My Duck Raising Journey

I first started the journey with five Welsh Harlequin Ducks that I purchased from a local farmer. The ducks were one to two years old when I purchased them. I received two drakes and three hens. One of the females had a genetic problem and had the coloration of a drake and a hen all in one. I had a small plastic pond shell that I placed into the ground for the birds.

For the shelter I took spare wood pieces that I had in my barn from previous projects. The shelter was eight feet by eight feet. I noticed if I didn't lock the ducks in their shelter at night they would spend all night outside by the pond. I worked weird hours and was unable to let them out in the morning so I allowed them to stay out all night. This probably saved their lives because one day we had really bad wind and the duck house fell apart on me.

Luckily none of the birds were harmed in storm. I built a new duck house that was even bigger and more steady. The new duck house gave room to have brooder bin inside if I wanted to keep the babies in there.

I used small rubber bins that I found at Coastal Farm an Ranch for food and fresh water. I would clean out the duck pond every single week as it would get dirty from the ducks. During the winter the pond would freeze over.

The hen that had drake coloring ended up dying from and unknown illness. Days prior to her passing I noticed she was lethargic and was hiding from the rest of the ducks. I don't like to let birds go to waste so my dog got to eat some of the duck as a snack.

I had the birds for almost 6 months before I started getting my first eggs from them. For awhile I thought I was doing something wrong because none of them would lay an egg. I figured the birds were stressed from the new place. When they started laying eggs I was finding them buried in holes, and various hiding spots they could make.

In the spring of 2021 I wanted to get more ducks and purchased 10 more from Murray McMurray Hatchery. I bought a mystery package that ended up including Silver Appleyard, Welsh Harlequins, White Crested, and Saxony ducks. Someone we sold quail to also gave me Pekin eggs to hatch out. I the hatched out a few more Welsh Harlequin eggs. Another person also gave me two runner ducks. I went from having five ducks to approximately 23.

The two runner ducks were attacking the other ducks and ended up killing any baby ducks that were hatched out by other ducks. The runner ducks were quickly culled to prevent any more deaths or stress in the flock.

Since I had so many more ducks, I decided to make a better pond for the ducks. I bought another plastic pond that was way bigger this time. I wanted to make it look nice so I added plants and a little waterfall to it. The plants were quickly killed by the ducks and chickens pecking at them. The pond was hard to clean out because I couldn't remove it and the pump only took out so much water.

I then decided to try and build a better and bigger pond with a liner. The pond was starting to look good but materials were too expensive to make it look really nice. The new pond was also hard to get cleaned out without having some sort of a drain. I spent countless hours drawing plans and watching YouTube videos to find a good pond setup.

I decided on making a boxed area that I put dirt in to lift the pond off the ground giving room for a drain to run out. I built the box with materials I already had at home and made a ramp for the ducks to get into the pond.

I upgraded the feeder to a large garbage can that has a special piece that goes into holes on the side for poultry to feed out of. My chickens and ducks share a feeder so having 70+ pounds of food in reserve is helpful.

It seems that the Welsh Harlequins mainly lay eggs during the warmer months they have recently started to slow down on laying eggs. I have been looking at getting Khaki Campbell ducks for egg production as I am getting more requests for eggs. There will also be Mandarin ducks arriving in October of 2021.

I have personally enjoyed raising ducks. They all have a little personality that is fun to watch develop. The ducks like to let you know if you are late for feeding or giving them fresh water. Whenever I don't show up at the right time they start gathering around me and quacking at me. When I'm on time they go about their day and act as if I'm not there. Whenever I throw out scratch for the chickens, you can always count on the ducks running in a line quacking trying to get some scratch before the chickens eat it all.