[Womble]

OK folks, tongue in cheek but......

I'm just about used to the hens now. They need their feed topping up once a week, their water done every few days, and they put themselves to bed just like clockwork. In truth they're no hassle at all - you just need to remember to collect the eggs, and feed them pasta once in a while to keep them sweet  .

Ducks on the other hand (from what I've read at least) are a bit of a nightmare. They won't keep their water clean, and are harder to get to go to bed than a teenage sleepover party.

So, from those of you who have them, what's the deal? Can you train them to go to bed on their own and can you feed them ad-lib like with hens, or do you just resign yourselves to never accepting an evening dinner invite ever again? 

[doganjo]

I've got mine trained!  They come to the whistle
No, seriously they do - I whistle recall for Bobby the pup and go to the food bin, next thing I know I have a black puppy and four ducks beside me - so I walk over to their run, throw the food in their small run attached to their shed and in they go!  In the morning I don't let them out of there till the big dogs have been out because they'd jump over and retrieve them.
But yes, they dubble their water and paddle about the grass, so I change the water once a day mand tehy ahve to suffer muddy water from then till bedtime.

[jameslindsay]

I have kept ducks for many, many years and really wouldn't be without them. You are right they are more "needy" than hens but they are great to have around. I have 17 and they spend all day on the river but come a certain time of the afternoon and they are back on land knowing that they get fed before going off to bed. If for some reason they are still on the river when I go out I just have to call on them and they normally come home. They are messy and dirty and shitting machines but they do go to bed when I herd them up, the odd night it goes pear shape but all in all they are easy.

[Daisys Mum]

I could not persuade mine to go to bed until hubby discovered that they would go if you shone a torch on them, seems they don't like to be in the spotlight. Mind you in the summer it is a nightmare they don't go to bed before 11.pm

[gavo]

We just go out with a torch and shout IN YOU GO and they do;until then they pop up to the shed for food or sit on the pond.

[marigold]

Yep dinner parties only possible in the winter unless you want to be the host!!!!!!
We're putting up fences so that at least they will be in a run and not so easy to get too by foxes if we do go out while its light in the summer.
Our geese are frre range from dawn until the afternoon feed which they get in their 6 ft pen. then they are penned in and then shut in the hen house overnight. So far the system is working

[sagehen]

What were you planning to do, Womble, take them with you to your candlelit suppers? 

They can learn just as quickly as pigs, cos they're quite smart, but you might get the odd bloody minded one, so I suppose you may get a good story to tell around the table, when you're all dressed to go out one night, and they choose that night not to go to bed and you've got to trudge around after them in your dinner jacket 

[Wizard]

So sagehen you've bin there as weoll ah ah ah

[whitby_sam]

I've got all this to come... Just but 12 Khaki Campbell and 6 Indian Runner eggs in the incubator this morning. Only 28 long agonising days to go!

[harry]

messy, muddy, noisy, good eggs though, water bowl muddy in 5 mins, pond disgusting in a few months, if i didnt have a running stream though my plot i wouldnt have them but as i have a stream i have kept ducks now gone back to geese again.

[Womble]

What were you planning to do, Womble, take them with you to your candlelit suppers? 

If dinner's at our place then we might invite one occasionally I suppose! 

I think the problem is that we have life easy with the hens, and have no issue with going away for a couple of days, leaving them in their secure run with plenty of food and water. Friends of ours used to do the same with their pigs, and had a timed feeder which could be charged up with four days worth of pellets, so they could leave the farm to attend agricultural shows etc (obviously I know many folks on here would not entertain such a thought).

I suppose what it comes down to is whether duck housing / runs etc could be arranged so that they would be ok if you weren't there to lock them in at sundown, and preferrably for a full 48 hours. If not, then it's probably too much commitment unless we could find a reliable neighbour who really likes eggs. !!      

[doganjo]

I could leave mine - I have an old dog kennel with vinyl on the floor, and straw, and a removable roof, with a great dane sized dog cage attached to it.  They can come and go anytime they want, the plastic floor can be hosed down, and in the morning they are let out into their own little paddock, but I could equally leave them in there all day or even a couple of, days if they were left enough food and water in such a way that they couldn't spill it.  Mind you I only have 3 ducks and a drake.

[Wizard]

Womble They are not made of anything fragile nor do they need wrapping in cotton wool CVF ducks has all the food and water they want all the time.As you must be aware they don't poo as such its a fluid and the drinkers and food troughs are charged all the time and are placed above a pvc coated 25m/m square mesh floor so it all falls through and is scraped away and pumped to a pacifier ditch where it is circulated and oxygen added before it is discharged to the river.It is monitored 24hrs a day with auto samplers.As such the birds never see day light in all their 49 days

[doganjo]

Goodness - it never even occurred to me there were battery ducks as well!

[gavo]

Yep and the conditions are just as awful as hens endure; people are not as aware as duck is not as widely eaten as chicken.