Raising Ducks for Your Homestead | Homesteading For Beginners (2024)
Are you daunted by the prospect of raising ducks? Read on and discover how raising ducks can benefit you a lot more than you might think.
Beginners Guide To Raising Ducks
If you enjoy gardening and free eggs but absolutely hate stray bugs, ducks would make a perfect addition to your homestead flock. A steady supply of nutritious and tasty homegrown eggs are practically a certainty with a flock of chickens, but why not consider raising ducks too?Continue reading and you'll find out why you should start raising ducks for your homestead and some helpful tips to get started.
Reasons why raise ducks for your homestead…
1. Ducks Are Good For Your Garden
While chickens scratch the dirt and disturb your garden soil, ducks will leave your plants alone. Except for lettuces and ripe strawberries, that is–both of which are duck favorites. Ducks are steady hunters for pests, especially slugs and snails, which are detrimental to your tomato plants.
2. Ducks Are Low Maintenance
With ducks nothing goes to waste, they can definitely feast on your leftovers, plus they eat all kinds of pests such as snails, worms, co*ckroaches, fly larvae, mosquitoes, and possibly wasps. Ducks can feed, walk, and bathe themselves.
Duck eggs are an alkaline-producing food that can help restore and maintain the body’s natural pH equilibrium. It contains six times the Vitamin D, twice the Vitamin A, and twice the cholesterol of chicken eggs.Read more about ducks vs chicken eggs.
Ready to get started? Here’s how to….
1. Choose A Breed
There are dozens of duck breeds to choose from. However, the best choices that top efficiency and year round egg production are Campbells, Welsh Harlequins, Indian Runners, Magpies, and Anconas.
Campbells are hardy and prolific egg layers. It has been recorded that the best number was nearly 340 eggs a year although it is more common to expect around 200 eggs per year.
Welsh Harlequins are docile and placid, and would rather stay in the garden and hunt enthusiastically for insects instead of flying. It can lay a respectable 100 to a superb 200 eggs a year and has a carcass that is big enough for a table.
Indian Runners are considered the most amusing of the domestic ducks. They’re the closest thing you can get to a Penguin or a walking wine bottle. So aside from their laying prowess, they’re sure to provide you with long hours of entertainment as you watch these slender creatures putter around your garden.
Magpies are friendly and domesticated, so they make good family pets. They’re good layers at up to 200 mainly white, but sometimes blue, or green eggs per year.
Ancona is an adaptable, hardy, all-purpose duck that typically lays 210 to 280 blue, cream, or white eggs yearly. It grows relatively quickly and generates high-quality meat that is less fatty and more flavorful than that of most Pekin ducks.
Remember ducks are highly sociable creatures, having only one will likely be very lonely unless you have all time you can spend with him. Plan of having two and see how it goes.
3. Raise Ducks with Feeds
Aside from eating insects and leftovers, it is important to know what is really best for your ducks so that they can have the nutrition they need to lay sustainable number of eggs. It is ideal to provide ducks pellets than fine, powdery feeds, because it helps lessens waste and reduces the risk of choking.
It’s important to know and understand that high-producing ducks require a continuous supply of clean drinking water. Both the size and number of eggs will suffer if ducks are not properly hydrated.
Ducks love water, so you need to provide a container of water where they can also clean their eyes and bills, or even dip their entire head.
Want more inspiration for raising ducks? Let’s watch this video from Podchef:
Ready now to raise ducks, my fellow homesteaders? Well, remember once you decide to raise ducks, you'll need to devote time to their needs and well-being, and the work may not be necessarily easy but absolutely fun and doable.
Will you now start raising ducks in your homestead? Let us know how it went in the comments section below.
Looking for the perfect watering station for your flock? Check out here10 easy to build watering stations to keep your flock well hydrated!
Ducks don't need particularly deluxe housing. A small pallet house or anything that keeps the more extreme elements out will work just fine, and as long as they can easily access it via a low ramp, they will be happy. Add some straw for them to nest in and lay eggs in, and that's it. Feeding.
Ducks are generally social animals, so for backyard pets, keeping at least three (ideally 5-6) is recommended so they can keep each other company. The ideal group will be either all 3 hens or drakes or 4 - 5 hens for 1 drake (male duck). A group of all drakes can get rowdy at times so all hens are recommended the most.
Some of the best breeds of backyard ducks include: Pekin Ducks: They are a popular breed for backyard enthusiasts because they are easy to care for and can lay up to 200 eggs per year. They are also great for meat production. Khaki Campbell Ducks: They are excellent layers, laying up to 300 eggs per year.
The ability to fly is an important consideration when selecting a pet duck. Most people prefer flightless ducks, as clipping wings can be a difficult process. If you do select a duck breed that is capable of flight, it doesn't necessarily mean it will fly away, it will just have the ability to.
The shelter should be located on a high, well-drained area of the yard. Whenever available, sandy soil is preferable for the duck yard because it drains quickly after a rain. The earth floor of the sheltered area should be bedded with straw, shavings or similarly dry absorbent material.
Pine shavings work fine for bedding, but our ducks prefer straw. Straw has wonderful insulating properties during colder months, keeping ducks warm; it also holds its shape better, so they don't end up sleeping on the cold wood or cement floor.
“Ducks don't need a pond or access to a pond,” Lichtenwalner said. “They do need access to clean water to drink and they do love dunking their heads in water, so a bucket is fine for them.”
Any parasites that might be tempted to latch on will drown. Ducks also have hardier immune systems, tend to stay in better general health and are less likely to contract disease than chickens.
This is quite straightforward to do by simply trimming the primary feathers on one wing. Clipping one wing will unbalance the duck making flying impossible and is completely painless, in fact to the duck it is a bit like having its hair cut. Only trim the primary feathers as the others are important for insulation.
maybe your yard is the perfect living environment for that duck with lots of it's favorite food and a great place to sleep. It could also be because the duck has a nest there… does the duck just sit in one spot most of the time? If so it could be because it's a mother duck and she's incubating her babies.
Pekin. Originating in Beijing, China (originally called Pekin) around 2500 B.C., white Pekin ducks are a calm, hardy breed. Although raised predominantly as a “table” or meat bird, Pekins do make wonderful pets and laying ducks. They are docile, friendly and can lay between 150-200 large white eggs per year.
They cannot be trained. Ducks do not have sphincter muscles and have literally no control of their defecation/urination. Ducks pretty much spend most of their waking time foraging, and as food goes in one end, the GI tract chugs along and empties feces out of the other end.
The Aylesbury the Campbell and the Runner Duck are all great starter breeds as they won't fly away. Discover the most popular garden layers by using our duck breed directory.
For starters, ducks are easy to raise even in a small backyard. They are extremely social, so consider raising at least three (but preferably five or six) together. In terms of male versus female ducks, good flock makeups include three females (and no males) or a male with four or five females.
If you're thinking about raising ducks in your backyard, the first thing to know is that ducklings are MESSY. While a brooder with 5-10 newborn chicks can stay pretty clean for several days or even a week (if you have fewer chicks), a brooder full of ducklings requires daily cleaning.
Ducks are pretty high maintenance compared to chickens. They need lots of fresh water, which they soil frequently—so that will need to be cleaned quite regularly. There is a lot of cleanup to be done with ducks—and it is often a wet, stinky mess.
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