Keeping Backyard Ducks – Pros and Cons

As a chicken keeper, you are probably raising your eyebrow and thinking that to keep ducks you need a pond! Duck ponds are probably quite expensive to build and probably take a lot of maintenance. Then there is all the space in the garden that will be needed, a duck house and so the list goes one. The bottom line – it is probably too expensive and why would a person want to anyway?

Why Keep Ducks?

They are cool and trending right now!

Okay, so as a kid my favorite cartoon character was Daffy Duck! Loved his snarky self-absorbed way. But looking back I guess he did give ducks quite a bad rap. Although they can be a bit cool and shy away from humans they can get to be really tame and friendly.

Plus owning backyard ducks is fast becoming an Urban Homesteader trend! I know quite a few people who are wanting to look into getting a few ducks for their garden.

They lots of duck eggs

Ducks, especially the ones bred for their eggs, lay a lot of eggs a year. Some of them lay up to 250 eggs. They also lay through the winter months and some will stay productive well into their seventh to the eighth year!

You may even be able to make a little bit of a profit from selling lovely fresh duck eggs. There are quite a few chefs, bakery’s etc. that prefer to use duck eggs.

You can have a male (a drake)

Not only does the male duck have an awesome name – a drake! They are also a lot less noisy than a rooster. So, if your neighborhood permits you to keep ducks you will be able to have a drake! They are also not at all aggressive, so they will not be chasing you or anyone in your garden.

Not as destructive as chickens

Your gardens will stand more of a chance than it would with chickens. Ducks do not scratch up the plants or try and make dust baths by the tomato patch. Yes, they do love to dig about and you may find weird duckbill-shaped holes. This is where they have stuck their bill into the soil to get a bug.

Pest/critter free garden

I would say that ducks are just as good as if not a bit better as slurping up those critters or pests in your garden. Especially snails and slugs – ducks go crazy for snails and slugs.

Health hardier

Ducks are a lot healthier than chickens. They are not prone to bird flu, Mareks and other diseases that chickens succumb to.

There are not that many duck diseases to worry about.

Fewer parasites and pests in their feathers

As ducks spend a good deal in and or on water they tend to be a lot less susceptible to lice, ticks, mites, etc.

Ducklings

I think we can all agree that there is NO cuter site than a baby duckling. Especially a line of them waddling after mamma duck!

Easier to breed

As it is easier to keep drakes it is a lot easier to breed ducks than it is chickens. Trust me you will not have a problem with most drakes!

Duck Meat

A lot of people love duck meat. I am not a fan of it myself, but I know there are a lot of delicious duck recipes out there.

Domestic Ducks do not fly

Most of the breed of domestic ducks one would keep in the backyard do not fly very high or at all really. So you do not really need a very high fencing to keep them in. Less chance of them going to visit your neighbor’s or hiding high up in a tree.

Ducks lay eggs before sun up

Ducks will have laid their eggs under the guise of the dark. So, if you keep them in their hutch at night by the morning all their eggs will have been laid for you. They are also not as noisy as chickens when they lay their eggs.

The Dark Side of Keeping Ducks

Okay, so there is always a bit of a negative side to most everything! Owning ducks is no exception. These are more like little challenges that owning backyard ducks may give each day/month/year!

They are high maintenance

So, chickens need special coop’s, runs, dust baths, etc. Well, ducks need a pond of sorts. For the domestic ducks (which is the only type a person should be looking at for their backyard) you can use a kiddie’s plastic pool. Yay! You have just wiped your brown thinking that is not such a cost, so I can just get one of those! The thing is they need to be cleaned and have fresh water in them every day! Ducks can be very messy in their water!

Special water bowls

You can DIY these or buy special duck waterers. But you cannot just put a bowl of water down for their drinking. Ducks see water they want to have a dip in it. That goes the same for if you have a swimming pool too. And you can imagine all the negatives to those scenarios. So, if you have other domestic animals you will have to look into putting their water bowls in a place the ducks will not try a dip in.

Ducks tend to poop bucket loads

I am not exaggerating when I say ducks poop a lot! And they poop everywhere! If you do not want, your garden to smell and the places they love to hang out in to smell you will have to hose down at least every second day. Duck poop also smells – not that bad acidy chicken poop smell more a musty wet decaying reeds type of smell!

Not everyone likes duck eggs or can even eat them

Duck eggs are richer, thicker and have more calories and cholesterol than chicken eggs. Although they are incredible to bake with making an omelette or scrambled egg with – not so much. Well, I do not really like the tastes. And if you do not really know what you are doing you could get a bit of a rubbery plate of scrambled eggs or a bouncy omelet.

The best would be to buy some duck eggs from somewhere and give them a try. But if you have health issues especially anything to with cholesterol please talk to your medical advisor first.

They will eat your plants

Ducks will eat plants that are their height. If they like them they will eat them especially anything green. So, if you are growing lettuce, kale, etc. best to try and keep the ducks out of there by fencing it off.

Not as good at going to bed than chickens

Ducks have quite good eyesight and they do not mind the dark. In fact, they are quite happy to splash about until all hours in their body of water.

They can be herded into their hutch and will need to be trained. Even then they will sometimes forget that you were so diligent in training them to go home.

More prone to predators if they do not have a large body of water to escape to

As they love to just lazily splash about in their water in the evening it makes them easier to the night predators. They are also easy to catch for some day predators such as hawks too, especially in smaller bodies of water. You have to be more predator aware when you have ducks.

Ducklings

Although they are cute, delightful and are so easy to breed. Ducklings take even more care than chicks do. They are also a lot more interesting to predators!

Breeding happy

It is all well and good that the drake is quite and in fact has quite a soft husky quack. I often liken it to a soft-spoken man with a gruff voice. They are really “breeding happy” and will try to breed with any female bird in sight when they feel the need. This includes chickens and if you have a mixed breed of birds you will have to watch this. Drakes can damage and hurt other species of birds when trying to mate with them.

Not everyone likes Duck Meat

Duck meat is rich and an acquired taste. Once again before you rush out to cull your Daffy try to find a place that does duck and give it a try.

There are pros and cons to owning every pet really even dogs and cats.
But still we do it because we want to and well it can also be really rewarding. Owning ducks is just the same. In fact, there is nothing like sitting on your porch having a cool beverage and watching them frolic, glide and swim peacefully about. Sometimes they can be quite the characters as well and you will have a good laugh. It can be very therapeutic and when tamed they have no qualms about waddling up to where you are and taking over either!

I would like to thank the East London Zoo for their time spent with me in helping me with the various duck ponds and duck houses.

I would also like to thank the Burnside Touch farm your information on your ducks was really helpful.