[sabrina]

I have been told that Call Ducks are good to have around to eat slugs and snails from the garden. We do suffer ever year with loads of slugs and wondered if anyone had kept them. Would they cause lots of damage to the veg garden if I left them free range and as we have cats just how small are they. 

[Castle Farm]

Calls are lovely..bit noisy though and small enough for a cat to take..if they don't fly away first.
Get a few runners they will clear the slugs off.

[Hilarysmum]

Or khaki campbells and enjoy masses of duck eggs.    (There isnt a duck smiley here)

[The Chicken Lady]

I had a pair of Black East India ducks in my garden. Nice small duck ate all the slugs, not much damage in the garden. Clipping their wings stopped them flying away. A work man left the gate open and they walked off never to be seen again. I have their off spring near my veg. plot. Lovely and tame as I raised them in the incubator. These cause very little damage. Wings clipped. They go for a walk to visit the hens and then come back again. Very entertaining always quack at me when they see me.  I would put a duck icon here if we had one!!!!! I now have a pair of blue ribbed call ducks in the garden. They don't cause much damage but are still very timmid. Clipped their wings as well 

[sabrina]

Thanks for the advice, years ago we had some ducks but the fox came when i was at work and killed the lot. Having four dogs seems to keep fox away during the day and hens get shut in at night so would be the same for any ducks that come along. dogs have the run of the back garden and in dry days are out till bed time. They keep any mischief maker away from the place, make short work of any rat that happens to pass by which started me thinking that getting some ducks would be nice to have about the place once more. Will let you know if and when we get some. 

[northfifeduckling]

Ducks are so wonderful to have. We've been lucky do far and only had some ducklings taken by a sparrowhawk. It's still traumatic to loose animals you care for to a predator. We do shut ours away at night and the garden is relatively secure during the day (a determined fox or stoat would find a way in though, I'm sure). Don't rely on their ability to fly away from a predator, as they don't fly at night and are easy prey if left outside.
I don't let mine into the veggie plot, but give them any slugs and snails and some weeds they like which I collect there. Brilliant! They do create a lot of mud puddles around the lawn, but I hope the grass will regrow later in the year...

[pattimontreal]

Hi everyone!  I'm new so I don't know if you know these tricks.

Surround your garden with sharp gravel (not tons, just a 6 inch strip) and isolate the area inside, then put wide wooden  boards down (length doesn't matter) in the garden randomly before your plants are large. Religiously go out when the heat of the sun hits the garden and flip the boards over daily. You'll catch the slugs before they can grow and breed.  If you have snails save them for escargot. I hear British snails are every bit as tasty as French! If you're squeamish about the snails, just take a razor blade with you and cut them in half.  No picking, no touching involved. I used to be a hosta fancier and slugs were the enemy. You will be able to tell when the problem is ending as the slugs will decrease rapidly in number.

[ballingall]

Call ducks are lovely, they can become very tame. We have 3 just now who have a wee run, but when we used to live in Kinross they were effectively free range, and just had the run of the place (they went indoors at night). They are noisy, which can attract predators as well. Used to show ours as well, I had one who loved getting his bath in the kitchen sink the night before a show. They can fly away if you don't clip their wings.

Runners are great too, they lay very well too- more so than the Khaki campbell's we found. The plus side is they don't fly away. I'm actually looking for some runners again just now, going up to the Scottish National to see if their are any for sale.

Beth 

[Hilarysmum]

We lost ducklings on the pond, to a heron.  Devastating.

[ballingall]

The ducklings are so wee its hard against predators. We lost a couple one year to the crow, despite not letting them even outside in a run until they were 3 weeks old. Awful

[sabrina]

We have a lot of Buzzards and badgers, both will take young birds so I keep runs just for babies. I have been thinking of rearing chickens for the freezer and may keeps these in the barn until big enough to let out in the big wide world. They will be better taste wise roaming about the place but will not get the same freedom as our hens, they would walk into the house if I left the door open. I have a friend who has ducks so plan to pay him a visit to see if he will have any for sale in the Spring. Maybe might have eggs that I could buy. to hatch.

[Rumpleteazer]

We did have call ducks and runner ducks, but lost them all to foxes! You need understanding neighbours (or no neighbours) if you have calls as they can be quite noisy, especially in the Spring. Runners are much better for eggs if that is what you want.

[northfifeduckling]

I'm still trying to establish the breed of our little black duck. I've been looking through thousands of pictures and trailed the net, but nothing is conclusive. After your descriptions of call ducks she might as well be one, she's very noisy and she's the only one of our ducks that can fly. Her bill looks larger and is black, unlike all the pics I've seen of black bibbed Calls. I thought for a long time she must be a Blue Swedish, but the shape and size aren't right, and she's definitely not docile! Whatever funny genetic mix she might be, she's definitely my favourite. She lays blueish eggs. I would like more of her kind eventually!

[Pusupunko]

I kept call ducks a few years ago, with the aim that they would eat slugs and snails. They definitely eat slugs (we used to feed them to the ducks), but only quite small ones (unless we cut the big ones up first, which was a bit grim), and possibly more importantly, they also eat slugs' eggs (you can see them sifting through the soil with their beaks). But whether they have any positive impact on the number of slugs in your garden, I'm not sure. There were still loads of slugs, whatever we did - beer traps, nematodes, you name it, we tried it.

[Hilarysmum]

We used to have the large muscovy ducks who were very selective about which slugs they would eat.  (Fortunately the pigs have no such reservations).  Now we have khaki campbells who are incredible slug eaters.  Before kk's used to see a whole line of slugs feeding on the chicken food, it was like a 3 star michelin restaurant for slugs, the hens would ignore them.  Now in the area where the kks forage not a sign.