How many ducks should i get

Popularity of duck eggs seems to be regional, as is the price customers are willing to pay for them. For quick duck egg math: 30 ducks laying 5 eggs per week per hen will give you eggs per week.

Getting started with meat rabbits? Wonderful choice! Rabbits are backyard superstars that are rising in popularity since they are quiet, only need a small amount of space and are family friendly Getting started with raising your own chickens for eggs? Having your own eggs will give you a nice start into the world of raising your own food, plus the taste is unlike anything Skip to content Decided to give raising ducks a try?

Always have more females than males, and have an extra drake if you are planning on fertile eggs. Some of our ducks, you can see this is a mixed group with mostly crossbred ducks.

The white one in the back is a Pekin, everybody else is a mix, some of which have lovely coloring. Hobby raisers, start with 10 ducklings I would start with 10 ducklings, especially if you are getting straight run.

And, as much as I hate to mention it, sometimes a duckling will die. A mixed sex flock must be mostly female ducks A key point before we continue: you can have all female or all male, but if you have a mix there must be significantly more females than male ducks. The normal ratio of males to females is , for heavy breeds and for lighter breeds.

Ducklings will have different growth rates Not all of your ducklings will grow at the same rate. We ordered a large group of Pekins from a hatchery. They were really cute, I love baby ducks! Saxony drake standing beside Saxony duck sitting. Purebred ducklings will not all have correct markings Being able to select the ducks you keep is important if want your duck flock to adhere to the specific breed standards.

Not all purebred ducks will end up having the correct markings for the breed. When buying mature ducks, start with 4 or 5 ducks If you are planning to buy mature ducks, start with ducks , one of which should be male if you want fertile eggs.

Ducks need a buddy to be happy, always keep at least two ducks together. Mid size hobby duck raisers should grow to ducks If you know you want to have a bit bigger flock than the ducks, I would plan to start with ducks or grow to that number.

How do you adjust the breeding groups if you only have one male? Rare breed flocks should have at least two pairs of ducks If you are raising a rare breed of duck, get two pairs or even better, two trios.

Culling is a normal part of raising breeding stock, rare breed or otherwise. If you have multiple pairs or trios you can adjust your breeding plan to improve your ducks. Know the square footage of your duck pen Go out an measure your planned duck pen. How much area do you plan to dedicate to your flock? Age weeks Sq. If you are providing an outdoor area for the ducks, the outdoor space would be in addition to these numbers.

Source: Metzer Farms These numbers will give you an idea of how much space your ducks need in a sheltered area. Ducks do not need to be raised in male and female pairs Ducks do not need to be raised in pairs, as in one male and one female. If you have two males or two females, your ducks will get along just fine.

Raising domesticated ducks of any breed can be very enjoyable and rewarding, but it also has its drawbacks. I feel, as with any new addition to the homestead or farm, the good and bad should be weighed up before making a decision.

So today I thought I would share what I perceive as the downsides of duck raising. I think I underestimated exactly how messy ducks were when I first brought home ducklings! Duck poop is liquid, and prolific, and they have no control over when they poop, and will poop everywhere.

Even a small flock of ducks can generate a pretty large amount of manure. Ducks love water, they will drink more of it than you think possible, play in it, swim in it, mate in it, clean themselves in it, and want to sleep right by it.

They will get water everywhere, which makes mud. You will spend a good part of your time hauling or running clean water, cleaning pools, buckets, and waterers.

They are also messy eaters. Ducks eat by taking a few bite of feed and then getting a drink, and in the process they just fling food and water everywhere. The duck food turns mushy and the water gets loaded with food crumbs. One of the most endearing traits of ducks to me is how they form tight close knit relationships with their flock mates.

My ducks are thick as thieves and there is constantly communication and chatter going on amoung my 4 girls. A lot of your flocks noise level may depend on the ducks breeds.

My Pekin is fairly quiet, but my Buff Orpingtons are very vocal, and very loud, they also sound surprisingly similar to Donald Duck. Disney may have gotten a few things wrong over the years, but they absolutely hit the nail on the head with the sound of a duck communicating. If you have neighbors nearby, they may not be as entertained by the ducks yelling at each other across the yard as you are, the noise level of a duck may become a point of contention.

Both of these scenarios are completely unacceptable in my book. If your drake is displaying his perceived dominance over you, there are ways to handle the situation. For me personally though, I keep ducks because I enjoy having them around and taking care of them. If you get ducks, and plan on keeping a drake around for the long term you need to be prepared for the potential of aggressive behavior. But duck mating is extremely aggressive, and takes place several times a day.

