Duck advice?

[kathyd]

Hi, does anyone keep ducks please? I need some advice before I get some... We've literally just finished building a sizeable wildlife pond, not yet planted up. If I get ducks, will they eat all the plants I put in there?

Thx

[roitelet]

I wouldn't let Ducks anywhere near the pond!

Not only will they destroy any plants in there but they will make the water filthy. When I kept them they had a large trough big enough for them to get into and that had to be de-sludged every day.

Lovely though they are they have big feet = mud and gloopy poo = yuck.

[Feral007]

We have wild ducks, and a lot this year! I guess they do eat a lot of stuff, but they do poo everywhere so it's fertiliser! They have been known to go thru my garden teh day after I plalnted a lot of bulbs, and missed very few! B*ggers! But they are nice

[sir david]

If you manage the Ducks they are great for eating the slugs in your garden But they are messy and are not very good mums
How about geese ?

David

[KittyColdNose]

I remember Hugh FW letting a few into his garden to help reduce the slug population. They reduced the veg plot too.

[kathyd]

Oh dear, doomed ducks . I love ducks, I've always had a passion for them and it's something I've always wanted, but it sounds as though they'll have to be kept off the pond after all, or at least until the plants have established and I've seen just how messy they actually are... I'll give them a children's paddling pool and/or a small pond in the veggie garden, and see how it goes. All the veg beds are having to be individually protected anyway against dogs, cats, chickens and escaped neighbouring goat, so a couple of ducks won't make much difference I don't suppose. I remember Hugh's attempts - but I think they were only going after the young salads weren't they? Not worried about them not being good mums because I'm not intending to breed them, I just have a desperate need to fulfil a lifelong dream! Thanks for all the warnings though, I would've been gutted if they'd destroyed the pond before it had even got started! Re-geese, I'm in 2 minds about them really - they scare me a bit to be honest! Though I'm tempted to think about a couple in due course to help keep the grass cut! But I'm trying not to get too carried away - our garden is only about 3/4 acre, some of which isn't secure, so we don't have unlimited space and I don't want to overcrowd everyone - including us! Also have to consider friends on feeding duties if we go away for a few days!

[sir david]

Well if your pond is really big enough and you live in a wild enough area . Do nothing just prevent the local hunters poping round , make sure you have no wild boar or deer visiting and the ducks might just move in them selves plus moorhens, coots and other birds :-)

David

[kathyd]

Lol David, nice idea . No, it's just a big pond, not a small lake! I think it's about 17m square - or would be if it wasn't kind of roundy . Our garden's not big enough or wooded enough to be of interest to the hunters fortunately, and the boar and deer seem to stay in the local woodlands and adjacent fields. I know wild ducks did move into someone else's land down the road, but they have more of a lake than a pond.

[sir david]

I have seen wild ducks on smaller ponds . You never know .
As for the Boar and deer watch out for tracks in winter I have seen wild boar near the centre of Berlin , you are much more remote than that . I have seen Asterix and know they are lots of wild boar in central brittany , these beasts can and will make a mess of your garden if they can

David

[kathyd]

Well as we all know, Asterix is always right . The hunters often claim to have shot lots of boar certainly, but I've never seen one around here - I suspect our various local wooded bits aren't extenive enough - the extensive bits are further away. Now deer, yes - have to watch the tree bark when they're around.

[elizajay]

I once walked through a wood where a farmer kept wild boar behind a fence. Walked right through the wood without seeing one, then the farmer arrived with food and they all appeared, lots.

[petal]

our pond has a low fence to keep ducks out yet is still pretty and offers a haven to wildlife. we have an early learning centre sand pit(filled with water - not sand!!!)l for the ducks , which is really easy to empty and refill.

[kathyd]

Hi Petal - mmm, I'd thought about a children's sandpit as an option, seems like a good idea . I'm also wondering whether the breed of duck would make a difference? I don't think I'll have a lot of choice to be honest, but there seem to be a lot of people advertising indian runners at times - I read somewhere that they're less bothered about having a proper pond, especially as they get older? Do you know anything about them?

Also, can anyone tell me whether it would matter if I ended up with say 3 ducks rather than 2, or would one just get left out or picked on?

Thx

[RichmondHens]

I have a single duck (drake) who thinks he's a chicken. I inherited him with a bunch of old bantams and some second hand hen houses. He roams free in the field with the bantams and has his own bath which is a large potting tray. He is no trouble at all, apart from doing big squirty poos everywhere!!

I have to say I wouldn't keep ducks and chooks together if space is limited though. Ducks = mud, and chooks and mud is not a good combination.

[kathyd]

He sounds lovely RH . Not sure how 'limited' you mean - they have a large run normally bounded by 100m electric netting (currently only half that while the pond gets finished), and the free range of another 1/4 acre or so for at least part of the day.