Year of the Duck – Raising Backyard Ducks

Just a warning this is not my usual content so if you care nothing about raising backyard ducks I won’t be offended if you scroll on. It does involve some DIY projects but they are all duck-related.

10 Lessons I’ve Learned About Raising Backyard Ducks

Being stuck home during COVID meant a lot more time for family and for us a lot more time with waterfowl. Time spent together was one of the good things to come out of our time in quarantine the other good thing was our Ancona ducks. We also learned more about raising backyard ducks than we ever could have imagined. This was the year of the duck!

Lesson 1: Ducks Come in the Mail

At the very beginning of the lockdown, my daughter came home from college, my son was “Zoom Schooling” and my husband and I was mostly working from home so we were all together. Right before we even knew there would be a lockdown we had decided to get baby ducks to raise and let free-range on our backyard pond. Did you know they ship baby ducks via USPS the day they hatch? Well at Cackle Hatchery they do, so on April 1, 2020, COVID or not, our baby ducks arrive at their new home. This is them right out the box, or rather still in the box.

Lesson 2: Ducks are Messy, No Really Messy

In perpetration for our ducks’ arrival, we built an indoor pen because they have to be kept warm until they have their adult feathers and I read the book Raising Backyard Ducks (affiliate link.) The first thing I learned about ducks is they are very messy. The book warned me of this but you really can’t imagine how messy six baby ducks can be until you’ve witnessed it yourself. They not only love water they need water to eat so there is a lot of sloshing and playing and food in the water and water in the food, a real hot mess. We were changing the bedding twice a day and realized pretty quickly they would need to be moved out of the house VERY soon. This is another reason we are planning to free-range the ducks, even in a larger enclosure, with ducks, lots of water is involved which creates quite a muddy mess.

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Lesson 3: Ducks Grow Very Quickly

The mess was not the only reason the duck needed to get kicked out of the house, the second reason was they were quickly growing out of their brooding box. You would be amazed how these critters grow. Every time I would look in on them they had gotten bigger. It was like overnight someone had traded out our ducks for new ones. You can see the change below in a matter of weeks.

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That meant another construction project was in the works, a larger pen we could keep out in the garage until it got warmer and they had full feathers. This one we built in anticipation of moving it outside at a later date so we included a top on it to defend against predators. Since we had an old clubhouse outback my son had outgrown we dismantled that for lumber and only needed some hardware cloth to get it completed. Remember our ultimate goal is to have the ducks free range in the backyard and on the pond so this shelter is somewhat temporary.

The duck kept growing and once the weather turned warmer and they started feathering we moved them out to the yard.

Which added a new construction project, a duck house extension to the pen. The ducks were now free-ranging in the yard if we were out during the day and in the pen when we were not. At night when it was colder we would house them in the duck house. Even with pine straw bedding, the pen enclosure would get muddy pretty quickly so we include a front and side door on the duck house so we could move the pen around from front to side allowing each area to dry between uses.

Lesson 4: Ducks Love Water

I’m sure this is a lesson you think you already knew about ducks, they love, love, love water. They do, they love to slosh their food in it, splash around in it, play in the sprinklers, and make big mud puddles in the grass but We also learned that you have to be careful with baby ducks in the water. You see ducks produce oils that make their feathers water-resistant but these oils are not produced until they are fully feathered. In the wild, the momma duck oils the babies until they produce their own oils. A baby domestic duck that is not oiled can drown if left unattended. They can get too cold since they are not good at regulating their body temperatures yet, so while they love the water you have to watch them and dry them off when they are done swimming. Who Knew? We started our guys off in a small fountain tub which they loved but quickly outgrew.

We also learned that just because ducks love water doesn’t mean they’ll love the water you want them to love. Remember that big pond we have for the ducks to swim in?

Well… they preferred the fountain. Duck poop and mud in your fountain are not things you want. Plus they ate most of the plants I planted and sat in my irises.

So we had to get creative, we tried tricking them by putting their tub in the pond and even bribing them out with treats. They would get in the water and then something would tickle their toes and scare them right back out. I’m with them though I don’t like weird things under the water tickling my toes.

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Once the ducks were fully feathered they were ready to free-range. We removed the pen and let them free range in the day and herded them into the house at night.

