[reedos]

Got a couple of absolutely beautiful Cayuga ducks,, a drake and a hen, today - our first foray into duck keeping - we'd like many more, but not necessarily all Cayugas. My questions is do drakes of one type "have it away" with the hens of another?

[robert waddell]

o yes

[reedos]

Thought they might - well I suppose variety is the spice of life!!

[reedos]

Getting these ducks perhaps wasn't perhaps our best researched move, but I guess we've all done that sometimes - but they just looked pretty.

The are all nice and warm in their house - took themselves off to bed quite happily.

We haven't yet decided on their permanent home we have available-

(a) A nice enclosure of around 20 metres square with the 2 goats
(b) an as yet unfenced area of about the same where they would be on their own - it just needs me to build some more fences
or
(c) An area of around 20 metres by 5 metres next to but not in with the chickens.

None of these areas has any decent sized area of water yet so I could either dig a pond, sink a spare bath I have lying around into the ground or get a paddling pool. Now I know ducks are messy - would a pond filter (maybe solar powered if there is such a thing) keep the paddling pool or pond sufficiently clean?

All advice gratefully received thanks

[jaykay]

Make the biggest pond you can manage, and if you can, arrange for it to have a flow in and a flow out - the easiest way to keep it clean. Your ducks will reward you for the effort of digging it by so thoroughly enjoying washing and splashing it will make you smile. Despite the frantic nature of my morning round, I have to spare a couple of minutes to watch my runners on the beck pond when i first let them out 

My ducks, hens and goats free range happily together, so i don't think it'll matter which of those arrangements you go for 

[northfifeduckling]

if you dig a pond it will need some way of getting empied and cleaned. Ducks are incredibly quick in turning any clear water into a stinking muddy mess within days. So mine are perfectly fine with a kid's sandpit as paddling pool and I can empty and clean it easily.
Cayugas are beautiful, good choice. And yes they mate with any other duck on the planet....