Our Top 5 Reasons Why We Have Ducks rather than Chickens

There are many reasons to get ducks, but let's be honest, it's the top five reasons for anything that really impact your choice the most. In this video, we'll share our deciding reasons for why we love gardening with our ducks.

05:36 #1 - Slugs
06:40 #2 - Eggs
07:28 #3 - Permaculture
07:56 #4 - Cute pets
08:59 #5 - Dabbling in the farm life

Music credit:
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

#ducks

[carolyancy]

You have the happiest, friendliest, healthiest ducks i have ever seen.

[chrisjeppesen]

for us add, Duck fat from meet and eggs is considered by many to be healthier, it only takes a 2 foot fence to keep them out of your garden, when allowed to forage widely they don't roost on your tractors and equipment and ruin the paint with their poop, duck egg whites whip up stiffer and stay up longer - the whites don't disintegrate when you poach them, there is no need for expensive houseing a piece of plywood leaned against a wood pile works great. If you haven't figured it out i'll just say it out lowed i love ducks!

[Godisincontrol]

Excellent 🎉🎉🎉 I subscribed to your channel and gave a like 👍 Thank you for sharing 😁🙏

[wilelee]

The white ducks look like they just came back from the salon, nice do!

[flippincrazyfarmboy]

Hello, we to live in Oregon on the central coast. Our slug problems are horrendous to say the least. We had runner ducklings at one point, but went out one day and they had completely disappeared, very odd we thought because they were in a large chainlink dog type run with everything they needed to get accustomed to our presence and our farm as they were about 4 months old when we got them. Not sure, but we found out that we had a neighbor that was less than scrupulous and was known for 'borrowing' other people's stuff in the dead of night. The thought was that he may hv needed a meal. Anyway, we're going to get ducks again this spring, much younger ones if not actually hatched by us. I'm excited about trying again. I'll be watching your vlogs now as I just subbed!

[naturewatcher]

9:40 5 reasons they keep ducks
I'm new to ducks, got them last fall for a month (just to learn about their needs) and ducklings this spring. Was surprised how fast they grow (I have meat Peking ducklings). They double in size every week: in 3 weeks they are bigger then my 6 weeks old chicks. At 7 weeks they'll be ready for butchering compared to 12-20 weeks for chickens. So, it's a great meat bird - better then chickens for this purpose.
For eggs I don't see any advantages compared to chickens - need to be about the same age or older to start laying, eggs are comparable in size with X-Large chicken eggs (for Khaki Campbell) and they're quite dirty most of the time (ducks are messy). And because keeping ducks in the winter is much more work then chickens (they need fresh water to eat and splash their beak in, chickens can eat snow if the water freezes) it's easier to keep chickens for eggs.
The other thing which make ducks superior to chickens is their down, if you need it (only waterfowl have it), but people nowadays use synthetic instead.
Anyway, keeping ducks in the summer is easy - no reasons to not get some during warm season. And if you ready to do the additional work during the winter - you can keep them year around for eggs, pets etc.

[christiananderson]

My wife & I have been thinking about getting a couple ducks in the future once we move out of our apt & into a home with a yard like you guys have. Right now we're just the crazy duck people who walk the couple blocks everyday 2the Fox River here in Illinois to feed all our duckie friends we've known since they were ducklings, even have some of them eating out of our hands as they LOVE the cracked corn we buy em.

[TheEnchantedDuat]

you had me at ducks... new sub for being as fellow duck owner, would love to see more people owning these feathered babies :) Im a Horticulturist (In latin that means cult of the soil tillers) my ducks are natural soil tillers, no training needed :)

[barelyfree]

We got both chickens and ducks. The ducks we only got two because holy cow are they messy! We actually just separated the ducks out from the chickens because they kept messing up the coop. Now both seems much happier.

[Mrsbehavin]

I feed the wild ducks - duck food from the feed just love them...there is about 11 I wave and whistle they run towards me like wish a had a farm instead of living in Southern have a lovely place...

[carsducks]

I LOVE how you love your ducks.I thought I was crazy for loving mine .
When you figure out how to make them "not pets" please share a video on that!
I didn't know I needed ducks.Then 2 were left at my house(7 months ago-my adult daughter"be right back Mom", long story).Long story short, found out I needed at least 3 ducks.So now I have 4.Now I want all the ducks and my husband is currently working on a self cleaning pond.

[DanFree]

nice comparison. but they forgot to mention the pool that the ducks need. and it must be cleaned 1-2 a week and filled up with water again.

[ElHuertodeAzul]

The ducks poking around in the leaves was so nice to watch. They look adorable and very loved!

[gordonissocoollike]

Great video. I’ve hatched three in Scotland and love the sustainability

[ashleys]

Your crested are sooo cute! Nothing wrong with spoiling them 💜

[olananeal]

I relate to those feelings about those little feet following behind you. Lol good job farming 😁

[Dave-ifqj]

Thats s great book
Though it was written a long time ago

[ghostridergale]

I started with 9 chicks, 4 years later the 9 chicks have turned into 59 chickens! A really good thing I took the advice I got online and built a larder coop then what I thought I needed. 12’X12’X 8’ high, so I can stand inside the coop to clean it out.
This last year I bought 3 ducks and 2 geese. The ducks are quite nice to have around and don’t do too much damage and really not that noisy either. The geese on the other hand are extremely noisy, especially when they see or hear me outside. They come squawking and flapping their wings running as fast as they can to get to me. They’re somewhat like a dog that wants to follow you around and they get so excited when they see you. They also make a lot of noise when anyone or predators come around the geese will let you know something wrong! Bad part is the geese love pulling and chewing on most anything that moves like electrical wires or TV cables, etc. Got to either make sure you’re geese are kept in a secure location or keep anything that geese can chew and pull on inside where geese can’t get to it! Got to say the geese are a love/hate relationship! 😂 they made some extra work for me having to do some rewiring that the geese destroyed! Now I have to really think when I’m going to run any kind of wires or cables, etc. if the geese can get to it? Then I have to protect the wires or cables in conduit or pvc pipes and anchor it down where the geese can’t pull on it! Still there’s just something about the geese I get a kick out of. Although the geese can and do scare some people away hissing at them! 😂 Geese can be mean too! Another reason to give the geese a good size enclosure to keep them out of trouble. So far mine are free ranging with the ducks and chickens from sun up to sun down. Well this time of year the chickens go in at dusk on their own. But ducks and geese need some personal attention to get them to go to bed in a safe enclosure. Usually I have to wait till least 9-10pm to get the ducks and geese to go to bed without having to play run around the enclosure several times before they go in!
Think I have one duck that’s a make (Drake) and other 2 are female since I got a couple eggs from them.
The geese look like I have a male and female according to what I have read the male has larger legs and feet and the geese do have different size legs and feet! But no eggs from the geese yet that I know of anyway? Still waiting to see a goose egg!

[kikikaakau-delizo]

We're on Tableland, the high desert of southern Oregon. No real grassy area exisits on our property. We only have trees on the lower part of our property. What do you suggest if we wanna keep maybe 2-3 ducks?

[ironrose]

I love ducks better than chickens. Our ducks are more peaceful than the chickens. The ducks are much bigger and when the chickens fight and chase each other around, the ducks get between them and protect the one being chased. The ducks are the playground monitors. 😃