Lesson 5: Ducks Are Prey Animals

Free-ranging is great the ducks love exploring, it allows owners their freedom, and ducks can essentially feed themselves in the right environment. Unfortunately, ducks are prey animals, and even though we live in a fairly residential area there is a wetland preserve at the end of the pond that has foxes, raccoons, and coyotes. Around the end of June, my favorite duck Dollie disappeared. We hunted all around but found only a trace of feathers in the woods. We had seen a pair of foxes around so it was pretty clear what happened to poor Dollie. Now we were down to five.

Lesson 6: Domestic Ducks Can’t Fly

That’s right, those pretty white ducks that are always at the park… they are always there because they can’t fly away. This is not because they are altered in any way, it is just because of breeding. Most domestic ducks, except for Muscovy ducks, have been bred to be large for the use of their meat so they are too heavy to fly. They can get off the ground for a bit but not take flight so the water is really the safest place for them as prey.

Lesson 7: Ducks Like Friends

Ducks are not solitary animals, they need a friend, so when Lulu tore her webbing and had to be brought inside to heal Disco came with her. He had a little bit of a limp at the time so I thought they could rest together and they wouldn’t be so stressed about being alone. When one duck gets separated from the others there is a lot of quacking and squawking that goes on until they are reunited. They just sound pissed off to be out of their group. Here are Lulu and Disco at their bathtub aqua therapy.

Lesson 8: You Need More Females Than Males

Male ducks are very frisky! To keep the peace, you need at least 3-4 females per male so he doesn’t over “do it” if you know what I mean. When you order your chicks you can pay extra for a 90% guarantee that your chicks will be female. We paid the extra but still ended up with one male, Disco, and frisky he was but at least we had enough girls to spread his love around.

Lesson 9: Duck Eggs Are Great, But Not For Everyone

Our ducks lay eggs…lots of them. By 17 weeks a duck is fully matured and ready to lay. We specifically chose Ancona ducks because they are good layers. We have mostly females which means more eggs.

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Duck eggs are different from chicken eggs. Duck eggs are bigger and taste a little different. The taste of a duck egg is a bit creamier and a bit richer than a chicken egg. They also contain more protein and Omega 3’s. Another fun fact, some people with chicken egg allergies find they can eat duck eggs. Turns out vice versa can also be true. My husband loves eggs and eats them every day but for some reason, the duck eggs did not agree with him. While I use eggs for cooking and baking, which by the way duck eggs are great for. I don’t eat a ton of eggs otherwise so now with 4 layers we were gathering almost two dozen eggs a week. So many eggs, what to do with them all?

Lesson 10: Ducks Do What They Want

In October we lost another one of our females, “What the Duck” (my husband named this one) to a raccoon. This incident turned out to be just what was needed to get the ducks into the water. All of a sudden they were in the water and didn’t want to come out. Herding them into the house at night was a thing of the past, they just wouldn’t come in. We even tried herding them with the boat which I’m sure quite amusing to any spectators but was to no avail. They were now free-ranging night and day. They abandoned their house which means where the eggs get laid is anyone’s guess. You see ducks don’t roost like chickens so they are not real particular where they lay their eggs so they may be in the neighbor’s yard, in the water, who knows?

ASIDE: Does anyone need a duck house? I got a nice one!

Now the ducks love the water and have taken to spending time up and down the pond. They visit the neighbors and come home for a visit a couple of times a day, especially if we are sitting out on the dock with treats. We lost our male duck Disco back in January unfortunately, that is the drawback of having free-range ducks. The remaining three, Lulu, Millie, and Eleonor are going strong though. These are the three that were most skittish which is why I think they are faring well in the wild. They don’t stick around to find out what’s going down, they just get.

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I tell you, in the last year we have learned a lot. Considering how much we didn’t know going in, I’m surprised we got this far with this many ducks. It took a lot of work to get them raised. Accepting the loss of free-ranging ducks can be hard but on the other hand, I don’t think I could have handled the maintenance of pen-kept ducks. Plus I think ducks are happier doing what a duck is supposed to do. Our ducks are not affectionate like a dog or cat but they do come when you call them and run up the driveway quacking for treats because they know they are in the garage. They are not very smart but they are fun to watch and listen to as they chatter away.

I’ve been asked if I would raise them again from chicks if we lost the ones we have and the answer is I don’t know. We have all the equipment now but It was a lot of work. You see, they came around at just the right season of our lives when we were all home and had all our attention to give. They also brought some light into a dark time, they got here just when we needed them. We sit on the dock and feed them most nights and still enjoy their company but I don’t know if starting again would ever be the same as it was in the “Year of the Duck.”