at night. I suppose ducks could shelter with the guineas???. Actually I was going to setup the coop so the guineas can just fly in/out not sure that will work, although I had a neighbor in Texas that did that, and every morning they flew into my pasture to spend the day. I don't want to set it up so I've got to let them in/out, want them to do it on their own. Also, the coop I'm going to attach to my barn which is on the opposite side of the house from the pond. So...not sure it would be best for ducks anyway.

My pond is almost 8 acres, and is not marshy, so mallards probably won't work from your comments. I know my neighbor had some mallards, they finally left. His pond smaller but similar to mine. They did spend a little time on my pond, but did not stay. I do know....have had several different groups of geese come in here, and way to much poop with them. Do ducks have the same problem?

 

[oosik]

I have a five acre pond thats 80 feet deep out in the center. The west end is an additional four acres with cattails, where the water varies from 12 feet to two feet at the very far end. I get ducks of all kinds & varieties all summer long. I also have a family of muskrats. The puddle ducks like the shallows and the diving ducks prefer the deeper waters. I have had the same pair of Canadian honkers come and nest/raise their young on the lake every spring.
The lake becomes a real mad house in the spring and again in the fall when the migratory flocks move thru.

I use to stock the lake with fish and they were fun to watch but "Trespassing" became too big an issue so - no fish for the last ten years.

 

[rekees4300]

I also have a family of muskrats.

It would be prudent to eliminate all Muskrats ASAP! They will destroy your dam.

 

[oosik]

I imagine that could be the case - however, this is a spring fed lake with a natural outlet that feeds into a larger (120 acre) lake that I also own part of. The big lake is privately owned my myself and two ranchers. Its quite shallow and only good for cattle watering and migratory waterfowl.

 

[Trials]

Not sure why I haven't gotten some ducks. Been here 5 years, and have excellent place for them, I think. So...couple months ago I started looking for baby mallard ducks. Reading pros/cons they can fly away, guess it's a 50/50 chance. But the ducks that are more goose like I'm just not interested in.

Well....hard to find them, at least close enough to get. Now the Rouen ducks that are similar to, larger, are. I ruled them out initially, but starting to give them another thought.

Mallard v/s Rouen, for those that have had them...pros/cons?

Many years ago my dad released 8 Mallards on our lake, initially their wings were clipped (to do that you just trim some of the longest wing feathers off one side you can't trim both wings or they can still fly) The ducks stayed on the lake no problems even after the feathers grew back in, the only issue was that after my cousin trained them to come for food when you called for them, all 8 would fly right across the lake and straight to you. :laughing: That didn't work so well come hunting season, all a hunter had to do was yell 'Here Duck Duck Duck' and here they come!
:duck::duck::duck::duck::duck::duck::duck::duck:

btw: The Zoo has no problem keeping ducks all year round with relatively little facilities and shelter. The biggest problem is preventing them from having their feet freeze in the ice.

 

[EddieWalker]

Eddie, I was going to ask to, and forgot. Do ducks need a shelter of sorts. We do not have any outside animals. 36 acres smack dab in the middle of 460+ acres, some pasture, mostly woods.

I am going to build a coop and get some guineas, have a tick problem here, and hope they will help. Without a doubt, I'll lose guineas to coyotes, but hopefully not many. I do need to train them to come home to the coop at night. I suppose ducks could shelter with the guineas???. Actually I was going to setup the coop so the guineas can just fly in/out not sure that will work, although I had a neighbor in Texas that did that, and every morning they flew into my pasture to spend the day. I don't want to set it up so I've got to let them in/out, want them to do it on their own. Also, the coop I'm going to attach to my barn which is on the opposite side of the house from the pond. So...not sure it would be best for ducks anyway.

My pond is almost 8 acres, and is not marshy, so mallards probably won't work from your comments. I know my neighbor had some mallards, they finally left. His pond smaller but similar to mine. They did spend a little time on my pond, but did not stay. I do know....have had several different groups of geese come in here, and way to much poop with them. Do ducks have the same problem?