Male ducks have very high sex drives, they also can be very rough on females. If you keep multiple drakes, mating can be down right horrific, because often when one male notices another male mating the others will want to join in while the female is restrained, resulting in her injury or even death. The recommended ratio of drakes to ducks to prevent overmating is ducks per drake! This gives you an idea of just how high of a sex drive male ducks have.

If you are also raising chickens and are planning on having a mixed flock you need to know that drakes may even attempt to mate with chickens, which can be highly problematic. Waterfowl are one of the few birds that actually have penises. A drake attempting to mate with a hen is very dangerous for the hen and can actually kill her. Female ducks are generally pretty laid back, but drakes can be territorial, and aggressive to other male members of their flock.

Problems within a duck flock typically tend to occur when you have two or more males or an equal number of females or less to males. Male ducks will fight other male ducks to establish alpha status in the flock, and male ducks will fight because of hormonal surges that make them aggressive and territorial. There is a general consensus among duck enthusiasts that the ducklings the feed stores get and sell as straight runs are most likely the remaining birds after the ducklings have been sexed by the hatchery for orders, and therefore contain an unusually high amount of males.

I purchased my first batch of ducklings straight run at Tractor Supply, fully prepared to harvest the drakes, and keep the hens for egg layers.

At the time I really wanted egg layers. What I was not prepared for was a drastically uneven ratio of drakes to ducks, which of course is what I ended up with, and would never work if I intended to keep the peace in my coop. I was hoping for at least 2 females and I figured with a flock of 6, statistically my odds were pretty good. What I got was 1 female duck and 5 drakes.

I decided that 4 of the drakes were to be harvested, and 1 drake would be left to be a companion to our girl. Eventually my one remaining drake was also harvested because of the aggressive mating situation I mentioned earlier. I purchased 3 sexed Buff Orpington ducks directly from a hatchery to keep my Pekin company. Lesson learned. I am grateful to have the meat in the freezer, and I was happy to be able to share some with my neighbors who helped us with the processing of the birds.

Ducks by nature are skittish and shy. I keep a waterer above the coop that the chickens can get to because the ducks will 'duck up' any water they can reach in 0 seconds. I've experimented with the head hole bucket solutions, which is better than open access, but because ducks 'sluice' water with their food, if you want the chickens to have clear water, they need a source that the ducks can't reach. That being said, I still see the chickens happily drinking from the common water as well.

All low maintenance, though, and so beautiful and fun to watch in the yard. Ducks can be LOUD. Really loud. Drakes make no real sounds but hens talk a lot. Muscovies are the quietest females. And good layers. They should be separate from chickens because their water is messy. And they need water to wash down food or they can choke.

I have had ducks since Mine pretty much stop laying for the winter. They are great pets and I love having them. But they are not low maintenance. We use heated bowls in the winter and a safe birdbath heater in the pool in the winter along with flat bowls with hot water outside.

They poop A LOT. Be sure you are ready for the work. If you are, ducks are so much fun and amusement. And they are so beautiful. But they need proper care and attention. Hi Lisa, I enjoyed your article. I have raised one or more kinds of poultry most of my life and my experiences with ducks and chickens has been much the same as yours. Both are great, both are easy to raise, but like you said both have their unique requirements and idiosyncrasies.

If you want a sustainable meat bird, IMHO you can't beat a duck. Unless you get broilers which are hybrids, won't breed true even if they could breed , I've found that even large breeds of chickens like Brahmas and Orpingtons are, well, "chicken-chested".

More bone than meat, especially the breast. You get much more bang for your buck with a medium to large duck breed like a Muscovy, Rouen or Blue Swede. I mention those three because I've raised them. What most people don't know is that the protein in the white of duck's eggs is different than the protein in the white of chicken's eggs. Why does this matter?

Well, some people can't eat duck's eggs--stomach aches, upset stomach, on and on. Some people who can't for one reason or another can't eat eggs chicken , find they can eat duck's eggs. Some can eat one or the other, some can eat neither, and some can eat both. Be aware! I set up a whole house, yard, pool, etc. Thank you for this article. It was very informative and educational.

I have always had a love for ducks and considered them a value to society. Thanks again! You will likely have to make some modifications to your coop in order to accommodate ducks. These are just two things to consider before adding ducks to your flock, but there is a lot more to it! We would recommend looking on Google for more information. I am retired from raising black Angus, some years ago. I am timbering some of my forest and am longing to get back into some form of raising animals.

Would like to know if newly timbered land is good for raising ducks for eggs and or meat. Lots of land and have the ability to build whatever is best for my intentions.