I live on a half acre lot and am interested in getting some ducks. Any specific challenges?

Better hurry! Duck season's almost over.



Tom

We live on a half acre in a small town with no immediate neighbors. We have no codes. We do have a small pond for the 8 ducks. They have about 800 square feet. We enjoy them and get eggs from them. The only real draw back is that they can make as much racket as my hounds sometimes. Lol. The ducks are cool. If you have any neighbors though I would not keep a pond. It is a bit of a pain but is great fertilizer.

 

I do not have ducks but my understanding is that most are very loud.  Other side of the lot won't help.

Muscovies are supposed to be way more quiet though.

White Perkins will work. Ducks are quiet as long as you feed them. Usually twice a day in their designated area.

I have saxony ducks on a 1/4 acre. They arent loud IMO. A lot less loud than dogs. The girls were louder when they were teenagers but now they don't make enough noise for people to hear outside the yard.

I had muscovies as I heard they were quiet and I was concerned. The male was very aggressive to my other animals and they just aren't a very productive breed .(50 eggs a year)

I decide on Saxonies as they are good layer (150-200 eggs a year) and are big meat birds. The additional eggs means eggs to eat and lots to try to hatch to raise for meat.

I have four females and one male, they haven't started laying yet, should happen soon.

I've eaten muscovies and Saxonies and the Saxonies are better tasting too IMO. Very much like goose, so much so we've decided to delay getting more geese (lost our pair to a predator attack)

Between meat rabbits for white meat and ducks for dark meat and eggs , there isn't much need for chickens or for that matter other livestock.

There is a FAO paper on symbiosis of raising rabbits and ducks for backyard farming. They used muscovies as they were dealing with hot weather countries in Central America and Africa. If you don't have the heat concern I'd suggest a more productive duck.

You should listen to episode 1493 of the Survival podcast.  Jack spends about 1.5 hrs talking about raising ducks.  Also, in episode 1501 he answers the same exact question that you are asking here...