You must be a very fortunate guy if you have hundreds of ducks on your small farm. This is because you are close to becoming self-sufficient in your food production. After all, you can have duck meat and eggs anytime. Besides, you can hedge your household against unforeseen food crises if you have a buffer food source. Furthermore, you won’t need to break the bank to buy eggs and meat in times of inflation.
Not all people are lucky to have a small duck farm. Moreover, not many have the patience and penchant for keeping flocks. Nevertheless, if you want to raise ducks, you might as well learn more about duck farming to ensure you can run your farm smoothly and your ducks always healthy and active.
Advantages of Duck Raising
You might say that you are not cut out for animal husbandry and might want a corporate job. But if you only know the following advantages of duck raising, you might be encouraged to start your small duck farm as well:
Lower Cost of Raising Ducks
You might think that raising ducks require you to buy expensive duck feeds that could put a dent in your savings. But raising ducks might be cheaper than raising pigs or chickens. Besides, if you allow your flocks to free-range, you won’t need to provide much food because ducks can fend or forage for themselves.
Moreover, you can rid your yard of bugs because ducks are fond of eating bugs. They also forage for mosquitos which would surely be advantageous to you and your household, saving you from some mosquito-borne diseases.
Ducks Are Way More Resilient than Chickens
The good thing about ducks is that they require less care and attention compared to chickens. Ducks are not so susceptible to diseases, while chickens usually thrive in controlled conditions kept clean and keep dry regularly.
Besides, you need to gradually build chickens’ immune systems, while ducks seem to adapt well to any condition. Similarly, adult ducks and ducklings are hardy and exhibit fewer health issues than chickens.
Lay Bigger Eggs than Chicken
If your primary concern is to have free eggs for breakfast, you can rely on ducks for a continuous supply of eggs year-round. Ducks lay bigger eggs than chicken eggs. They can produce 3 to 4 eggs per week. Besides, ducks do not follow the twenty-six-hour laying cycle of chickens, for they could lay eggs anytime.
Behavior of Ducks
One remarkable trait of ducks is their being docile. Seldom would you find a duck that attacks humans. So, if you are wary of being attacked by your flocks, you might as well choose to raise ducks. Flocks like roosters, geese, or chickens will likely strike you, but ducks behave well towards keepers. Moreover, drakes or male ducks don’t have spurs. They would not dare to chase you down and hurt you.
Their Manure Could Be Good Fertilizer
You will have a ready fertilizer with the duck litter. Ducks tend to poop as they wander; their poops will usually dilute as they splurge in a pond. Moreover, duck manure provides excellent organic fertilizer for your plants.
It is laced with nutrients and comes with more liquid. Hence, it will not burn the plants. The NPK value of duck manure is 2.8:2.3:1.7, while that of chicken is 1.5:0.5:0.8.
Feathers for You Pillows
Ducks have excellent feathers. During the cold season, they usually grow a fine layer of downy feathers beneath their primary feathers. These fine feathers serve as their coat against cold or while swimming. They usually shed these fine feathers as the season transitions to warm weather.
So, if you need fluffy stuff for your pillows, you can collect these fine feathers. You can also use these fine feathers for your jackets, blankets, and other things.
Less Destruction to Landscape
If you allow your ducks to free-range, they will not likely damage the landscape with their rounded bills compared to the pointed chicken bills. Nevertheless, you can hedge your flocks using a short fence to keep them away from your gardens and other plants.
Higher Intelligence
Ducks exhibit great intelligence compared to other poultry birds. It is also not an overstatement that ducks are the most intelligent poultry birds. They can quickly develop routines; thus, they are more manageable than chickens. Moreover, their eyesight is even better than humans because they can distinguish more colors than human eyesight.
Ducks are tetrachromatic and can even perceive ultraviolet better than humans. Besides, their eyes can distinguish many color shades already invisible to human vision.
Furthermore, I have a duck that could mimic a dog’s growl, which is remarkable for a bird. So, regarding intelligence, ducks are undoubtedly more intelligent than other poultry birds.
