Welcome
Find out everything you need to know about keeping ducks for beginners, including the best duck breeds, what equipment you'll need and where to house ducks in your garden. We also look at what to feed ducks, what to do with duck eggs and how to protect them from foxes. Ducks are the comedians of the poultry world. All you need to start keeping ducks is enough space for them to dabble and preen, a pond with access to a simple duck house and a run to protect them from predators. Some breeds of duck lay a large number of eggs, their droppings will turn your compost into top-grade fertiliser, while their slug hunting prowess is legendary. Before buying your first team of ducks, check that your neighbours won't mind a raucous dawn chorus in spring and then charm friends for surplus stock or scour poultry magazines. The British Waterfowl Association or Call Duck Association can also help. Keep the ratio of ducks to drakes at around five to one (or frisky drakes can give the ducks a hard time). It's also important to know how keeping ducks differs to keeping chicken. Chickens are well-behaved school prefects – bright, reliable but prone to bossiness. Ducks, in contrast, are rowdy teenagers – noisy, messy and lots of fun. Chickens and ducks might stick together during the day, wandering around as a gang, but come the evening the chickens and ducks part ways and head for their separate huts. Putting them in the same house doesn't work – chickens need to roost on a perch while ducks sleep at ground level. Having one above the other would be a recipe for disaster. And, like children, bedtime routines are different for both types of birds. Chickens, good as gold, put themselves to bed, while the ducks would carry on the party given half the chance and need shooing indoors.