Here in East Texas ducks don't need a shelter, but for some reason when it got hot out this summer, they all started spending the night inside the horse stall. All five of my horses either stand up tight together in the other stall, or feed from the hay ring all night long. The geese also sleep with the ducks. The guineas are in there too, but they all stand on a railing that I have in case I ever want to put a gate on that stall to keep a horse locked up and away from the others. In your area, a shelter of some kind might be needed.

To get the guineas to stick around, you have to lock them all up in a pen for a few weeks. Then once a week, you let just one out. It will spend all of it's time trying to get back in and be close to the other guineas. It just takes one guinea in a pen to keep all the others around. Once you let them all out, they wonder. They break up into groups that change constantly. I usually have two groups, but sometimes three and four. Size will range from all of them together, to a dozen in one group, four in another and one or two that can't decide and race back and forth between groups. Every night at 6 pm, or just before dark in winter, we feed everyone. Horses, goats, pig, guineas, geese, ducks and chickens. They all show up for feeding time. It's actually kind of crazy fun to see them all eating at the same time, then trying to steal each others piles of food, even though their pile is the same and they haven't finished it yet. Then after the horses have finished their feed, they steal what's left.

To let the ducks and geese go, we clipped both wings. They can fly enough to get away from trouble, but not enough to leave. By the time they grow out their feathers, they have no reason to leave. They will fly around the pond, or if out in the grass, fly back to the pond, but mostly they just walk and swim everywhere.

I have 7 geese and I think about 20 ducks. I do not have a poop problem. I guess they either poop in the water, or out in the grass. They have five acres at night to wonder around in, and another 7 acres during the day. In my opinion, it would take ten times as many ducks to create a problem with smell or too much poop. I also get 4 feet of rain per year on average, and that probably has something to do with cleaning up the poop. Or it could be the horses walking around the barn all the time keeps the poop from building up. Horse hoofs make sure nothing grows where they walk, or builds up.

 

[jcummins]

Here in East Texas ducks don't need a shelter, but for some reason when it got hot out this summer, they all started spending the night inside the horse stall. All five of my horses either stand up tight together in the other stall, or feed from the hay ring all night long. The geese also sleep with the ducks. The guineas are in there too, but they all stand on a railing that I have in case I ever want to put a gate on that stall to keep a horse locked up and away from the others. In your area, a shelter of some kind might be needed.

To get the guineas to stick around, you have to lock them all up in a pen for a few weeks. Then once a week, you let just one out. It will spend all of it's time trying to get back in and be close to the other guineas. It just takes one guinea in a pen to keep all the others around. Once you let them all out, they wonder. They break up into groups that change constantly. I usually have two groups, but sometimes three and four. Size will range from all of them together, to a dozen in one group, four in another and one or two that can't decide and race back and forth between groups. Every night at 6 pm, or just before dark in winter, we feed everyone. Horses, goats, pig, guineas, geese, ducks and chickens. They all show up for feeding time. It's actually kind of crazy fun to see them all eating at the same time, then trying to steal each others piles of food, even though their pile is the same and they haven't finished it yet. Then after the horses have finished their feed, they steal what's left.

To let the ducks and geese go, we clipped both wings. They can fly enough to get away from trouble, but not enough to leave. By the time they grow out their feathers, they have no reason to leave. They will fly around the pond, or if out in the grass, fly back to the pond, but mostly they just walk and swim everywhere.

I have 7 geese and I think about 20 ducks. I do not have a poop problem. I guess they either poop in the water, or out in the grass. They have five acres at night to wonder around in, and another 7 acres during the day. In my opinion, it would take ten times as many ducks to create a problem with smell or too much poop. I also get 4 feet of rain per year on average, and that probably has something to do with cleaning up the poop. Or it could be the horses walking around the barn all the time keeps the poop from building up. Horse hoofs make sure nothing grows where they walk, or builds up.

Well aware of east Texas. Was near Tomball 25 years....had small acreage with cows near Trinity for awhile before relocating to southern Illinois for a number of reason.

You've given me some ideas. Got a neighbor couple of miles from me that has several ducks....all mallards. Her place isn't that big. She says they stay because she feeds them. I just need to find some since I prefer, at least at this point, the mallards.