Disadvantages of Raising Ducks
After reading the upsides of raising ducks, you might conclude that raising ducks is ideal instead of chickens. Yet, raising ducks is not without its disadvantages. The following, for example, are the disadvantages of raising ducks:
Ducks Need Pond and Water
Water is crucial to ducks’ well-being. Ducks need water not only for drinking but for their health and welfare. Deprived of water, they would tend to be so much distressed and will exhibit unwellness signs within eight hours sans access to water.
Duck utilizes water for various reasons. Hence, the water can get quite dirty over time. For this reason, you need to replace their water more often to keep it clean. They need water for eating, bathing, activating their oil glands, and maintaining their feather’s health.
Ducks do have different breeds. If you have a barbary duck, you don’t need to provide it with too much water. On the other hand, if you have a Pekin duck, you need to supply it with water because it originated from colder climates and needs water to cool itself.
Ducks Need Space
Another disadvantage of raising ducks would be their need for a larger coop. Aside from needing a water feature to douse themselves in, they also need a larger dwelling space than chickens.
Ducks like to sleep at ground level instead of off the ground like the chickens. This means that you need to provide your ducks with a larger ground space than chickens occupying a multi-floored coop.
You can also let ducks roam around without building a coop for them. You can also herd them back to an enclosure when needed.
Ducks Can Be Very Messy
The litter of ducks is more liquid and larger than those of turkeys and chickens. It can even be larger than those of goats. So, you might be in for a surprise once you’ve started raising ducks because cleaning and maintaining their coop become doubly laborious.
Their mess can harbor bacteria that might require you to clean more often. Besides, they often splash water when they drink or bathe, making the space near the run baby pool excessively muddy.
You must spread hay around those water features as part of your daily routine. You can also spread gravel beneath and around the water feature to make maintenance and cleaning more manageable.
Ducks Can Be Very Noisy
The quacking of ducks can be louder than the chatters of chickens. They are even louder than those of other birds. Their noise becomes compounded if you got many ducks quaking together. However, their noise will never be a problem if you live in a rural area with expansive space. But ducks’ noise can annoy your neighbors if you are a suburban homesteader.
Ducks Need Ample Water Supply
Each duck can consume a liter of water daily. So, if your ducks are not free-ranging, you must supply each duck with a liter of water throughout the day. You can’t leave your ducks without drinking water for eight hours. Besides, the water should be sufficiently deep to let them douse their heads and necks.
If you have a duck coop, you can position two to three waterers inside the coop if you have eight or more ducks. If you don’t let your ducks go free-range during the day, you must install an additional two waterers.
Be wary too of their drinking water because it can quickly deteriorate. You need to drain every two days.
During Winter, Ducks Still Need to Swim In
You may think that during winter, ducks won’t be dousing themselves because of the cold weather. Contrariwise, ducks still need to swim and drink water. Thus, it is challenging for duck keepers to keep their water from freezing.
You can use floating gallon jugs or water bottles for this purpose. Besides, the water should contain one part water mixture and two parts common table salt. This solution will help keep the water from freezing.
Unhygienic Pond
The pond you provide ducks might become quite unhygienic after several days. They can become fetid and nasty, especially if they don’t have proper drainage. Nevertheless, it is not expensive to keep the pond clean.
You only need to spruce the pond with aquatic plants that could help filter out the droppings. Of course, you must ensure that the plants you add are safe for your ducks.
They Lay Eggs Anywhere and Their Eggs Have Stronger Taste
Although the eggs of ducks are bigger than the eggs of hens, these eggs carry a stronger and sharper flavor that may not be according to your liking. Nevertheless, you can get more from selling their eggs than chicken eggs.
Another thing is ducks lay their eggs anywhere, unlike hens which lay their eggs in their coop. So, this means you will be hunting for their eggs and don’t have a specific place to get them.
Conclusion
Once you’ve known the pros and cons of raising ducks, you can easily decide whether duck raising is good is suitable for your homesteads. Moreover, animal husbandry is not easy. It requires patience, time, and effort on your part. But it is pretty rewarding if you do it right.
Furthermore, raising ducks is not usually preferred over raising chickens. So, looking for ducklings to grow and duck eggs is more challenging. But if you go directly to farm stores, you might chance upon them selling ducklings and eggs. Ducklings, however, are more expensive than chicks. Besides, if you want to raise rare or heritage ducks, you must find a breeder.
